[Commlist] Digital feminist activism: A mini conference

*Digital feminist activism: A mini conference *

*King’s College London, 20^th of April 2023, 2.00 – 7.00 pm*

Funded by the British Academy Grant: Feminism is Trending: Digital 
Feminist Activism, Labour, and Subjectivity

In recent years, feminism has experienced a wave of unprecedented 
popularity in North America and Western Europe. This resurgence 
variously manifests itself in renewed media interest in feminist 
stories, celebrities embracing feminism and a swell of activism that 
increasingly – though not exclusively – takes place in digital spaces. 
As Hester Baer (2016: 18) pointed out, “digital activism constitutes a 
paradigm shift within feminist protest culture” and there is now a 
sizable body of research in feminist media studies, which highlights the 
benefits and pitfalls of such activism (e.g. Jackson et al., 2020; 
Mendes et al., 2019; Steele, 2021). For instance, in terms of access, 
researchers have highlighted exclusions around age and class due to a 
lack of media literacy (e.g. Fotopoulou, 2016) while others have 
demonstrated that certain sites provide a platform for marginalised 
groups, such as Black women and trans communities (e.g., Jackson and 
Banaszczyk, 2016; Jackson et al., 2020; Steele, 2021).

In addition, research into digital feminist activism has shown that 
social media’s affordances can be exploited to reach a large audience 
across different localities, facilitate open engagement with feminist 
ideas, raise consciousness and re-frame dominant cultural narratives 
(Mendes et al., 2019). Researchers have also demonstrated that digital 
feminist activism can have tangible effects. According to Sarah Jackson, 
Moya Bailey and Brooke Foucault Welles (2020: xxxii), “such hashtags as 
#BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo have had far-reaching influence, moving 
debates about identity politics, inequality, violence, and citizenship 
from the margins to the center and into places as crucial as 
presidential agendas”.

Bringing together speakers from the UK and the US, who specialise in 
different geographical contexts such as the US, UK, Germany and Nigeria, 
this conference will explore some facets of digital feminist activism. 
In particular, the event will shed light on the complex interplay 
between digital protest cultures and neoliberalism as well as digital 
feminist activism and the classed and racialised politics of ‘the perfect’.

This event will take place at King’s College London on April 20^th , 
between 2.00 – 7.00 pm. Participation is free. To attend, please sign up 
by using Eventbrite: 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/digital-feminist-activism-a-mini-conference-tickets-604241973007 
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/digital-feminist-activism-a-mini-conference-tickets-604241973007>

*Panel I: Digital feminist activism, the politics of class, and ‘the 
perfect’*

Dr Simidele Dosekun, London School of Economics and Political Science: 
The Class Politics of '#BeingFemaleinNigeria'

Katrin Schindel, King’s College London: “My profile said ‘intersectional 
feminism’, now it only says ‘feminism’ because I didn’t feel safe with 
that anymore” – Individual responsibility, anxiety, and the perfect 
intersectional feminist

Christina Scharff, King’s College London: On “saying the right things”: 
class, race, and the need ‘to know’

**

*Panel II: Digital feminist activism and neoliberalism *

**

Hannah Curran-Troop, City University of London: Freelance feminists in 
crisis//

Hester Baer, University of Maryland, College Park: Theorizing Digital 
Feminist Activism for the Neoliberal Age

Dr Ayu Saraswati, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa: Social Media, Feminist 
Activism, and the Neoliberal Self(ie)

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