[Commlist] cfp 5th ESTIDIA Conference

5th ESTIDIA Conference
Hybrid Dialogues: Transcending Binary Thinking and Moving Away from 
Societal Polarizations 19-21 September 2019, University of Naples 
L’Orientale, Italy

PANEL DISCUSSION
Global Discourses (and Counter-Discourses) of Hostility in the Social 
Media Age
Organizer: Dr. Eleonora Esposito (University of Navarra)

We invite submission of abstracts for a panel entitled Global Discourses 
(and Counter-Discourses) of Hostility in the Social Media Age, to be 
proposed as part of the ESTIDIA (European Society for Transcultural and 
Interdisciplinary Dialogue) Conference, to be held on 19-21 September 
2019 at the University of Naples L’Orientale, Italy.
The fast-emerging technologies of the participatory web have transformed 
the way we communicate, explore and connect to the world forever. The 
new range of indigenous genres, contents and practices, situated at the 
intersection of mass and interpersonal communication, fosters the 
pursuit of personal interests in a shared scenario as well as the 
creation and maintenance of global relations that validate and support 
identities and behaviours. Not simply grounded in the incessant sharing 
of information content, the social media communication paradigm is 
characterized by a limitless potential for ordinary (rather than élite) 
media performance, with an ever-growing number of bottom-up discourse 
formations and disseminations.

Unfortunately, one of the most significant and complex drawbacks of this 
unprecedented proliferation of user-generated content is the acutely 
increasing incidence of cyber-hate. Hostility is a complex social, 
cultural and psychological phenomenon: motives behind people’s hate are 
various, different and often obscure, and the fluid nature of the 
cybersphere adds to further complicate an already thorny matter. In 
fact, the very global, immediate and interactive nature of the social 
media communication paradigm has somehow contributed to make the 
participatory web a breeding ground for the expression and dissemination 
of a range of exclusionary, intolerant, and extremist discourses, 
practices and beliefs.

In light of the above, the proposed panel invites a selected number of 
scholars from across the world to discuss the latest empirical findings, 
methodologies and theoretical frameworks to understand the phenomenon of 
online hostility. The panel will represent an arena to share and discuss 
insights on how embedded social and power relations are organized 
through digital technologies and how the phenomenon of online hostility 
is impacting on equality and participation in the cybersphere.

At the same time, while the topics of online hostility, disinformation 
and extremism have been receiving growing attention throughout recent 
years, the potential of counter-voices on the part of individual actors 
and communities has not been taken into equal scholarly consideration. 
This panel aims at providing room also for research on the many emerging 
counter-discourses and grassroots counter-measures against hateful and 
exclusionary behaviours in the cybersphere.

Comparative studies across different languages, socio-political contexts 
and social media platforms are particularly welcome. Possible topics 
include, but are by no means limited to, the following aspects:

• Online Hostility as an Intersectional Phenomenon
The intertwined impact of socioculturally constructed categorizations in 
digital exclusionary and abusive behaviours, such as:
o Gender / Sexual Orientation
o Race / Ethnicity / Religion
o Class
o Age / Generation
o Dis/ability
• Counter-Discourses to Online Hostility o Online Communities of 
Resistance, Resilience and Solidarity o Grassroot Initiatives for 
Awareness, Education and Prevention o Feminist Community-building and 
Digilantism o Hashtag Activism (e.g. #Metoo; #ShoutYourAbortion; 
#TakeAKnee; #WhyIStayed…)
• Online Misogyny and Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence o 
Discursive Strategies and Rhetorical Devices of Online Misogyny o 
Image-Based Harassment and Visual Misogyny o Digitally-mediated Rape 
Culture o Misogyny against Women in Political or Institutional Roles o 
The Manosphere (e.g. Redpill Philosophy; Incel Communities; Toxic 
Masculinities…)
• Theoretical Models and Methodological Approaches o Collection and 
Storage of Data o Software and Tools for Data Collection and Analysis o 
Small and Big Data o Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed-Method 
Approaches o Discourse-based and Ethnographic Approaches o Opinion 
Mining & Sentiment Analysis o Social Network Analysis o Ethics Issues

Abstracts are to be sent as MS Word attachment to the Panel Organizer: 
(onlinehostility /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(onlinehostility /at/ gmail.com)>

All abstracts should include the name, institutional affiliation and 
email address of the author(s), the paper title, and four-five keywords. 
The abstract should be approximately 500 words in length (excluding 
references). All abstracts will be peer-reviewed according to the 
following criteria: originality and/or importance of topic; clarity of 
research question and purpose; data sources; theoretical approach; 
analytical focus; relevance of findings if already available.
Submissions are due by 1 April 2019. Notification of acceptance to the 
panel will be sent by 15 April 2019.

We encourage abstract submissions from Early-Career Researchers, 
including postgraduate research students and postdoctoral researchers.

All accepted papers to the conference (following editorial review) will 
be included in the conference proceedings published in International 
Journal of Cross-Cultural Studies and Environmental Communication (ISSN 
2285 – 3324). It is also intended that papers accepted to the panel are 
collected in a thematically arranged volume to be submitted to an 
international publisher.

For more information on the panel or the conference, please contact the 
Panel Organizer or visit the conference website: http://www.estidia.eu


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