[Commlist] Call for Proposals: Digital Feminisms in the Era of Techno-authoritarianism

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Digital Feminisms in the Era of Techno-authoritarianism
Indiana University Press

This edited volume brings together scholars of transnational digital 
feminisms and cultures to examine how women’s and feminist political 
movements navigate, are impacted by, and resist technical and digital 
infrastructures, which are increasingly characterized by far-right, 
misogynistic discourses and also algorithms designed to surveil, 
repress, and intimidate voices and movements at the margins.

With the sale of Twitter to Elon Musk, the rollback of 
content-moderation, and alliance of big tech companies with far-right 
leaders, digital platforms such as “X”, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, 
Signal, WhatsApp, among many others, have become hot beds of masculinist 
and misogynistic discourse (if not trolling). In an effort to reclaim 
big tech’s “manhood,” as Mark Zuckerberg said in his interview with 
controversial podcaster Joe Rogan, there has been a marked shift not 
only in the US, but globally, in how these digital platforms moderate 
violent and hateful content, address harassment, and also code their 
algorithms – boosting more far-right, misogynistic content and censoring 
social movement and progressive political content. As these platforms 
transform into vessels of misogynistic cultures, their usefulness (and 
security) are called into question by the feminist activists who use them.

From Meta’s operating policies in China to active censorship of 
pro-Palestinian content in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, big tech’s 
acquiescence to and alliance with authoritarian governments is not a new 
phenomenon. Indeed, these big tech firms align with paternalistic, 
authoritarian leaders in order to expand influence and secure lucrative 
contracts for developing and deploying a variety of surveillance systems 
and data-mining tools, which serve the interest of the financial and 
political elite. Along these lines, a significant portion of academic 
scholarship has studied the connection between political 
authoritarianism and networked, digital technologies largely from the 
vantage point of how these regimes integrate, transform, and implement 
political control mechanisms through and around these platforms. While 
helpful for understanding distinct political contexts, these studies 
largely take a tech-centered approach with a focus on strategic, 
geopolitical implications. Additionally, much of this scholarship 
examines online dissidence and resistance with a neoliberal perspective 
of digital platforms and technologies, and that once “free” from the 
chains of political control, digital media platforms are neutral 
territory in the “marketplace of ideas.” Such approaches frame big tech, 
both as an institution and developer, as ambiguous and ambivalent – a 
secondary actor to the policies and ideologies of the political contexts 
within which they operate. What the above approaches do not consider is 
how these technologies are increasingly coded and designed to support 
and nurture ethno-patriarchal, misogynist, and increasingly fascist 
cultures.

This edited volume has three key goals. First, it aims to shift this 
angle of analysis, considering big tech not simply a partner nor tool of 
political authoritarianism, but as its condition of possibility, laying 
the foundation and bolstering the conditions for far-right, masculinist 
cultures to emerge. Second, this volume seeks to “decolonize” the study 
of techno-authoritarianism, moving away from macro analyses of the 
politics of digital media and technologies rooted in liberalism, to a 
focus of big tech as a conduit of empire and global control, which 
perpetuates the rise and continuance of politically oppressive regimes 
in historically exploited contexts and geographies. Third, the work 
presented in this volume will center the perspectives and experiences of 
women and feminist cultures of resistance in order to amplify the 
digital strategies and tactics they develop that are often silenced by 
these technologies of control.

We invite contributions that address the outlined topics above from a 
variety of perspectives and methodologies. Contributions can focus on a 
specific geographic, social, political, or cultural context or offer 
transnational or comparative analysis. Proposals that looks across 
histories, temporalities, and consider the legacies of empire are 
particularly welcome. Contributions may be empirical or 
theoretical/conceptual.

Proposal Deadline: June 1, 2026
Include:

  *
Chapter title
  *
Abstract (500-600 words)
  *
5-8 key words (short)
  *
Author contact info & short bio

*full or drafter chapters/manuscripts are also welcome
Notifications of Acceptance: June 15, 2026
Full Chapter Submission: September 14, 2026 (5,000 – 6,000 words)
Review & Revisions: September – November 2026
Final Manuscript Submission: December 2026

PLEASE SEND ALL SUBMISSIONS & QUESTIONS TO: Caitlin Miles 
(Caitlin.Miles /at/ utdallas.edu)


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