36.711, Confs: Mediated Masculinities in European Networks (Online)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-711. Wed Feb 26 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.711, Confs: Mediated Masculinities in European Networks (Online)

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Date: 26-Feb-2025
From: Olga Eliza O'Toole [olga.otoole at uj.edu.pl]
Subject: Mediated Masculinities in European Networks


Mediated Masculinities in European Networks

Date: 19-Nov-2025 - 19-Nov-2025
Location: Online
Contact: Olga O'Toole
Contact Email: olga.otoole at uj.edu.pl

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; Sociolinguistics; Text/Corpus
Linguistics

Deadline for submissions: May 5th 2025
Date of seminar: November 19th 2025
Contact email:masculinitieseurope at gmail.com
Planned platform: MS Teams
Aims and scope of the seminar
The interdisciplinary seminar offers researchers from various fields
the opportunity to reflect on the diversity of masculinity in mediated
spaces in widely understood European contexts. We are interested in
contributions that interpret masculinity in its hybrid sense (Bridges
& Pascoe, 2014) or investigate hegemonic variations and performances
of masculinities (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005), however, the seminar
aims to act as a space for reflection on topics that go beyond
hegemonic and hybrid masculinities.
The seminar aims to focus on mediated masculinities in Europe, as the
American context has been discussed and described in much detail
(McGlashan, Koller, Heritage, 2023).Contributions that cover
masculinity performance and how masculinity is understood in varied
European contexts are most welcome. We also invite papers that present
a comparative approach to masculinity, investigating the similarities
and differences between varying manifestations of Western (or
European) masculinities.
European masculinities
The role of media organizations and their impact on the configurations
of masculinity, whether they be hegemonic (Connell, 1987; Connell &
Messerschmidt, 2005), hybrid (Bridges & Pascoe, 2004) or other, has
been widely critically examined; however, the fundamental shifts in
communication technologies at the dawn of the 20th century and on
traditional media formats has had a profound impact on relationships
between social actors, understood as something that acts or upon which
activity is granted within a network of distinct nodes (Latour, 1987;
1996; 2006). The move from real- to virtual spaces where social
identities are performed and negotiated has reduced the impact of
traditional media organizations in determining these configurations.
In what Manuel Castells (1996) dubs the “Information Age”, there is
now a continuing tension between the social network, which has
replaced previously extant modes of hierarchical social organization,
and the self, where individual personal practices reaffirm social
identities, including gender. The arena for negotiating social meaning
has shifted from physical to virtual spaces, with these spaces
becoming the primary sites for reaffirmation of social identities and,
by extension, the primary site of discursive manifestations of
gendered identity markers (Van Dijk, 1998). It is therefore on these
virtual platforms, through the consumption of multimodal native
digital media, that contemporary masculinities are structured,
ordered, and reinforced.
The separation between the virtual and the real world has grown
increasingly thin, and the possible off-line consequences of online
discourse for European countries have become apparent in recent years;
one need only examine the French government’s Haute Commision à
l’égalité2023 report on the alarming persistence of sexist stereotypes
due to online platforms, or a leaked 2025 report from the British
government linking periods of civil unrest to the radicalization
potential of antifeminist online spaces. The latter, markedly,
specifically named the online “manosphere” as being a hub for hostile
discourse.
The online seminar therefore seeks to discuss the following questions:
how is masculinity, whether hegemonic, hybrid, hyper, or other, being
negotiated in European online spaces or in virtual media forms? What
are the possible consequences of the technological affordances of
online platforms on the discursive construction of masculinity? How
does the multimodality of these platforms structure the discourse on
gender-based expectations of masculinity? How are the virtual and the
real worlds interlinked? Is the label “manosphere” still applicable to
contemporary studies/approaches to masculinity in mediated spaces?
This is not a seminar wholly dedicated to the anglophone manosphere,
therefore we also welcome contributions discussing local
manifestations of the discourse space, especially non-anglophone ones.
We invite contributions on, but not limited to the following:
 - Masculinity discourses
 - Masculine performativity online
 - Identity and masculinity
 - Intersectional perspectives and masculinity
 - Hybrid masculinity
 - Hegemonic masculinity
 - The label of the manosphere
 - Masculinity and computer-mediated communication
 - Masculinity in gaming sites
 - Non-cis- or hetero-normative masculinities in media spaces
 - Multimodal aspects of mediated masculinity
 - Portrayals of fatherhood
 - Masculinities and posthumanism
 - Masculinity in society
The proposed papers may be informed by one discipline; however, we
encourage participants to take an interdisciplinary perspective on the
subject.
If you would like to participate in the seminar, please submit your
proposals for 20-minute papers in a 250-350 word abstract along with
5-10 keywords and references. The abstract should include the
theoretical lens of the project, as well as the methodological
approach. Please also include a biographical note with your
affiliation(100 words)and send it via email to Sid Campé and Olga
O’Toole (masculinitieseurope at gmail.com).
Sid Campé, M.A.  (sid.campe at uha.fr)
Dr Olga O’Toole (olga.otoole at uj.edu.pl)
Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland



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