Exploring Gender Identities Online

Social media platforms have opened up spaces for users to enact gender identities as well as engage in meta-discourse on gender in online environments. This has made them particularly interesting as sites for researchers studying gendered linguistic patterns within sociolinguistics, as well as those interested in the varied constructions of gender identities from the perspectives of pragmatics, discourse studies, and applied linguistics.

This conference aims to contribute to a wider conversation on the ways in which social media research may be integral to advancing our understanding of the linguistic performances of gender. We look forward to participation from conference attendees, including any insights on methodological approaches, ethical considerations involved in studying gender and/or social media landscapes or findings that challenge previous notions of gender and gender-focused research.  The call does not address only linguists, but also those working on similar topics in related fields of media studies, sociology, (digital) ethnography, education, psychology and cultural studies. 

We especially encourage submissions from early-career researchers. 

The conference will be preceded by a one-day workshop, which will include two hands-on sessions on linguistic analyses of gender identity representation online and a round-table discussion on the topic ‘Rethinking Gender’. More information to follow.

Confirmed speakers:

• Dr Daria Dayter, University of Basel
• Dr Christian Ilbury, University of Suffolk
• Prof Dr Veronika Koller, Lancaster University
• Dr Jai MacKenzie, University of Nottingham
• Dr Sofia Rüdiger, University of Bayreuth

Presentations may be submitted via EasyChair in two formats:

1. A 10-15-minute pre-recorded oral presentation. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words (excluding references) and should be anonymised. Abstracts should include a clear description of your method, data, and (preliminary) findings. 
2. A 3-minute, 3-slide lightning talk presentation. In line with the theme of the conference, we also invite abstracts that should be no longer than 280 characters (excluding references). The tweet-like submissions can include, for example, a research pitch, a short study presentation, or preliminary insights from research in progress. We particularly encourage students and early-career researchers to present their research projects in this format.

Authors may submit a maximum of two abstracts, but no more than one as a single or first author. 

Conference format: The reference will be the local time (CET). 10-15-minute presentations will be made available in advance, giving attendees the opportunity to view them on their own time while providing background for live Q&A sessions on the conference days. Our pre-conference workshops, plenary talks, Q&A sessions, and lightning talk presentations will take place synchronously.  

We plan to publish a selection of accepted papers in the proceedings of the conference. 

The conference is open to all attendees free of charge.

Important dates:

• Deadline for submitting abstracts 31 March
• Notification of acceptance 30 April
• Registration opens 1 May
• Pre-conference workshop and round-table discussion 18 July
• Conference 19–20 July

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Feel free to contact us at gender.challenge@uni-greifswald.de

Your organizing committee

Dr Morana Lukač, University of Greifswald

Dr Susan Reichelt, University of Konstanz

Luisa Grabiger, University of Greifswald

Alice Cesbron, University of Greifswald / University of Paris

Prof Dr Theresa Heyd, University of Greifswald