How has feminist media activism transitioned from the print era to the digital? What are the key events or moments of technological transition which have signalled shifts in feminist media activism or production (for instance, the rise of TV/televised events, radio, Xerox machines, hashtags, or TikTok)? And what methodological approaches (decolonial, queer, affective, archival, periodical) might we bring to the concept of ‘transition’ in feminist media studies?
This special issue of the Journal of Gender Studies uses the concept of ‘media in transition’ to explore how feminist issues and campaigns are shaped by the technologies via which they are mediated (Ardis 2013). In so doing, ‘Feminist Media Activism in Transition’ responds to Carter and McLaughlin’s call (2011) for greater attention to the material history and production of media texts. By foregrounding changing modes of technological production, this special issue invites explorations of both analogue and digital forms, and of the borrowings, legacies, adaptations, and repetitions traceable across feminist media past and present.
We anticipate a broad range of transnational and transdisciplinary responses to this question, which might include explorations of:
• the recent resurrection of a ‘vintage’ aesthetic in digital media;
• moments of transition or ‘turns’ in feminist media archives;
• the evolution of concepts such as intersectionality or transfeminism in feminist media;
• how new forms of media enable self-authoring and autonomous production;
• decolonial approaches to moments of feminist media transition;
• how specific feminist issues are shaped by the forms (periodicals, magazines, digital platforms) in which they are mediated;
• modes and means of the production of feminist media;
• and of lost voices, muted moments, and marginalised narratives.
We welcome submissions on a wide range of feminist media in any historical period. Papers are especially welcomed from scholars working on feminist media of the Global South or based in Global South institutions.
Contact Info: Please submit abstracts (max 300 words) to eleanor.careless@northumbria.ac.uk by 30 of June 2023
Contact Email: eleanor.careless@northumbria.ac.uk
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