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Tuesday Feb. 2, 2021
Diana Floegel, Oppression and Marginalization in Queer Fandoms Online
1:15 to 2:30 p.m.
Zoom link will be provided via email (iSchool listserv)

Online spaces such as social media platforms have been lauded for their potential to be “great equalizers,” but in reality, they reify existing oppressions. Our understanding of how oppression manifests online is largely limited to how “Big Tech” platforms like Facebook and Twitter operate. However, many other types of platform exist on the internet, and some of these spaces explicitly try to be inclusive of people with traditionally marginalized identities. My research explores queer people’s participation in online media fandoms as a context through which to examine how connections between people’s practices and platforms’ policies produce marginalization within seemingly inclusive digital environments. My talk specifically focuses on how structural power dynamics including racism, homophobia, and colonialism relate to inequitable dimensions of a) creative practices, b) community formations, and c) platform governance structures. I will highlight how my findings bolster our understanding of online environments writ large and help us consider ways to develop more just and liberatory social media platforms in the near future. 

 

Biography: Diana Floegel is a doctoral candidate at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information. Their research is primarily qualitative and lies at the intersection of Information Science, Science and Technology Studies, and Critical Theory. Their work examines power dynamics and inequities within three overlapping domains: the information creation practices of marginalized communities; the design and development of social media platforms and algorithmic systems; and the everyday workings of libraries and other information institutions.

 

*Zoom link will be provided on the day-of to the appropriate UT list