Book Talk: Tit-for-Tat Media: The Contentious Bodies and Sex Imagery of Political Activism
Date: April 13, 2023 (Thursday)
Time: 4.30pm-6:00 pm
Venue: Digital Scholarship Lab, CUHK Library
Speakers:
Prof. Katrien Jacobs (CUHK, Author)
Miss Emilia Wong
Moderator: Prof. Elmo Gonzaga (CUHK)
Registration link:
https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13662506
Conducted in English. All are welcome.
Please register by April 10, 2023
Facebook: https://fb.me/e/3qgW8asQY
Website: www.cuhk.edu.hk/crs/ccs
Enquiry: cuccs@cuhk.edu.hk
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Abstract
The book examines the visual-sexual turn in social media discourses in the field of online activism with a particular focus on the extraordinary protest years of 2018-2020. Presenting a socially engaged theory of “tit-for-tat media” and including case-studies on activist movements such as the Euro-American alt-right, the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, and revolutionary artists in China, this study reveals how visual cultures, including gendered or sexualized imagery, are utilised to influence public perception. By presenting in-depth explorations of online ethnography, interviews with activists and studies of the political histories and urban protests-environments, the volume uncovers how local artists, netizens and citizens are using media and digital imagery in contemporary activism.
Biography
Katrien Jacobs is Adjunct Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and research associate in the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of Ghent. Jacobs has lectured and published widely about sexuality and gender in and around digital media, contemporary arts and online activism. She received several Hong Kong government-funded GRF grants and authored four books about Internet culture and gender/sexuality. In 2022 she published Tit-For-Tat Media: The Contentious Bodies and Sex Imagery of Political Activism (London and New York: Routledge, 2022). Jacobs is also an artist-scholar who has produced documentaries and performance art pieces alongside her academic and ethnographic fieldwork, which can be accessed on www.katrienjacobs.com.
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This event is organized by the Centre for Cultural Studies, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK
Venue sponsor: CUHK Library