Mediated Masculinities in European networks. Discourse and performativity in the Information Age (on line)
Call for Papers - ONLINE SEMINAR
Mediated Masculinities in European networks: Discourse and performativity in the Information Age
November 19th, 2025
Deadline for submissions: May 5th 2025
Date of seminar: November 19th 2025
Contact email: masculinitieseurope@gmail.com
Planned platform (to be confirmed at a later date): 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’égalité 2023 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@gmail.com).
Sid Campé, PhD candidate (sid.campe@uha.fr)
University of Upper Alsace in Mulhouse, France and Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic
Dr Olga O’Toole, Associate professor (olga.otoole@uj.edu.pl)
Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland
The deadline for abstract submissions is May 5th 2025
Notifications of acceptance of paper proposals will be sent by May 25th 2025
The language of the seminar is English, however we strongly encourage contributions
that investigate or discuss topics in languages other than English.
Selected papers will be chosen for publication for an edited volume planned for 2027.
There is no fee to participate.