In September we were delighted to welcome Dr. Stacy Gillis (external link, opens in a new window) and Dr. Gareth Longstaff (external link, opens in a new window) of Newcastle University, UK, for a research visit and exchange. Hosted by Dr. Laura Niebling, the visit provided an opportunity to bring together their ongoing research on digital cultures, masculinities and popular culture with DIMAS’ expertise in feminist post-digital practices and areas of digital cultural history to develop new perspectives at the intersection of these fields.
The discussions centred on questions of masculinities and contemporary tech culture, including the growing prominence of the so-called “tech broligarchy”, as well as on the queer histories of coding and computing.
The stay offered valuable space for future research, the exchange of ideas and the development of shared questions. It thus laid the groundwork for further collaborations between the UR and Newcastle, connecting historical perspectives on computing with pressing debates around gender, power and technology today, but also furthering the exchange over study fields present at UR and NU such as game studies and celebrity studies.