What's queer about Internet studies now?

Authors

  • Jen Jack Gieseking
  • Jessa Lingel
  • Daniel Cockayne

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i7.9254

Keywords:

queer, lgbtq, gay, internet studies, digital studies

Abstract

Queerness owes much to the past, a past we can see playing out again and again in physical and online spaces. More than seeing the Internet as a tool for LGBTQ activism alone, our collective dialogue asks: what’s queer about the Internet? The interventions by queer theory and LGBTQ studies into Internet studies begets a new turn of phrase and a renewed queer studies in a terrain that queers have always made their own, i.e., online: Queer Internet Studies (QIS). The proceedings for the Queer Internet Studies Symposium 2 (QIS2) in Philadelphia in 2017 and the papers inspired from that gathering make up the heart of this collection. We also include a recommended reading list of sources that have inspired us in QIS. We planned the symposium and special issue without a prediction of what participants would say or do, and we were (and remain) shocked and encouraged by the excitement for making and sharing a space with, for, and about queerness. In its practice, QIS is a radical, fluid practice and project that remains porous still, even in the naming that we grant it here.

Author Biographies

Jen Jack Gieseking

Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Kentucky

Jessa Lingel

Assistant Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania

Daniel Cockayne

Assistant Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Waterloo

Queer Internet Studies, Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania 2018

Downloads

Published

2018-07-01

How to Cite

Gieseking, J. J., Lingel, J., & Cockayne, D. (2018). What’s queer about Internet studies now?. First Monday, 23(7). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i7.9254