Important Dates –

• Deadline for submissions: May 5th 2025
• Notification of acceptance: May 25th 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 also 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.

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 a singular discipline; however, we encourage participants to take an interdisciplinary perspective on the subject.

Submission process 

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). 

Organisers

Sid Campé, PhD student (sid.campe@uha.fr)

Université de Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse, France and Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic

Olga O’Toole, Associate professor (olga.otoole@uj.edu.pl)

Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland

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.

Organisation:

Enrico Monti et Régine Battiston

Lieu et dates/Place and dates:

Université de Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse (France), 18-19 septembre 2025.

Langues/Languages:

Français, English

Conférenciers invités/Plenary Speakers: 

Patrick Hersant (Univ. Paris 8), Outi Paloposki (Univ. Turku), Nicolas Froeliger (U Paris Cité)

Date limite/Deadline for submissions: 5/5/2025. 

Interdisciplinary conference (English and French) 22-23 May 2025, France, Mulhouse.

Scientific committee:

• Sämi LUDWIG, UHA Mulhouse

• Régine BATTISTON, UHA Mulhouse

• Maxime LEROY, UHA Mulhouse

• Wolfgang HOCHBRUCK, Universität Freiburg

• Daniel ORTIZ, Universität Basel

• Nicoleta ALEXOAE ZAGNI, Paris 8

• Maxime COULOMBE, Université Laval, Canada

Date: 22-23 May 2025.

Abstracts with keywords and short bio to samuel.ludwig@uha.fr (English) and

regine.battiston@uha.fr (French) by the end of February 2025

Publication in 2026.

Modalités de soumission des propositions de communications
Les propositions de communication rédigées en français, espagnol ou anglais seront envoyées en deux fichiers distincts au format .pdf ou .docx
Le premier fichier comprendra :
1) Nom et prénom de l’auteur/des auteurs
2) Affiliation (institution et laboratoire)
3) Titre de la communication
4)Court CV bio-bibliographique de l’auteur/des auteurs

Le second fichier ne devra pas permettre l’identification du/des auteur/s et comprendra :
1) Titre de la communication
2) Résumé de 20 lignes
3) Références bibliographiques
4) Format de participation : présentiel/en ligne

Les fichiers sont à envoyer à l’adresse suivante : pavel.del-angel-montiel@uha.fr
Date limite d’envoi des propositions de communications : 15 février 2024
Notification d’acceptation : 15 mars 2024
Inscriptions : du 15 au 31 mars 2024
Le colloque se déroulera en format hybride (en présentiel et en ligne).
Lieu du colloque : Université de Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse, France.
Les frais d’inscription s’élèvent à 50 € pour les participants en présentiel.

Les propositions de communication ne devront pas excéder 300 mots, et devront être
envoyées au format PDF, accompagnées d’une petite note biographique (100 mots) à
text.image.conference.2023@gmail.com pour le 15 avril 2024.

Les propositions, en allemand de préférence, ou en français, d’une dizaine de lignes environ,
accompagnées d’une courte présentation bio-bibliographique, sont à envoyer au plus tard le 10
décembre 2023 à l’adresse suivante :
celine.weck@uha.fr

Comité scientifique :

Régine Battiston (ILLE, Université de Haute Alsace)

Maryse Staiber (Mondes germaniques et nord-européens, Université de Strasbourg)

Stéphane Pesnel (REIGENN, Sorbonne Université)

Céline Weck (ILLE, Université de Haute Alsace)

XXVIème rencontre du Réseau thématique « La traduction comme moyen de communication interculturelle » : Université de Lille, Université Jagellonne de Cracovie, Université de Wrocław, Université de Haute-Alsace.

Scientific committee: Jerzy Brzozowski (Jagiellonian University Krakow), Enrico Monti (Université de Haute-Alsace), Mylène Lacroix (Université de Lille SHS), Julie Loison-Charles (Université de Lille SHS), Mickaël Mariaule (Université de Lille SHS), Elżbieta Skibińska (Wrocław University)
Organizing committee: Julie Loison-Charles, Mickaël Mariaule, Mylène Lacroix
Languages of the symposium: French, Polish, English
Deadline for the submission of abstracts (300-500 words + bibliography): September 20, 2023
Contact: julie.charles@univ-lille.fr

Cet événement fait suite au travail riche et intense réalisé lors de notre premier colloque bilingue Colors & Cultures / Couleurs et cultures en avril 2021.

This event is a follow-up conference based on the rich and intense work that was done at our first bilingual Colors & Cultures / Couleurs et cultures conference in April 2021.

Date: 23-25 avril 2024

Langues du colloque : français et anglais.

Date limite d’envoi des communications : 30 Novembre 2023.

Vous serez informés des résultats de la sélection avant le 25 décembre 2023.

Les propositions en français doivent être envoyées à Charlaine CLERC (charlaine.clerc@uha.fr).

Les propositions en anglais doivent être envoyées à Samuel LUDWIG (samuel.ludwig@uha.fr).

Comité d’organisation:

• Nicoleta ALEXOE-ZAGNI, Université Paris 8
• Kévin BIDEAUX, Université Paris 8 Vincennes–Saint-Denis
• Charlaine CLERC, Université de Haute Alsace, Mulhouse
• Jens HAUSER, Karlsruhe Institut of Technology (KIT)
• André KARLICZEK, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Jena
• Chang LIU, Université de Heidelberg, Allemagne
• Sämi LUDWIG, Université de Haute Alsace, Mulhouse
• Matthias RANG, Goetheanum, Dornach
• Hertha Sweet WONG, University of California, Berkeley