Skip to content

Contemporary Sexualities: New Research

Silhouettes of people in different colours and sizes
Conferences

A free online conference featuring a range of social scientists at different stages of their careers, whose work showcases the dynamism of sexuality identities, the nuances of sexual inequalities, and the challenges studying these issues can present.

Reserve your place

Event details

A free, online conference hosted by the Gender Research Group at Nottingham Trent University

Social science sits at the core of critical examinations of how shifts in people’s sexual identities and intimate erotic relationships are experienced in everyday life and understood at a societal level. In doing so, social science contributes to global, national and local level debates about sexualities and social justice in contemporary societies. This free online conference features a range of social scientists at different stages of their careers, whose work showcases the dynamism of sexuality identities, the nuances of sexual inequalities, and the challenges studying these issues can present. Presenters will engage with a range of themes, for example, consent, pleasure, safety and exploitation, sexual health, sexualities and digital media, minoritized sexualities, and sex work.

Keynote speaker: Professor Teela Sanders with Dr Rachel Keighley, University of Leicester

Title: Sexualities online: liberation, exploitation and responses to perpetrators

Abstract: The online space offers huge potential for identity exploration, social interaction and support as well as body/sexual labour and work. Both in terms of the economy of online spaces and the freedoms and liberations associated with online communities there is a darker side to internet use, such that the online space can facilitate a wide array of legal and illegal harms. Prime examples are the ways a person’s sexuality is the subject of discrimination and marginalisation.

This paper draws on two empirical studies. One surveyed 175 13-25-year-old LGBTQ+ young people about their experiences of online hate targeting their sexuality. The other, engaging in critical Modern Slavery studies, explored the ways Adult Service Websites play a role in the facilitation and prevention of sexual exploitation of women.

Consequently, we hope to illustrate the ways the online world both shapes our understanding of, and responses to sexualities and sexual behaviour. We contextualise these experiences within the broader conversations around online safety, and the policing of sexualities versus targeting perpetrators of hate and exploitation. Thus, we respond to the deeper societal attitudes relating to gender norms, sexual behaviour, and their dialectical relationship. This paper underlines the importance of challenging online hate and exploitation within a cohesive regulatory framework that recognises the needs of survivors of online harm.

For more information, please contact: Dr Jane Pilcher, Associate Professor of Sociology

jane.pilcher@ntu.ac.uk

Programme

Conference Programme

13.00 –13.05Welcome

Jane Pilcher
Gender Research Group Lead,
Nottingham Trent University

 
13.05 – 13.25Paper Session 1

Daisy Matthews
Nottingham Trent University

Can sex workers be religious and spiritual? An exploration of how sex workers who identify as religious or spiritual manage their identities within their everyday lives

13.25 – 13.45Paper Session 2

Anthony Gifford
Nottingham Trent University

with

Rusi Jaspal, Beth Jones & Daragh McDermott

‘Oh, why are PrEP Gays always like this…’:  Psychosocial influences on UK-based MSM’s relationship with, and use of, PrEP
13.45 – 14.05

Paper Session 3

Andrew Dunn
Nottingham Trent University

with

Ian Stephen, Treshi-Marie Perera, Gemma Bell & James Kennaway

Misperceptions in partner body size preferences in heterosexual and homosexual men and women

14.05 –

14.15

10 min Q & AChair: TBC10 min Q & A
14.15 - 14.25 10 mins break10 mins break10 mins break
14.45 - 15.05Paper Session 4

Alex Toft
Nottingham Trent University

‘These made-up things mean nothing to me’: Understanding the intersection of autism and bisexuality in the lives of young people

15.05 - 15.25Paper Session 5

Sarah Seymour-Smith
Nottingham Trent University

A critical discursive psychology analysis of parents’ online posts about adolescent sexting
15.25 – 15.3510 min Q & AChair: TBC10 min Q & A
15.35 - 15.4510 mins break10 mins break10 mins break
15.55 – 16.35

Keynote

Introduced by TBC

Professor Teela Sanders with Dr Rachel Keighley
University of Leicester

Sexualities online: liberation, exploitation and responses to perpetrators
16.10 – 16.3020 min Q & AChair: TBC 
16.30 - 16.55Open DiscussionChair: TBC 
16.55 – 17.00Closing remarksJane Pilcher

Booking information

You can reserve a spot for this event by clicking the link below:

Virtual Event https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/events/events/2023/6/contemporary-sexualities-new-research
Reserve your place

Still need help?

+44 (0)115 941 8418