Deadline for submissions: May 5th 2025 

Date of seminar: November 19th 2025 

Full name/name of organizations 

Contact email:masculinitieseurope@gmail.com  

Planned platform: 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 performancesof 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 seminaraims to focus on mediatedmasculinities in Europe, as the American contexthasbeendiscussed and described in much detail (McGlashan, Koller, Heritage, 2023).Contributionsthatcovermasculinity performance and howmasculinityisunderstood in varied European contexts are most welcome. We also invite papers that present a comparative approach to masculinity, investigating the similarities and differencesbetweenvaryingmanifestations 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 Commisionà l’égalité2023 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:  

• Masculinitydiscourses  

• Masculineperformativity online  

• Identity and masculinity 

• Intersectionalperspectives and masculinity  

• Hybridmasculinity  

• Hegemonicmasculinity  

• The label of the manosphere  

• Masculinity and computer-mediatedcommunication  

• Masculinity in gamingsites  

• 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 includea biographical note with your affiliation(100 words)and send it via email to Sid Campéand Olga O’Toole (masculinitieseurope@gmail.com).  

Sid Campé, M.A.  (sid.campe@uha.fr) 

Dr Olga O’Toole (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 discusstopics 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.