General programme

26 September 2025

10:00 – 11:00 – Keynote Lecture: ‘Rethinking mental health, care and friendship through TikTok’s resonance’
                          Paul Byron, University of Technology Sydney (Australia)
11:00 – 11:30 – Coffee break
11:30 – 13:00 – Parallel Sessions IV
13:00 – 14:30 – Light lunch
14:30 – 16:00 – Parallel Sessions V
16:00 – 16:30 – Coffee break
16:30 – 18:00 – Parallel Sessions VI
18:00 – 18:30 – Closing remarks and concluding discussion

Parallel Sessions Programme

The parallel sessions programme is available below. A downloadable version will be available in the coming weeks.

25 September 2025

Parallel Sessions I (12-13.30)

S1: Platformed Dating & Intimate Infrastructures

Hot or not: How the choice architecture of dating apps shapes intimate valuation practices
Juulia Heikkinen (University of Helsinki)

Contractual Empowerment: Dating Apps and Patriarchal Romantic Contracts
Erinne Paisley (University of Copenhagen)

Love, Family, and Algorithms: Digital Mediations of Intimacy among Middle-Class Youths in New Delhi
Simpi Srivastava (Nanyang Technological University)

Reclaiming Offline Intimacy: Youth, Speed Dating, and the Anti-Swipe in Urban India
Shirin Bismillah (University of Roehampton)

S2: Intimacies in Algorithmic Environments

Curated Selves, Algorithmic Intimacies: Negotiating Identity and Image Among Young Chinese Gay Men on Blued
Yihan He, Zhanbo Shi, Zunbin Huo, Yang Zhou & Jijia Li (Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University)

Resigned yet Anticipating: Emotional Algorithm Calibration in Digital Intimacy
Wei-Ping Chen (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University)

Algorithmicized Girlhood: Exploring how Algorithmic social media Influences the Sexual Self-Perception and Wellbeing of Teenage Girls
Chiara Fehr (UCL Institute of Education)

Digital Intimacies and Youth in Iran: Navigating Desire, Surveillance, and Resistance
Shahriar Khonsari (Freelance Researcher)

S3: Gaming, Intimacy & Affective Economies

Leveling Up Intimacy: Gaming Communities, Datified Bonds, and the Emotional Economies of Young People’s Digital Lives
Ayse Asli Bozdag (Bahcesehir University)

Playbour of Love: Networks of Care and Negotiations of Agency in Otome Game Communities
Yutong Wang (Tampere University)

Pixelled Bonds: Digital Intimacies Formed Through Gaming Among Queer Youth in Denmark
Burcu Gumus (Aarhus University)

Digital Gambling and Intimacy: The Impact of Gamblification on Young People’s Online Social Relationships
Pedro Fernández-de-Castro (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Parallel Sessions II (15-16.30)

S4: Digital Imaginings of Consent

“Do you consent?” Reimagining digital consent among young people in a hyperconnected, AI-driven world
Barbara D’Ippolito (Safer Internet Center – Generazioni Connesse)

Discomfort as Disorientation: Exploring Men’s Experiences of Creating ‘Nudes’ to Share with Women
Rikke Amundsen (King’s College London)

“It’s just a bunch of f*****g words”: Young people’s views on the law in relation to sexual image sharing
Louisa Street (Keele University)

‘Safe uncertainty’ and the reimagining of intimacy: Young people, digital cultures, and everyday negotiations of consent and connection
Emily Setty (University of Surrey)

S5: Contesting Digital Masculinities

Unpacking the Manosphere: how young men navigate anti-feminist and gendered online spaces. An ethnographic study with male teenagers from Barcelona
Anna Iñigo, Maria-Jose Masanet (University of Barcelona)

Digital masculinities: affective dimensions of men’s rights communities in Italian digital spaces
Manolo Farci, Elena Ceccarelli (Università degli studi di Urbino Carlo Bo)

Cyberflashing: Women’s Perceptions of Men Who Cyberflash
Lorraine (Lorrie) Hayman (University of Galway)

Swiping Masculinity. The self-representation of masculinity in dating apps. A case study of Milan
Michele Varini, Cesare Russo (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan)

S6: Identity, Emotions and Mental Health

Longing for Connection, Fearing Closeness: Rethinking Intimacy Among Generation Z
Brigida Orria (Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II)

In search of a sense of self: Digital media as a site of self-identity-development in young people with mental health difficulties
Reidar Schei Jessen (University of Oslo)

To understand and to be understood: Young people’s perceptions of peer support for mental health in social media
Essi Holopainen, Meri Kulmala, Anu Katainen, Anna-Maija Multas (University of Helsinki)

The intimate relationship with clothes: a gendered perspective
Romana Andò, Leonardo Campagna (Sapienza University of Rome)

Parallel Sessions III (17-18.30)

S7: Everyday Practices of Digital Intimacies

Youth and Media Relations in the Context of Everyday Life Practices
Gamze 3.Karakaya (Ankara University)

Flirting on Instagram and not on Tinder: affective codes, relational media practices and adolescent intimacy languages
Marta Meneu (University of Valencia), Anna Íñigo (University of Barcelona), Maria José Masanet (University of Barcelona)

Navigating, Advocating, and Strategizing: Exploring Social Media Practices of Netherlands-Based LGBTQIA+ Youth of Color
Joey R. Stofberg (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Seval Gündemir (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Serena Does (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Verwey-Jonker Institute)

Critical approaches to LGBTIQ+ media from teenagers perspectives: Pro- and anti-LGBTIQ+ discourses within a transmedia ecosystem
Vítor Blanco-Fernández, Anna Iñigo (University of Barcelona)

S8: Sex Education & Teaching Intimacies

YouTubers as Sex Educators for Youth in the Digital Age
Maya Magnat (Independent Researcher)

#Romantasy and Raunch Culture: Exploring Young Women’s Sexual Literacy on BookTok
Claudia Cantale (Università di Catania)

The Flags: An Educational Game to Promote Emotional Intelligence in Digital Dating
Kamyab Ghorbanpour (Tilburg University)

Teaching Digital Intimacies in the Gulf
Leila Tayeb (Northwestern University in Qatar)

S9: Dating App Practices & Cultural Contexts

Digital Intimacies and Safety: How Indian Women Navigate Patriarchal Norms on Bumble
Benson Rajan (Queensland University of Technology)

Constructing ‘Light Relationships’: Exploring the Motivations of Chinese International Students Using Dating Apps in the Netherlands
Mingshu Yang, Daniel Trottier, Yijing Wang (Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication)

Digital intimacies on Tinder: cross-cultural comparisons of South African and Australian dating profile creation
Mthobeli Ngcongo (University of Johannesburg)

From Match to Meaning: Exploring Intimate Journeys Through Dating Apps
Noé Klein (Université du Québec à Montréal)

26 September 2025

Parallel Sessions IV (11.30-13)

S10: Ethical and Methodological Challenges in Researching Digital Intimacies

Zine-Making as Research Brave Space: Navigating Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Researching Digital Sexual Intimacies
Rachele Reschiglian (University of Padova)

Parental consent: an ethical dilemma for research on digital intimacy with LGBTQ+ youth
Benjamin Foley (Dublin City University)

Queer Digital Lives: Understanding datafication’s impacts through creative, collaborative approaches
Liv Owens (City St George’s, University of London), Elisabetta Ferrari (Aarhus University), Lily Bichard-Collins (University of Glasgow)

Using life stories’ methodology to research young people, sexualities, and media. The SEXMEDIA methodological toolkit
Laura Fernández, Vítor Blanco-Fernandez, Maria-Jose Masanet (Universitat de Barcelona)

S11: Queering Digital Intimacies

Ace Gaze: Asexuality on TikTok
Ela Przybyło, Derek Sparby (Illinois State University)

Queer men’s online practices of intimacy: Chemsex in the digital landscape of Grindr
Vincent Gaillard (Northumbria University)

Queer desire and motivation: Individual factors shaping the queer experience in sexting
Mária Juríková, Iveta Jansová, Vojtěch Dvořák, Karolína Bieliková (Masaryk University)

“Only Northeast Contact”: Affective Emotions and the Racialisation of Young Northeast Indians on Gay Dating Apps in Delhi
Lobsang Norbu Bhutia (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Navigation of privacy and visibility in the digital space: A case of young queer people in Nepal
Shubha Kayastha (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University)

S12: Women’s Online Subjectivities
Nostalgic futures: Young Women’s Perspectives on Tradwives
Alyssa Niccolini (Goethe University Frankfurt)

Seeking Intimacy Strategies Online: Young Chinese Women, Gendered Advice, and Post-Feminist Discourses on Xiaohongshu
Shuangyunyi Chen (University of Sheffield)

Re-virginisation and Amplified Intimacy
Hande Güzel (University of Cambridge)

Women’s Sex(t)ual Subjectivities in Sexting in Turkey
Didem Salgam (Independent Researcher)

Parallel Sessions V (14.30-16)

S13: Data, Platforms & Intimacy
Young People as Users and Data Producers in Menstrual Tracking Apps
Gabrielle Lavenir, Marion Coville (Université de Poitiers)

Risky Reprofutures: Young adults in India navigating sexual intimacy through Femtech apps
Paro Mishra (IIIT Delhi)

From Segmentation to Immersion: Young people, platform power, and family intimacies in Europe
Mariya Stoilova, Sonia Livingstone (London School of Economics and Political Science)

(Im)mobility and Affective Aesthetics: Exploring Chinese Youth Postdigital Intimacies
Zixi Zuo (Independent)

The tongue on the mic. The semiotics of aural desire in digital intimacy, from pornophony to ASMR
Gabriele Marino (University of Turin)

S14: Young Women, Digital Affects & Everyday Politics

“It’s there, every morning, in your phone:” Ambivalences and tensions in everyday engagements with feminisms on Instagram Stories
Sofia P. Caldeira (Lusófona University)

Sisterhoods on Instagram
Hande Akyıl (İstanbul Bilgi University)

Invisible fangirs – finding rest online
Kaly Halkawt Lundström (Stockholm University)

Young Women’s Digital Sexual Subjectivity: Digital Affordances and Navigation of Vulnerability
Rachel Levi Herz (Bar-Ilan University), Dana Kaplan (The Open University)

S15: Identity and Intersectional Structures of Intimacy

How much Strangeness is Good Strangeness? Negotiating Intimacy, Caste, and Religion in the Digital
Shraddha N.V. Sharma (Tata Institute of Social Sciences)

Alternate Geographies of Encounter: Identity and Intimacy in Digital Sexual Cultures
Sakshi Nain Bishnoi (Independent Researcher)

Reflexive Racialisation and the Overlapping Intimacies of Asian Australian Podcasting
Tisha Dejmanee (University of Technology Sydney)

Dating, Disconnection and Digital Labour: How young women navigate dating apps in their thirties
Maddison Sideris (The University of Melbourne)

Parallel Sessions VI (16.30-18)

S16: Digital Violence & Intimate Harm

Hidden Harms: Digital gender violence and the everyday normalization of abuse among youth
Chiara Gius, Claudia Capelli, Rosa Sorrentino (University of Bologna)

Between Screen and Reality: Digital Violence and Teen Identity in Adolescence
Marica Spalletta (Università degli Studi Link), Antonella Mascio (Università di Bologna), Simona Tirocchi (Università degli Studi di Torino)

Co-Producing Care: Navigating Data Harms with Young People in Canada
Joanna Redden (Western University), Meghan Voll (Western University), Janelle Allan (Western University);Francis Léveillé (Concordia University)

Disrupting sexualised deepfake abuse: exploring young people’s (post)digital sexual ethics
Ruby Sciberras (Monash University)

S17: Negotiating Dating and Sexual Norms

Challenging the Charmed Circle? A focus group study on sexual norms among Flemish young people
Leontine Hellemans, Frederik Dhaenens (Ghent University)

Digital enclosure of dating among young adults in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Anamarija Šiša (University of Ljubljana)

Negotiating Gender Norms Through Location-Based Dating Apps in an Anti-Gender Society
Aylin Sunam Audry (Kadir Has University)

Dating in the Age of Inflation: Financial Narratives and Gendered Expectations in TikTok Relationships
Mariia Timofeeva, Yosra Hosam Eddin Jarrar (American University in Dubai)