Dr Joao Florencio is the event organiser

Experts to discuss impact of internet and medicine on modern masculinity at major conference

Experts from around the world will discuss the impact of the internet and medicine on modern masculinity at a major conference.

Researchers will debate the changing ways people are able to act on their desires and socialise, and the complex ways in which politics and biology interact.

The online event, held from August 31 to September 11, will include keynote lectures and panels on topics including the sexual politics of science, porn, “hook-up” apps, and how the AIDS epidemic has affected the way gay communities meet.

The free conference, open to all, will feature presentations by art historians, geographers, anthropologists, public health researchers, sociologists, media experts and cultural theorists.

Dr João Florêncio, from the University of Exeter, who is organising the event, said: “We’re living in a viral world in many ways - the age of memes, fake news, hacking, epidemics, ecological crisis, global migration flows, online dating, and antiretroviral drugs. This can bring both new forms of control through medication, cyber security, monitoring and surveillance systems, but it can also open up to new ways of feeling and spend time with one another other socially and intimately.

“I’m delighted we have such a prestigious group of researchers and experts from around the world who will come together to discuss these complex issues and I hope as many people will be able to join us virtually.”

Topics discussed at the event include Viagra spam, masculinity in YouTube videos, online porn, masculinity in the Philippines, the politics behind the use of PrEP and the role of drugs on how people socially construct their masculinity, the impact of PrEP on the cultural memory of AIDS, teenage fiction and fantasies of bodily contagion.

The conference will also include the virtual launch of Dr Florêncio’s new book Bareback Porn, Porous Masculinities, Queer Futures: The Ethics of Becoming-Pig,” published by Routledge.

Keynote speakers Professor Tim Dean from the University of Illinois, Professor Susanna Paasonen from the University of Turku, and Professor John Mercer from Birmingham City University will be joined by other expert speakers based at institutions in the UK, USA, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, the Philippines, Germany, Brazil, India, Australia, and New Zealand.

http://porousmasculinities.exeter.ac.uk/conference/

Date: 27 July 2020