CALL FOR PROPOSALS: 2012 International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry

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Call for Proposals!!!

You are invited to submit a paper abstract for a proposed session at the 2012 International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry. 

The proposed panel is titled:

Gender Practices, Technology, and Teens:  New Perspectives from Qualitative Research

Co-chairs/Organizers are:  Judith Davidson, UMass-Lowell & Lois Scheidt, University of Indiana, Bloomington

Description of the Panel: 

Gender practices, that is, acts of definition, identification, and interaction with others in ways that demonstrate one’s gendered perspective, have been with us as long as we have been human.  Not surprisingly, in today’s digital world, gender is closely intertwined with emerging technologies.  Gendered images and assumptions are built into the presentation and uses of technologies, and technology users make use of digital modes to practice gender.  This is as true, for teens, as it is for other age groups.  Teens, who are in a gendered transition as they are leaving childhood and entering adulthood, can offer particular insights into issues of gender practice.  In this session, we present a collection of papers that employ qualitative research to look at the intersection of the teenage years and emerging technologies, using this focal point as a lens for examining gender practices.  Our goal is to enlarge our understanding of gender practices, technology, and teens through the presentation of research studies that provide intense and detailed insight into the ways teens are both shaped and shaping of individual and cultural gender possibilities through the new technologies in their lives. 

As a sample, here is the abstract for the paper, I plan to give as part of the panel:

What Teens Talk About Sexting Reveals about Gender Practices

In this paper, we will report on a three-state, mixed-method, interdisciplinary, and comparative study of teens and adults views of sexting, which was funded by the US Department of Justice.   Specifically, we will be discussing the findings regarding gendered practices that arose in the qualitative research data collected from 123 youth, who participated in a total of 20 focus groups in Massachusetts, Ohio, and South Carolina.   In talking with teens about their views regarding sexting, we found teens acting out powerful expectations and beliefs about males and females (our data did not include any youth who identified as Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual or Transgendered).  The topic of sexting, which sits at the intersection between acceptable and unacceptable expressions of sexuality, was a powerful means of unearthing territories of ambivalence in teens’ gender practices.  This led us to the development of a model to describe the range of behaviors that fall under the heading of sexting.  Our model builds upon teens descriptions of gendered relationships to describe a continuum from non-aggressive to implied aggression to overt aggression.  In this presentation we will present the model and discuss the qualitative research evidence that undergirds it. 

For questions about the panel, please contact:  Judith_Davidson@uml.edu

Please submit your abstract by no later than November 1, 2011 to Judy Davidson at Judith_Davidson@uml.edu.  Decisions for the panel will be made by November 15, 2011.  The proposal will be submitted to ICQI by December 1, 2011. 

Thank you and look forward to compiling a very interesting group of papers and spurring a challenging discussion.