Monday 30 October 2023 17:00-18:00 | The Board Room, Department of Sociology, Free School Lane
Speakers: Dr Rachel Katz, Dr Lisa Garwood-Cross, Prof. Ben Light (University of Salford)
Dating apps serve a multifaceted role in contemporary society, including the circulation of public health information from organisations and governments. Dr Rachel Katz, Dr Lisa Garwood-Cross, and Prof. Ben Light (University of Salford) will delve into the experiences of ‘men who have sex with men’ and their use of dating apps during the COVID-19 pandemic. They will discuss the challenges of such apps as sites of public health messaging, explore the efficacy of Covid-safe sexual health narratives, and analyse the alternate social and sexual cultures that arose in that context.
ABSTRACT
Dating apps serve a multifaceted role in contemporary society, including the circulation of public health information from organisations and governments. Join us as we delve into the experiences of the group ‘men who have sex with men’ (MSM) and their use of dating apps during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will provide evidence on users’ responses to health messaging on dating apps, drawing on findings from the UKRI/AHRC funded COVID Sex Lives Project, a large-scale, multi-institutional study. We will discuss the challenges of dating apps as sites of public health messaging, explore the efficacy of Covid-safe sexual health narratives, and analyse the alternate social and sexual cultures that emulate those made inaccessible by the pandemic. We will conclude with reflections about what this means for public discourses at large.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Rachel Katz, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Salford
Rachel Katz’s research examines the consequences of digital media technologies for gender, sexuality, identity, and communication from a sociological perspective. She specialises in dating app technologies’ unexpected social uses in a variety of arenas such as public health and tourism.
Her work has been featured on international television and news media including the BBC, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and Canal Futura, as well as published in academic journals such as Social Media + Society. In 2020, Rachel won the Outstanding Staff Award for Teaching at University of Manchester. She earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Manchester, her master’s in gender studies from the University of Cambridge, and her BA from Columbia University. To learn more, please visit drrachelarielkatz.wixsite.com/info
Lisa Garwood-Cross, University Fellow in Digital Health and Society, University of Salford
Lisa's research explores aspects of digital health and digital society, bringing two often separate bodies of knowledge into conversation with one another. She has a background in media and cultural studies, is part of the multidisciplinary Internet Studies community and has interests in social media, gender and sexuality, and methodological innovation. Her recent work explores the role of social media influencers in health communication, and her doctoral work, funded by a University of Salford Industry Collaboration Studentship, focused on YouTube sex edutainment. She has worked with stakeholders from a range of health organisations, including Health Education England, National Breast Imaging Academy, Northern Care Alliance, Kidney Care UK, and Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. In 2023 Lisa was selected for a prestigious University Fellow position designed to develop research leaders of the future in their pursuit of world-leading research.
Ben Light, Professor of Digital Society, University of Salford
Ben’s work draws upon media and cultural studies and sociology. An active member of the Internet Studies community, his research focuses upon people’s everyday experiences of digital media in relation to (non)consumption, gender and sexuality, digital methods and popular internet culture. In particular he has studied the digitally mediated hook up and dating cultures of MSM for over 20 years. Ben is the author (with Susanna Paasonen and Kylie Jarrett) of NSFW: Sex and Humor in Social Media (MIT Press, 2019) and Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites (Palgrave, 2014). He has published widely in journals such as New Media and Society, First Monday, Information Communication and Society and Cultural Sociology. Recently, Ben has been appointed to lead a new Digital Society Research Group within the Centre for Research on Inclusive Society at Salford. His prior academic positions were at the Queensland University of Technology (Australia) and the University of Manchester (UK). In the 1990s Ben worked for Yorkshire MESMAC in community-based sexual health outreach, supporting those MSM who engaged with public sexual cultures in the physical world.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The COVID Sex Lives Project, was generously supported by the UKRI/AHRC COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund. The project was led by the University of Salford (PI – Light), with partners based at Birmingham City University, Kings College London and Newcastle University. The overall findings, analysis and final report for the project were compiled by the team at Salford with assistance from Karenza Moore at Newcastle University.
RESOURCES
A copy of the final report can be freely downloaded here: https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/output/1640747
A public facing project summary zine can be freely downloaded here: https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/output/1640760