The aim of my research is to explore the negotiation of gender and sexual subjectivities in young people’s digitally mediated peer cultures.
Young people’s ‘digital mediated peer cultures’ are understood in this context to be the ways in which digital technologies, including the internet, mobile communication technologies and social media, are shaping the lives of young people and their relationships. ‘Sexual/gender subjectivities’ refers to young people’s understanding of themselves as sexual and gendered beings.
I will employ creative and participatory methodologies in order to map young people’s digitally mediated peer cultures in new and potentially rich ways. Key aims of the project are to:
- Understand digitally mediated peer cultures from young people’s own perspectives and experiences in the context of their everyday lives
- Enable young people to identify what kinds of knowledge and support they need (if any) in negotiating digitally mediated peer cultures
- Explore young people’s digitally-mediated performances of sexual/gendered subjectivities?
- Critically examine the processes, challenges and opportunities of creative and participatory research with young people
My research draws on the conceptual tools offered by posthumanist, new materialist and feminist theory including Deleuze and Guattari, Braidotti and Karen Barad.