New Digital Feminist Interventions

Giuliana Sorce (PhD, Penn State University) is a postdoctoral scholar in the Institute of Media Studies at the University of Tubingen, Germany. She researches digital media and society with a specialization in activism and social movements. She is the editor of Global Perspectives on NGO Communication for Social Change (Routledge, 2022) and currently serves her second term as chair for the Communication and Democracy section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). Her research has appeared in journals such as Media and Communication, Convergence, Journalism Practice, or Environmental Communication.Tanja Thomas (PhD, University of Tubingen) is Professor of Media Studies with a focus on Transformations in Media Cultures at the University of Tubingen, Germany. She researches media and migration; memory culture in the media society; right-wing violence, racism and media; participation and protest from a gender, and memory and cultural (media) studies perspective. Her projects on media, migration, and memory have received multiple grants from German and international research foundations (Volkswagen Foundation, German Research Foundation, and the German Israeli Foundation). She is co-editor of Media and Participation in Post- Migrant Societies (2022). Since 2013, she co-edits the interdisciplinary journal feministische studien.

“In times of the growing platformization of the public sphere, this volume shares urgent lessons of creative, transformative, and transnational resistance from the marginalized communities that become the trailblazers for more just digital futures.”-- Łukasz Szulc, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture, University of Manchester"New Digital Feminist Interventions: Speaking Up, Talking Back is a timely contribution to feminist media and communication scholarship centered on the concepts of ‘speaking up’ and ‘talking back.’ With clarity, rigour, and nuance, this collection of chapters from experts in the field explores how feminists are leveraging digital platforms to challenge dominant narratives, assert their presence, and create transformative spaces for dialogue and resistance. The authors bring a diverse range of perspectives and case studies from around the world, demonstrating how digital interventions—whether through hashtags, memes, podcasts, filmmaking, or grassroots campaigns—can foster solidarity while also grappling with issues of exclusion, backlash, and precarity. This book is essential reading for scholars, students, and activists seeking to understand the evolving terrain of feminist praxis in the digital age. It not only documents feminist struggles but also models the power of collective voice and critical engagement."-- Kaitlynn Mendes, Professor of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, Canada"New Digital Feminist Interventions: Speaking Up and Talking Back, edited by Giuliana Sorce and Tanja Thomas takes on bell hooks’ call to "speaking up" and "talking back" to frame transnationally visible digital activist movements with case studies from Europe, Asia and the U.S. This book highlights important and situated Activist Practices, Activist Formats Activist Experience and Activist Scholarship that contribute to feminist interventions transnationally. The collection reveals a deliberate effort to include diverse global perspectives and reveals how digital feminist interventions manifest differently across cultural, political, and technological contexts. It is am important text and a thoughtful transnational feminist intervention in digital media studies."-- Radhika Gajjala, Professor of Media, Communication and American Culture Studies, Bowling Green State University, USA

• ForewordIntroductionSection I: Activist Practices1. Narratives of Ethical Witnessing: The Politics of Feminist Anger in Digital Activism2. Resilience, Support, and Feminist Counterpublics in Online Debates of Gender-Based Violence in Latin America3. Turkey’s Queer Digital Diaspora in Times of Multiple CrisesSection II: Activist Formats4. Creating Solidarity in Decolonial Counterpublics: Digital Feminist Grassroots Journalism in Puerto Rico5. Rights Feminism, Historiography, and Chinese Queer Women’s Digital Filmmaking in We Are HereSection III: Activist Experiences6. Exploring the Dimensions and Limits of Digital Feminist Labor in Turkey7. Unleashing Voices: How Uncensored Feminist Podcasts Broaden the Discourse on Gender Issues in Mainland China8. Digital Feminism as Feminized Labor? Exploring the Intensity and Facets of Doing Feminism OnlineSection IV: Activist Scholarship9. Talking Back to Pandemic Narratives: Facebook Groups as Digital ‘Homeplaces’ for Queer Digital Acts of Resistance and Worldmaking10. Disruptions or Continuations? Feminist Approaches to Big Data/AI in Communication and Media Studies