Digital Intimacy
How do young women understand and experience intimacy in the age of social media? Are their experiences qualitatively different after the millennial turn and the rapid expansion of digital technologies? What impact do these digital experiences and understanding of intimacy have on how millennial subjects experience, understand, and negotiate social relations in globalizing Asia?
This mini-symposia series is a part of the multi-sited ongoing research project, Digital Intimacy: Young Women and Social Transformation in Asia, which looks at college-going women in Bangalore, Singapore, Hong Kong and Guangzhou to understand how their lives in these aspiring “smart” cities are being shaped by the phenomenal growth of digital technology use in Asia in the past ten years. It aims to throw new light on emerging practices of digital intimacy, with specific reference to how young, college-going women cultivate digital personae of their selves, and how such personae forge new ways of negotiating and navigating the realms of (a) courtship/marriage, (b) kinship/family and (c) tertiary education.
The research is supported by the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong.
Date: 13 January 2022 (Thursday)
Time: 8:30 p.m. GMT+8 HK/Singapore/China | 6:00 p.m. IST India
Format: Online via Zoom
Register: https://lingnan.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3V6lLFxFH3R8Pqe
Speakers
Sonia Wong: Based in Hong Kong, Sonia Wong now teaches gender and culture-related subjects at the Gender Studies Programme of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include lesbian identity, female sexuality, film, and new media. She is the founder of Reel Women Hong Kong, the first and only independent film festival in Hong Kong devoted to the promotion of female-created films and artworks, as well as gender equality and awareness, in society. In 2018, she co-founded the Women’s Festival with Chantal Wong from Eaton HK and Vera Lui from Sally Coco. Apart from being a community organiser and advocate, she is also a writer and visual artist.
Paromita Vohra: Paromita Vohra is a filmmaker and whose work explores feminism, love and desire, urban life and popular culture. Her work has been broadcast and is taught internationally and exhibited at the National Gallery of Modern Art, the Tate Modern and The Wellcome Trust. She is the Founder and Creative Director of AGENTS OF ISHQ India’s best-loved website about sex, love and desire.
