Xi Rao and Michael DeAnda give presentations at a UIUC workshop
Technology and Humanities Ph.D. students Xi Rao and Michael DeAnda recently gave presentations at the Learning to See Systems Graduate Science and Technology Studies (STS) Workshop at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The topic of two-day workshop was “Exploring Knowledge-Making Across Boundaries” and explored themes in the social histories of media and technology, user networks in practice, visual cultures and interactive technologies. The conference attracted scholars from the areas of STS, digital studies, media studies, communication, information sciences, informatics, and design. Rao and DeAnda participated on a panel discussion together entitled, “Frictions in Creating/Making Culture.”
Rao’s presentation, “Understanding Fans through their Love to ‘Strong Women’” examined how television fans discuss characters viewed as strong women on social media. Using Carol from The Walking Dead, Rao proposed that strong women are defined by those who: 1. Survive after being knocked down physically and mentally; 2. Take care of themselves; and 3. Are proactive in new situations, rather than reactive. She also said that fans seemed more likely to talk about Carol online because strong women are often downplayed on other popular television shows and that Carol’s character undergoes a transformation throughout the series, which is an inspiration for women viewers. Rao concluded that female fans express themselves on social media through their interpretation of Carol and that the ideas they share are how they feel women should be represented in mass media.
In his presentation, “Bunk Buddies: The Titillating Gamification of Toxic Masculinity,” DeAnda examined the Bunk Buddies game on season eight of the reality television show RuPaul’s Drag Race. He discussed how both the technologies of the game and the camera and editing of the show reconstruct a type of masculinity that is informed by compulsory heterosexuality. He argued that he game is an example of how queer media is susceptible to the ideology of heteronormativity and that for gay men, the broadcasting of this game is an issue because the it encourages prescribed forms of masculine presentation that are harmful in the construct of community.
In addition to giving presentations and listening to the panels, all of the workshop participants built water filtration devices based on feminist values for development. Rao and DeAnda’s group was recognized for having the most successful filtration device that produced the cleanest water.
