Dissertation Proposal Defense - Mx WE King
You are cordially invited to join us for the Dissertation Proposal Defense of Mx WE King, to be held on Tuesday, December 10, 2019, in Bloedel Hall Room 070 from 12:30 pm to 2 pm.
Title: A Match Made in Heaven?: Dating Apps and Queer Christians
Abstract:
Dating apps pose particular challenges for queer Christians, complicating an already sensitive combination of social and cultural commitments, values and beliefs. Internet research has explored dating apps in relation to privacy, authenticity, and data cultures as well as among women and gender and sexual minorities, especially men seeking men. But, there is a gap in understanding dating app usage by religious gender and sexual minorities. This proposed research explores the ways queer Christians use dating apps as well as dating app interfaces and expected uses that shape the ways queer Christians use dating apps. The goal of this project is to gain an understanding of how gender, in the context of dating apps, is socially constructed in relation to Christian and queer cultures. This proposed study uses Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis as a framework that views dating apps as cultural representations and social structures that contribute to cultural understandings of gender. This work makes a clear empirical contribution by being the first study to explicitly interrogate the experiences of queer Christians using dating apps. By exploring dating app usage from the perspective of queer Christians, this study will have broader implications for the fields of religious studies, particularly in understanding experiences of queer Christians in North America; for queer studies, particularly in understanding the ways data cultures are implicated in constructions of gender; and for information science, particularly in advancing research into dating apps and the ways religion and gender engage with information technology design and use.
Supervisory Committee:
- Negin Dahya, Co-Chair
- Anna Lauren Hoffmann, Co-Chair
- David Ribes, GSR
- Marika Cifor, Member
- Jodi O'Brien, Member