Keynote speakers
Martta Ojala, Doctoral fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Nord University
Real injustice, misdirected anger: understanding the anger of men’s rights activists through an intersectional and empathetic lens
Anger has often fuelled movements for social justice and has thus acted as a source for good – but what happens when anger fuels a movement opposing social justice? Such anger can be dangerous, but is it always fully unjustified? And how can we approach it productively?
In this keynote, I discuss antifeminist men’s rights activists whose community is built on anger towards feminists, women and society at large over the injustice supposedly thrown upon men. I argue that while much of men’s rights activists’ anger is unjustified and based on false grievances, there is also a justified part in their anger. The world is hard on men in many ways and they do face injustice. However, their anger is misdirected as the misogyny that is integral to their thinking makes them blame feminism and women for their struggles and, consequently, makes their anger dangerous.
I propose a way to analyse men’s rights activists’ anger through an intersectional and empathetic lens that considers the very real injustice men face without excusing misogyny or downplaying the dangerous aspects of their thinking. Understanding the intersectional roots of men’s issues is vital for shifting the focus away from women and to the social structures and forces that are behind men’s issues, such as class and wealth inequality, or “traditional” gender roles that affect all genders, but often differently. Empathy is equally important as one of men’s rights activists’ central claims is that no one, and most certainly not feminists, cares about men. Approaching their movement with empathy is therefore especially important. With this framework, it is possible to study the anger of men’s rights activists as arising from real injustice but as misdirected, an approach that sees hope in dangerous anger, as anger that is misdirected can also be redirected.
Bio:
Martta Ojala is a doctoral fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Nord University, Norway, where she is writing her PhD thesis on antifeminist men’s rights activism on Reddit. In her thesis, she studies men’s rights activists’ perceptions of men’s position in society and how these are connected to their understandings of feminism. Her research interests include men and masculinity studies, antifeminist movements and digital media. Martta holds an MPhil in Gender Studies from the University of Oslo and an MA in Film and Visual Culture and Politics from the University of Aberdeen.
Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, Associate Professor in the School of Information & Communication Studies at UCD
This presentation takes the ‘online harms’ regulation debate, especially as it is taking place in the European Union, as an opportunity to reconsider how and when everyday practices such as humorous social media practices can harm. At a time when key advocacy groups are urging digital platforms to engage with the particularly complex issues in online hate, it is critical to address humorous expression in relation to online safety and wellbeing, which requires an approach that brings together digital media, cultural studies, and platform governance. The talk also addresses and reflects on the challenges of tackling online harms when enacted through platforms' technical architecture, norms and business models.
Bio:
Dr. Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández is Associate Professor in the School of Information & Communication Studies at UCD and researches social media cultures, platform governance, online harms, and algorithmic systems. She is a member of the UCD Centre for Digital Policy and Affiliate Investigator at the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC) and the national ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. She is also an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research (DECRA) Fellow (2023-2025) (DE230101558). Her research has been published in New Media & Society, Information, Communication & Society, Feminist Media Studies, Internet Policy Review and other international, peer-reviewed journals. She is co-author of a book on WhatsApp (Polity, with Amelia Johns and Emma Baulch).
Sérgio Galvão Roxo, PhD Candidate, University of Bergen
When Anger Becomes Design: Queer Testimony, Harm, and the Making of Digital Worlds
Anger often emerges in queer communities as a response to systemic violence, misrepresentation, and the persistent framing of queer and Trans bodies as “wrong.” In this keynote, I explore how that anger does not remain at the level of emotion or reaction but becomes a generative force that shapes testimony, creative practice, and digital world-building.
Drawing on my ongoing PhD research into digital artifacts of awareness and belonging for LGBTQIA+ communities, I examine how anger sparked by institutional neglect, transphobic narratives, and attempts to erase or “correct” queer identities is transformed into new modes of storytelling and presence.
I anchor this argument in two interconnected projects: Her Name Was Gisberta, an award winning 360° animated VR documentary created in response to the mishandling of the assassination of Gisberta Salce — a Brazilian Trans woman whose death was reduced to spectacle by the Portuguese media and justice system — and SurvivingSOGICE, an open access digital platform documenting survivor testimonies of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts (SOGICE) in Europe. Both projects emerged from anger: at erasure, at impunity, and at the weaponisation of media against the very communities it should protect.
Across these and other examples drawn from documentary practices, immersive media, and emerging queer XR spaces, anger becomes a catalyst for reclaiming narrative control, documenting harm, and designing environments where queer lives can be witnessed, remembered, and imagined differently.
Rather than viewing anger solely as destructive, I argue that its afterlives — grief, refusal, creativity, and collective care — are crucial for understanding how marginalised communities build alternative digital worlds. When redirected, anger generates new architectures of belonging and opens possibilities for healing and resistance that no amount of neutral, dispassionate research ever could.
Bio:
Sérgio Galvão Roxo is a PhD Candidate at the University of Bergen.
Programme
Tuesday 26 May / Location: Nordnorsk kunstmuseum Bodø, Storgata 40
10:30
Coffee and welcome
11:00
Keynote: When Anger Becomes Design: Queer Testimony, Harm, and the Making of Digital Worlds / Sérgio Galvão Roxo
12:00
Lunch
12:45
Where do we belong? The academic anger of working on gender in queer/trans game studies / Mark Maletska, Robin Zingarelli / Commenter Jessica May
13:25
Less Therapy, More Fireballs: Catharsis in Dungeons & Dragons / Brian McKenzie / Commenter Mia Consalvo and Rilla Khaled
14:05
Drop the brush, leave this canvas – anger portrayed by music in video game boss fights and the ludomusical coherence of ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’ / Aleksandra Obłąkowska / Commenter Kristine Jørgensen
14:45
Coffee break
15:10
When will you rage? Cultural constructions of anger in Werewolf: The Apocalypse TTRPG / Agata Zarzycka and Kristian Bjørkelo / Commenter José Ignacio Gil
15:50
Designing Beyond Rage Mode in Videogames / Mia Consalvo and Rilla Khaled / Commenter Tom Legierse & Dom Ford
16:30
End day 1
18:00
Social activity Bodø center (escape room)
Wednesday 27 May
08:15
Welcome
08:30
Anger altered: The aftermath of tourism tragedies and the politics of institutional apathy / Maria Kalaridi / Commenter Ida Kvilhaug Sekanina
09:10
Serious Leisure, Calm Anticipation: Norwegian Preppers, and the Absence of Antagonism and Anger / Ida Kvilhaug Sekanina / Commenter Anna Joanna Bartnicka
09:50
Coffee break
10:10
Reading “toxic masculinity” discourses in academic research through the lens of anger / Ann Biedermann / Commenter Mark Maletska, Robin Zingarelli
10:50
Anger and game cultural exclusion / Johan Kalmanlehto, Usva Friman, Mark Maletska, Essi Taino / Commenter Ziyu Wu
11:30
Lunch break (Pangea)
12:50
Keynote: Real injustice, misdirected anger: understanding the anger of men’s rights activists through an intersectional and empathetic lens / Martta Ojala
13:50
From GamerGate to #NotMyBattlefield and Beyond: Affective Masculinity and the Weaponisation of Anger / Jessica May / Commenter Johan Kalmanlehto, Usva Friman, Mark Maletska, Essi Taino
14:30
Coffee break
15:00
Digital armies: The use of online firestorms for discrediting journalism in authoritarian regimes / José Ignacio Gil / Commenter Maria Kalaridi
15:40
Crashing Out: Thresholds of Anger in Grassroots, Competitive Fighting Game Communities Offline / Tom Legierse & Dom Ford / Commenter Brian McKenzie
16:20
End day 2
19:00
Dinner «Gamle Salten»
Thursday 28 May
09:00
Welcome
09:10
Keynote: Platforms, humour and harm / Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández
10:10
Leg stretch
10:20
“It’s just a prank!” – digital game practical jokes as an alternative perspective on anger / Matylda Szpila / Commenter Agata Zarzycka and Kristian Bjørkelo
11:00
Angered by the Objects / Anna Joanna Bartnicka / Commenter Matylda Szpila
11:40
Lunch (at the museum)
12:40
Player Roles and the Expression of Anger in Competitive Gameplay / Ziyu Wu / Commenter Aleksandra Obłąkowska
13:20
From anger to a wish for something better: towards a reparative reading of gaming men / Kristine Jørgensen / Commenter Ann Biedermann
14:00
Coffee and cake
14:30
Planning and final meeting
Ca. 15:30
Finished
Call for Presentations
Anger is a healthy response to adversity, and an expression of frustration, but can be toxic when it is justified by fear or it is self-serving. It is on behalf of others, in service to a larger cause, that it reaches its most intense manifestation, as wrath, righteous and holy. This can lead to an all-consuming anger, and has started crusades, wars, protests and revolutions. Anger feeds terrorists and peace protesters alike. In today’s world the anger is all around us, from its sense of helpless frustration with what we can’t alter, to the fury of dictators trying to mould the world in their image.
After decades of considering anger a dangerous, unwelcomed emotion that should be contained and managed, we want to talk about the anger we see expressed in the media and in contemporary culture. This ranges from the keyboard warriors launching harassment campaigns to the organisation of resistance with physical and political consequences. Both destructive and empowering, in all its shapes anger fuels emotions and actions. Some topics to consider:
- Catharsis
- Retribution
- Hate speech
- Toxic fury
- Manipulation
- Affective tension
- Harassment
- Resistance
- Rebellion
- Loss of control
- Anger management
We accept discussions of Anger in for instance social and distributive media, editorial media, games, fiction, politics, online or contemporary culture, public discourse, as well as reported expressions and results of anger in other fields. Discussions on how to express, handle, release, overcome and take advantage of anger are all acceptable.
Who can submit
We invite all scholars working on topics relevant for the call. Please add your affiliation or alma mater to your submission, but let us know if you do not want it used in public.
Format
We invite abstracts of up to 500 words (not including literature lists), for the following formats: Paper, work in progress, reflection.
- Reflections: This is a flight of fancy, a description of potential ideas and connections that the concept anger fosters
- Paper abstract: This is a summary of a relevant research project you have done, and which you would like to present to the others
- Work in progress: This is work you would like feedback on
- We also invite more formats: experiences, performance, experimentation and roleplay
- Feedback: You will get a commenter, and be asked to provide feedback on the work of another person
Deadline
- Early deadline 23rd of March. We start accepting from this date
- First date of decisions: 27th of March
- Late deadline 20th of April
- Submit by email to northern.star.symposium@gmail.com
Selection process
Submissions are not anonymously reviewed. Program decisions will be made by the program committee:
- Mia Consalvo
- Tomasz Z. Majkowski
- Mark Maletska
- Lasha Kavtaradze
- Torill Elvira Mortensen
- Egil Trasti Rogstad
Supported by the local organizing committee:
- Kristian Bjørkelo
- Ida Løvdal Alvsen
- Cristóbal Mora Bieli-Bianchi
- Martta Ojala
- Anne Schäfer
