On Friday, November 14, 2025, the Itatsu Lab, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies (GSII), University of Tokyo (UTokyo) and Nguyen Do Doan Hanh, PhD Candidate at the Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), will be organizing a graduate student workshop titled “Dewesternizing digital cultures: gender, agency and resistance in Asia“.
Time: 14 November 2025 (Fri.) 9:00~Noon Japan Standard Time, 10:00~13:00 Australian Eastern Standard Time,
Venue: Zoom only (No recordings)
Link: https://u-tokyo-ac-jp.zoom.us/j/82150635388?pwd=R4vX8RSyaGUObhWKALBAnM3CacCCpH.1
Registration: Not required
Language: English (no translation)
The digital sphere has become a crucial arena where questions of gender are produced, contested, and reimagined. From online activism and digital labor to algorithmic bias, platform cultures, and emerging forms of representation, the intersection of gender and digital technologies raises pressing concerns for researchers across the humanities, social sciences, and related fields.
This graduate student workshop brings together doctoral and master’s students from DMRC at QUT and GSII at UTokyo to share work-in-progress, receive feedback, and build networks for future collaboration. A particular spotlight is placed on approaches that decolonize the academic landscape by centering underrepresented subjects, perspectives, and voices, while challenging dominant epistemologies in gender and digital studies.
The presentations are critically exploring various aspects of gender in relation to the digital, including (but not limited to):
● Gender and social media cultures
● Feminist and queer approaches to AI and algorithmic governance
● Online labor, precarity, and digital economies
● Gendered representations in gaming, streaming, and digital media
● Activism, resistance, and solidarity in digital spaces
● Comparative and cross-cultural perspectives on gender and technology
Format: Participants will present short papers, followed by feedback from
peers and faculty. The workshop will also include thematic discussions and networking sessions to foster exchange between QUT and UTokyo students.
Speakers and Presentation Titles
For the list of abstracts, click here
Khang Huynh-Vinh
DMRC, QUT, Master Student
Khang Huynh-Vinh is currently pursuing his MA degree in Women’s and Gender Studies at the Women’s Studies Center, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. His research focuses on representation of gender & sexualities in Vietnamese digital media cultures, as well as transnational queer world-making practices of Boys’ Love fandom.
Presentation Title: Reinterpreting Masculinities through Vietnamese Virtual Influencer: A Textual Analysis of Tho Bay Mau (Rainbow Rabbit)
Lynrose Jane Genon
DMRC, QUT, PhD Candidate
Lynrose Jane Genon is currently a PhD candidate at the Digital Media Research Centre of Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. She is also a faculty member (on study leave) at the Department of English of Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). Her research interests include youth, gender, peace, and digital media and communication.
Presentation Title: “A Day In My Life”: Everyday “Digital Peacebuilding” By Muslim Young Women On TikTok
Nguyen Do Doan Hanh
DMRC, QUT, PhD Candidate
Nguyen Do Doan Hanh researches livestreaming culture in Vietnam, with a particular focus on the practices of game livestreamers in the intersections of affective labor and masculinity. Her previous publication is featured in Social Media + Society.
Presentation Title: Performative Authenticity: Examining Masculinity and Labour of Vietnamese Game Livestreamers (WIP paper)
Prawinda Putri Anzari
DMRC, QUT, PhD Student
Prawinda Putri Anzari is a PhD student at the School of Communication, Queensland University of Technology. Her research explores digital skills of former child brides in Indonesia, focusing on gender, feminism, and digital inclusion. She also serves as a permanent lecturer at Universitas Negeri Malang, currently on study leave.
Presentation Title: Intersecting Inequalities: Digital Exclusion of Former Child Brides in Indonesia
Amaël Cognacq
GSII UTokyo, PhD Student
Amaël Cognacq’s research focuses on online antifeminist discourses, actors and ideologies and their influence on Japanese and French societies. He is also a research assistant at B’AI Global Forum.
Presentation Title: Working Around the Blackbox: Researching About the Spread of Masculinism in Social Media
Dulan
GSII UTokyo, Master Student
Dulan (she/ they) is a Mongolian Master’s student in the ITASIA Program at the University of Tokyo. Her current research investigates the perceived influence of Japanese feminist sociologist Ueno Chizuko on Chinese feminist communities. Previously, she studied the Japanese concept of Joshi Ryoku at Hosei University as an undergrad.
Presentation Title: Cyber Solidarity and Feminist Divergence: Ueno Chizuko’s Reception in China
Leo McDonagh
GSII UTokyo, Master Student
Leo McDonagh is a Master’s student in Information, Technology, and Society in Asia at the University of Tokyo. He holds a Bachelor’s in Japanese from the University of Leeds and has several years experience as a Japanese-English translator. He has a particular interest in transgender studies.
Presentation Title: Tumblr made me trans: The social media platform at the forefront of the “transgender tipping point”
Yuluan Gong
GSII UTokyo, Master student
Yuluan Gong is a master’s student in Media Studies at the University of Tokyo. Her research explores virtual performers and digital intimacy, focusing on how audiences engage with and interpret VTubers. Alongside her studies, she has been working in the live-streaming industry, where she combines her passion for media research with hands-on experience in content creation and audience engagement
Presentation Title: Digital Intimacy and Vigilantism in VTuber Fandom: Audience Perspectives on Doxxing (tentative)
Programme:
| TIME (Brisbane) | TIME (JST) | SESSION |
| 10:00 – 10:05 | 09:00 – 09:05 | Introduction Professor Yuko Itatsu, UTokyo |
| 10:05 – 10:45 | 09:05 – 09:45 | Session 1 Virtual identity: from masculine performance to digital vigilantism Yuluan Gong Huynh-Vinh Khang |
| 10:45 – 11:25 | 09:45 – 10:25 | Session 2 Access and affordances: Digital inclusion in Marginalised online communities Leo McDonagh Prawinda Putri Anzari |
| 11:25 – 11:35 | 10:25 – 10:35 | Break |
| 11:35 – 12:15 | 10:35 – 11:15 | Session 3 Online masculinities: how masculinities are mediated on social media Amaël Cognacq Nguyen Do Doan Hanh |
| 12:15 – 12:55 | 11:15 – 11:55 | Session 4 Everyday feminism: Feminist agency and resistance in digital practices Dulan Lynrose Jane Genon |
| 12:55 – 13:00 | 11:55 – 12:00 | Closing remarks Nguyen Do Doan Hanh |
Contact us: itatsu.lab [at] gmail.com (Please change [at] to @)
Organized by: Itatsu Lab, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, and the Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Queensland University of Technology
YUKO ITATSU LABORATORY, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO 
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