Gender Studies Seminar: Digital Spaces with Thomas Wimark

The Gender Studies Seminar Series invite researchers to share their insights on key issues for gendered and sexualized lives, and to engage in critical discussions about the development of gender studies as an interdisciplinary and intersectional research field. During the spring and fall semester 2023, we focus our attention on critical contributions and interventions into gendered and sexualized spaces, from the domestic to the geopolitical. 

Digital Spaces with Thomas Wimark

Title: How technology and dating applications changed the understanding of intimacy among men who desire men. 

Dating applications have revolutionized the way that individuals in search of intimacy find each other. For individuals of the LGBTQ+ community, this has been a gamechanger as finding like-minded has always been a challenge for minorities. However, studies also show that dating applications drain spaces of the LGBTQ community. In this presentation, I argue that dating applications should not be considered a mere meeting space but has the contours of a new institution of the LGBTQ+ community. Drawing on interviews with men who desire men I show the implications of this new reality.

Thomas Wimark is a senior lecturer and associate professor at the Department of Human Geography at Uppsala University. His research interests include migration, urban planning and marginalised groups. In his academic work, he mainly interrogates how normative views of sexuality, gender and race affects (queer) individuals that migrate within and between countries. His publication list includes contributions in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Social and Cultural Geography, and Housing studies. He is on the editorial board of Gender, Place and Culture.