barrieshannon

[barrieshannon]

Hunt-Simes Institute in Sexuality Studies

I spent the past couple of weeks at the University of Sydney for the Hunt-Simes Institute in Sexuality Studies. It was so wonderful to spend a fortnight with queer and sexuality scholars from around the world, and I can't recommend it enough - be sure to keep an eye out for future offerings of this fantastic program!

#events

[barrieshannon]

A review of my book

Linville, D. (2023). [Review of the book Sex(uality) education for trans and gender diverse youth in Australia, by B. Shannon]. Journal of LGBT Youth, https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2023.2253796

"This text would provide a wonderful entry point for preservice and in-service teachers to discuss what the needs of trans and nonbinary youth are, and how to imagine what sexuality education might look like beyond the puberty, reproduction, and disease education that many will have received in secondary classrooms, if they experienced sex education at all."

"Additionally, education researchers can learn from this text how to better discuss trans and nonbinary youth in more specific ways in research studies and pedagogical and curricular approaches."

I was happy to come across this positive review of my book, Sex(uality) education for trans and gender diverse youth in Australia, in the Journal of LGBT Youth. It is pleasing to see that it has been deemed useful in the ways that I had intended when I was attempting to translate my doctoral findings into a monograph.

A link to my book on the Springer website is here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-92446-1

#publications

[barrieshannon]

Social Media, Trans and Nonbinary Youth

Shannon, B. (2023). Social Media, Trans and Nonbinary Youth. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Sexuality Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95352-2_118-1.

Excerpt from introduction:

This entry maps out the various reasons trans youth are drawn to online sexuality education. These include the lack of content and perspectives relevant to trans youth in the classroom, which are constrained by sociopolitical discourses that shape what is possible at school. Second, this entry examines the substance of social media sexuality education for trans youth, drawing on international examples to demonstrate what kind of informal teaching and learning take place within these platforms. This entry provides an overview of this phenomenon while emphasizing that researchers and educators alike must take seriously the ways that young people are forging their own paths in developing comparatively nuanced understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality as an alternative to what is offered at school.

#publications

[barrieshannon]

Student diversity and LGBTIQA+ pathways through tertiary enabling programs

I have created a page for updates on my research project on LGBTIQA+ students' experiences of, and pathways into, pre-undergraduate university enabling programs.

I will be posting about presentations, publications and resources that come from this project, accompanied by explanations of the data and the themes, aimed at a general audience.

Please have a look, and don't hesitate to get in touch with any questions about the research!

Project webpage: Student diversity and LGBTIQA+ pathways through tertiary enabling programs

#updates

[barrieshannon]

Joining the AARE GSCS SIG convener team

I'm happy to be joining the AARE Gender, Sexualities and Cultural Studies (GSCS) Special Interest Group as a co-convener. I'm looking forward to connecting with more education scholars from around Australia as I continue to branch out from sociology and wade deeper into education studies!

#updates

[barrieshannon]

Groundhog Day – A series of roundtables by IERLab

The Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab) at Curtin University is pleased to present Groundhog Day – A series of roundtables by IERLab. This is a one-day online-only open-access collection of roundtables on the cyclical nature of academic spotlights and hot topics, and some of the frustrations related to the ahistoricity of the discussions and moral panics. We will address the cycles, patterns, templates, etc., and related fatigue on digital media discourse.

I'm looking forward to participating in this collection of roundtables. I'll be speaking in a panel called "Digital media is fake and teaches young people the wrong things about sexuality" with Professor Kath Albury (Swinburne), Dr Samantha Mannix (Swinburne) and Hao Zheng (Deakin).

Details:

Monday, September 11, 2023 from 12:00PM AWST (GMT+8)

Event website

Webinar registration

#events

[barrieshannon]

Women and minority genders in music: Understanding the matrix of barriers for female and gender diverse music creators

Wilcox, F. & Shannon, B. 2023, Women and minority genders in music: Understanding the matrix of barriers for female and gender diverse music creators. University of Technology Sydney: Sydney.

Summary:

The Women and Minority Genders in Music report by Dr Felicity Wilcox and Dr Barrie Shannon presents new, primary data about the lived experience of over 200 music creators of diverse genders in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. It provides a unique insight into present-day music creation from practitioners active across a wide spectrum of musical genre. A major contribution this report makes to the comparative literature on gender in music is through its consistent reporting on the professional experiences of music creators who identify as trans and/or gender diverse. Co-designed and co-authored by a female and gender diverse research team, the Women and Minority Genders in Music report offers an important snapshot of the ‘matrix of barriers’ that prevents access to equal representation and achievement for women and gender diverse music creators. Through an online survey and in-depth interviews composers, producers, and songwriters share first-hand accounts of their lived experience in an industry where they are marginalised through structural inequity that has endured for centuries, and which is now coming under increasing scrutiny. Special focus areas the report delves into include: the impact of gender on producer careers; the impact of gendered care work; imagining a safer industry; the impact of ageism in music; and how intersectionality affects music creators.

Access the report here:

Executive Summary (800kb)

Full Report (2.8MB)

#publications

[barrieshannon]

Informal sexuality education for trans and gender diverse youth: Implications for school-based practice

XX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Melbourne June 25 - July 1 2023

Abstract

The capacity for young people to successfully navigate the challenges associated with gender and sexuality relies on their access to reliable and accessible sources of information and support. Traditionally, schools have been entrusted with providing this information, whether it has taken the form of so-called ‘comprehensive’ sexuality education, or more conservative or religio-spiritual messages about morality, sex and the body. Regardless of the approach taken, schools have struggled to incorporate information that is relevant or useful for young people who are trans or gender diverse. This paper draws on primary data collected on the experiences of sexuality education for trans and gender diverse youth in Australia. While young trans Australians have almost universally negative perceptions of formal, school-based sexuality education, this research reveals the rich and nuanced ways that young trans people are learning about sex, gender, and politics from their social relationships and the media that they engage with in their day-to-day lives. The informal, community-curated, emancipatory pedagogies that proliferate within certain social media platforms raise important questions about sexuality education for all young people, particularly those who are trans and gender diverse. How can schools and teachers complement the experiences of teaching and learning that are offered online? And, importantly, is this possible to do at all, particularly where there are severe political constraints on what is possible in the classroom? This paper serves as a provocation to begin considering these questions, centring the perspectives of trans and gender diverse young people, who are forging their own path to access knowledge, support and wellbeing, against the backdrop of increasingly vitriolic political discourse.

#conferences

[barrieshannon]

Returning to the concept of sexual citizenship

Gender, Sex and Sexualities Conference 2023, University of South Australia, Adelaide. June 15-16.

Abstract:

Sexual citizenship as a concept aims to map the rights of individuals related to their gender, sex and sexuality using principles of human rights and social justice. This includes access to spaces of health, education and work that are free from discrimination. The key benefit of a focus on citizenship is that it illuminates the structural understandings of social inequalities that have been neglected in favour of neoliberal notions that place individual fulfillment and achievement above collective rights, which, until recently, have apparently been taken for granted. Most of the foundational writing on sexual citizenship pre-dates the contemporary wave of national populism, neoliberal post-feminism and digitally-mediated culture wars that define the current contests over sexual and gender-based rights – particularly those concerning trans people and gender nonconforming people. In this presentation, we revisit the scholarship on sexual citizenship and make a case for a return to theoretical approaches that emphasise collectivist understanding of human rights and responsibilities, over a granular, neoliberal identity politics. Using the workplace and the education system as sites of inquiry, we will demonstrate that a citizenship approach provides a toolkit to articulate a stronger, clearer case for the affordances of the rights queer people need to be fully recognised in our society. We argue that an intersectional ‘refresh’ of the sexual citizenship approach may be useful for researchers and activists in these highly polarised, politically vexed times.

#conferences

[barrieshannon]

Buy now pay later services as a way to pay: Credit consumption and the depoliticization of debt

Cook, J., Davies, K., Farrugia, D., Threadgold, S., Coffey, J., Senior, K., Haro, A., & Shannon, B. (2023). Buy now pay later services as a way to pay: Credit consumption and the depoliticization of debt. Consumption Markets & Culture. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2023.2219606

Abstract

The use of buy now pay later (BNPL) services has grown rapidly in recent years. Existing research has considered the regulatory challenges they pose, but further work is required to map their significance as a means of normalizing and naturalizing debt. In response, this article focuses on the situated landscape of marketing and branding of BNPL services through analysis of their websites and apps, a walking ethnography of a large shopping centre, and interviews with BNPL customers. We find that BNPL services nurture a “structure of feeling” that is reminiscent of digitally intimate online spaces, and claim that by generating a sense of pleasure and fun they distinguish themselves from other comparatively “serious” financial services. We ultimately contend that this aids them in presenting themselves as simply a “way to pay” rather than a form of credit, arguing that this represents a significant new step in the depoliticization of debt.

#publications

[barrieshannon]

Destroy All Humans: The dematerialisation of the designer in an age of automation and its impact on graphic design—A literature review.

Matthews, B., Shannon, B., & Roxburgh, M. (2023). Destroy All Humans: The Dematerialisation of the Designer in an Age of Automation and its Impact on Graphic Design—A Literature Review. International Journal of Art & Design Education. https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12460

Abstract

Digital automation is on the rise in a diverse range of industries. The technologies employed here often make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and its common form, machine learning (ML) to augment or replace the work completed by human agents. The recent emergence of a variety of design automation platforms inspired the authors to undertake a review of the research literature on the impact of Automation, AI and ML on visual communication, and its subset practice of graphic design, with a view to understanding the implications for the education of practitioners entering that specific field. This review discovered that there was relatively little research published on the topic but what did exist noted that graphic design as we have known it has an uncertain future. Furthermore, the scant literature argued for a shift in educational and professional focus away from the aesthetic and technical skills required to design visual modes of communication and towards a deeper engagement with the softer, more human skills associated with negotiation, facilitation and judgement. The paucity of literature on this topic suggests to the authors that visual communication design education and the industry are poorly prepared for the impact of automation, AI and ML on them.

#publications

[barrieshannon]

Update: Joining the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI)

Pleased to be *officially* joining the UniSA Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI) - busily planning my research agenda on queer, trans and gender diverse students, sex(uality) education and higher ed pathways.

CRESI website: https://www.unisa.edu.au/research/research-in-educational-and-social-inclusion/

My staff profile: https://people.unisa.edu.au/Barrie.Shannon

#updates

[barrieshannon]

Genders and sexualities

Coffey, J., Kanai, A., Sharp, M. & Shannon, B. (2023). Genders and sexualities, In J Germov and M Poole, Public Sociology: An introduction to Australian society (5th ed), Routledge.

Abstract

Social and cultural understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality are felt as deeply personal characteristics of identity, yet they are subject to change as societies and cultures change. Discussions about sex, gender, and sexuality are central to the way we think and feel about our individual bodies and how we relate to others. Gendered norms guide our day-to-day activities, experiences, interactions, and opportunities. This chapter explores the complex contemporary landscape of genders and sexualities, highlighting key social moments in recent years that have shone a light on the intersecting racialised and classed dynamics of gendered oppression. This chapter introduces key feminist sociological understandings of gender and sexualities, covering the significance of the body, feminist movements, the study of men and masculinities, queer theory, and intersectionality.

#publications

[barrieshannon]

Younger people living in, or at risk of entering residential aged care who are not NDIS participants: Towards living a better life

Koritsas, S., Hart, C., Shannon, B. & McVilly, K. (2023). Younger people living in, or at risk of entering residential aged care who are not NDIS participants: Towards living a better life. Report prepared by Scope and the University of Melbourne.

This research explored the experiences of younger people (under the age of 65 years) who were living in, or at risk of entering residential aged care (RAC). The focus of the research was on younger people who were not NDIS participants because there is very little previous research on this group.

The aim of the research was to identify what helped and hindered younger people who are not NDIS participants from leaving or avoiding RAC, and the reasons why some choose to stay in RAC. Views and experiences of the Ability First Australia System Coordinator Program (the Program) were also explored. This Program is nationally funded and aims to help younger people access appropriate services and supports to either move out of or avoid entering RAC.

Data was collected using surveys, interviews and focus groups with the following people:

✓ Younger people living in, or at risk of entering RAC ✓ Key contacts and family members ✓ Program staff ✓ Stakeholders from health, aged care, housing, disability and advocacy

Data collected by the Program staff as a part of their day-to-day work (for example, younger people’s goals and the actions taken to help achieve those goals) was also analysed.

The summary of results can be viewed on the Scope website here: https://www.scopeaust.org.au/research-projects/younger-people-living-in-or-at-risk-of-entering-residential-aged-care-who-are-not-ndis-participants-towards-living-a-better-life/

#publications

[barrieshannon]

Embodying debt: Youth, consumer credit and its impacts for wellbeing

Coffey, J., Senior, K., Haro, A., Farrugia, D., Threadgold, S., Cook, J., Davies, K., & Shannon, B. (2023). Embodying debt: Youth, consumer credit and its impacts for wellbeing. Journal of Youth Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2022.2162376 

Abstract: Young people form the primary target demographic of new ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) and digital credit services. Despite consistent data showing young people as a cohort are particularly vulnerable to unsustainable levels of indebtedness, little is known about how young people define and make sense of the experience of being in debt through consumer credit services. This paper explores how indebtedness is experienced and understood in relation to wellbeing through a qualitative study using interviews alongside arts-based participatory methods of bodymapping and sandboxing with 24 young people in the Hunter region of NSW, Australia. These methods enabled particular attention to the embodied and affective elements related to the experience of indebtedness to understand debt’s significance for wellbeing for young people. The embodied and affective registers of indebtedness are integral for understanding the conditions informing how wellbeing is negotiated and felt in this context. This study considers the role of BNPL services in young people’s economic lives as part of broader processes of financialisation, and the significance of extended and ubiquitous forms of credit for young people’s wellbeing.

#publications

[barrieshannon]

Social media and peer-led, emancipatory queer sexuality education Australian Association for Researchers in Education (AARE) Conference 2022, University of South Australia, Adelaide. November 27-December 1.

Abstract: There is a wide body of knowledge that suggests young people in Australia are dissatisfied with the quality of the sexuality education they receive from school, and that this is consistent across public, religious or independent schools. Despite shifting social mores, sexuality education tends to take a heteronormative focus on puberty and reproduction, and the information that is presented is often piecemeal, irrelevant, or cautionary, framed as a minefield of potential risks and dangers. Further to this, contemporary political discourse in Australia positions trans youth in the fray of ongoing ‘culture wars’, with schools serving as central battlegrounds. With these issues in mind, it is no surprise that young people, especially young queer people, are looking elsewhere for relevant, affirming information about health, sex, gender and identity. This presentation draws on narrative data from my PhD project (2015-2020) on the formal and informal sexuality education experiences of trans, nonbinary and gender diverse Australians aged 18-26. Most of these young people reported using social networking sites to find information, make friends and establish communities of care. Using the microblogging platform Tumblr as a case study, I illustrate how the affordances of certain social networking sites facilitate alternative ways of communicating, peer-learning, and teaching that are not delivered by a formal authority figure and are not mediated by government policies or curriculum documents. Digital spaces like these can be considered ‘subaltern counterpublics’ and can present opportunities for new pedagogies. The findings of this research demand that we take seriously the labour of young queer people online in establishing and enacting these pedagogical tools. Additionally, we as researchers must consider the implications for school-based sexuality education, especially as the material shared online by queer young people are conceptually (and politically) beyond what could possibly be offered in a formal classroom.

#conferences

[barrieshannon]

The perplexing political life of education online

I had a great experience as an invited speaker in the featured symposium on the political life of education online at the 2022 AARE Conference. A brief write-up of the symposium can be found in the link below:

https://blog.aare.edu.au/the-wild-political-life-of-education-online/

#updates #conferences