Queer joy as a digital good: Centring joy in research: Keynote at OII Pride lecture
Dr Madeleine Steeds, from the Queer joy as a digital good project, gave a keynote speech at Oxford Internet Institute’s (OII) Pride Lecture in 2025.
The OII pride lecture took place on 9th June 2025.
You can watch a recording of the lecture below:
About the keynote
The expression of joy, particularly for queer and otherwise marginalised groups, can serve as an act of resistance in an increasingly divisive political landscape. Our project “Queer Joy as a Digital Good” foregrounds joy as a practice of personal and collective resistance, and we seek to understand how this is platformed and facilitated in online platforms. This talk will discuss our findings on how queer joy is expressed in online spaces, and the barriers to that expression. We’ll also discuss experiences of conducting joyful research in the current political landscape.
Speakers
Dr Madeleine Steeds
Assistant Professor in the School of Information and Communication Studies, University College Dublin
Dr Madeleine Steeds is an assistant professor in the school of Information and Communication Studies at University College Dublin. Their research explores how identities expressed online. They are also interested in how identity is assigned to technology, and how associations made with these identities may bias cognitive processes.