The Clap Back: A Look into Digital Misogynoir and Online Harm Reduction Practices
March 21, 2025
Work-in-Progress Seminar
Start time: 12:00 p.m.
End time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Online (Zoom)
Description
The historical legacies of violence against Black women have deep roots, and today, these violences manifest in digital spaces. Moya Bailey, a pioneering Black feminist scholar, introduced the concept of "misogynoir" to describe this intersectional form of digital violence. In her book Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance, she defines misogynoir as “the anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women experience, particularly in U.S. visual and digital culture” (Jackson et al., 2020, 102). Misogynoir pervades media, law, literature, and other societal structures. This talk will explore the nature of digital misogynoir and examine how Black nonbinary, agender, and gender-variant individuals resist and respond to it. We will dive into the methods of harm reduction and the use of digital alchemy as powerful tools of resilience and reclamation in these communities.
About the Speaker
Dr. KáLyn “Kay” Coghill (they/them) is a Black, fat, neurodivergent, non-binary femme. They are an award-winning educator, practitioner, and activist with expertise spanning abortion doula work, community organizing, poetry, and interdisciplinary scholarship. They serve as the Director of Digital Engagement at me too. International and as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Kay's courses tackle critical issues such as misogynoir, race, feminism, girlhood studies, literature, Black popular culture, and hip-hop. Kay has a bachelor’s degree in English from Old Dominion University, a master’s degree in Organizational Communications from Bowie State University, and a doctorate in Media, Art, and Text from Virginia Commonwealth University. Their research, highlighted by major media outlets and prestigious institutions, focuses on the digital resistance of Black women in hip hop, harm reduction strategies against misogynoir and online gender-based violence, and digital Black girlhood. Kay's commitment to activism includes workshops combating imposter syndrome, digital humanities, and facilitating sister circles (GLOW) for Black high schoolers in the Richmond area. They are a Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project and Neighborhood Access board member and hold research fellow positions at the Hip Hop Counseling Collective and VCU’s Digital Sociology Lab and AI Futures Lab. Kay's approach to their work is uniquely coined as Hoodrat Scholarship™ reflecting their commitment to creating a versatile ecosystem of knowledge that bridges the gap between academia and the streets. Hoodrat Scholarship™ focuses on community outreach to make information accessible to all, with Kay leveraging their digital presence to foster inclusive spaces for engagement and contribution.