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Call for papersCall for papers The very first days of 2026 have witnessed the proliferation of Grok AI-generated deepfakes on X. Over the past decade, institutional reports have constantly reported the presence of gender-based violence online (e.g. Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy 2016; UN Human Rights Council 2018; Amnesty International 2020; Haut Conseil à l’Égalité 2024). In 2017, the European Institute for Gender Equality estimated that one in ten women had already experienced a form of cyber violence since the age of 15 (EIGE 2017: 1), encompassing cyber stalking, cyber harassment, gender-based hate speech, and non-consensual intimate image abuse (EIGE 2022). Online gender-based violence is a widespread, cross-cultural issue. Social media platforms enable the rapid spread of harmful discourse and the emergence of online communities united by hostility toward particular social groups, such as women and LGBTIQ+ people. A notable example of this phenomenon is the (neo-)manosphere (Gerrand et al. 2025), which has received growing interest from linguistics researchers in recent years . This rich literature has focused particularly on English-speaking communities (see Czerwinsky, 2023 for an overview), where researchers have examined discursive representations of masculinity, femininity (Heritage & Koller 2020; Iveson & Formato 2022; Krendel et al. 2022), and feminism (Aiston 2024;), as well as the lexicon (e.g. Ging et al. 2020; Gothard et al. 2021; Bogetić 2023). While there is research on these discourses outside the English-speaking world, such as in Turkey (Denir & Tiryaki 2024) or Spain (Fernández et al. 2023), it is not always conducted within the field of linguistics. Notable exceptions include Huang (2023) and Bao (2024), who observed the expression of anti-feminism on Chinese social media. Applying critical discourse analysis, Huang (2023) identified strategies demonising feminists, such as representing feminists as deviant women. More specifically looking at metaphors used to represent feminism, Bao (2024) found that war metaphors were the most frequent, thereby presenting it as a threat to be eliminated. Within this still limited body of linguistic research outside the English-speaking world, a few additional studies can be noted. From a comparative and intercultural perspective, Anastasi et al. (2023) analysed the dynamics of interactions within online Incel communities in Italian and English. Adopting an approach that combines natural language processing and feminist studies, their thematic exploration highlights variations both in the topics discussed and in the targets of hateful content. Incel discourse has also been characterised, among other features, by a neoliberal market logic extended to the domain of sexuality (Scarcelli 2021). In this context, Anastasi and Fragalà (2025), examined how dating applications such as Tinder are discursively constructed within the Italian incel community. Even within the field of linguistics, most research has focused on lexical cues of gender-based violence, highlighting how antifeminist ideology is constructed through specific terminology among incels (Bogetić 2023), or made visible through collocation patterns (Krendel et al. 2023). Nevertheless, as Kwarteng et al. (2022) concluded in their study of online misogynoir, automated hate speech detection through lexical items is insufficient to address covert or intersectional forms of misogyny, emphasising the need for contextualised pragmatic analyses. Krendel (2023), through an analysis of speech acts in alleged self-help posts from the manosphere group r/TheRedPill, aptly showed how the frequency of face-threatening speech acts made the community less supportive than the overt lexicon of self-help and personal improvement might otherwise suggest. As noted by Colliver (2024), little attention has been paid to the discourse and experience of online violence against trans people. While research in this area remains limited, two key aspects of online discourse can be mentioned: the role of algorithmic recommendations and the impact of content moderation. Focusing on algorithmic recommender functions, Baker et al. (2024) demonstrated that transphobic content is frequently recommended to boys and young men on Youtube and TikTok. Regarding content moderation, Are & Gerrard (2024) argued that TikTok’s policies toward trans users’ content can perpetuate harm through censoring and flagging trans’ users posts as potentially offensive, effectively constituting an act of violence. While originally rooted in the grievances of "angry white men" (Kimmel 2013), the (neo-)manosphere and its anti-gender ideology are now conveyed and promoted by diverse audiences: white incels represent a minority of the incel.is users (Gerrand et al. 2025), while researchers also note the emerging "black manosphere" (Awwal 2024; Procope Bell 2024) and promotion of misogyny and hegemonic masculinity within online gay spaces (Leeder 2024). Women themselves, either as "tradwives" influencers, ‘pink pilled’ anti-feminist activists or femcels can also engage with and produce misogynistic discourses (Bauer 2024; Anastasi 2022). This diversity requires researchers to pay close attention to the specific characteristics of the group under discussion - including their linguistic characteristics, preferred topics, and intended audiences - and consider how these elements contribute to diverse manifestations of online gender-based violence. As mentioned above, recent developments in technology are also leading to other forms of gender-based violence discourse online, particularly through the use of AI (Copley et al. 2025) and, more specifically, the creation of deepfakes (Karagianni & Doh 2024). A discourse analysis of online misogyny was carried out by Lee (2025), with a focus on mass and social media discourses surrounding the 2024 'deepfake porn' scandal in South Korea. Results showed that male-dominated online communities were responsible for the construction of narratives that place a strong emphasis on instances of male victimisation and the subsequent attribution of blame to women. Building on this literature, this international conference aims to bring together linguists working on the interplay between online discourse and gender-based violence, with a particular focus on the latest developments in technology, transphobic discourse, and discourse outside English-speaking communities, among other topics. We invite papers on, but not limited to, the following themes:
In addition to paper presentations (20-minute presentation + 10-minute Q&A), there will be a round table discussion dedicated to young researchers working on these topics. A workshop will also be organised to give those who wish to do so the opportunity to discuss the emotional work that can arise from this type of research. Practical information
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