The DIS/CONNECT Project is One of the ENLIGHT 2025 Call Winners!

We are excited to announce that the DIS/CONNECT Project, with a team from the UG in participation, has been selected as one of the 2025 ENLIGHT Call winners! This project aims to equip students to critically analyse and respond to gendered disinformation, online hate, and anti-gender mobilisation. Find out more about DIS/CONNECT and the people behind it below!

What is the main goal of the project? Who are your collaborative partners?

Dis/Connect – Gender Power and Disinformation across borders is a virtual, interdisciplinary course that equips students to critically analyse and respond to gendered disinformation, online hate, and anti-gender mobilisation. Across four interconnected workshops, students engage feminist/queer/masculinity studies alongside human rights law and digital media practice, and develop public-facing responses to real-world disinformation campaigns. This course runs as a virtual workshop series bringing together students to examine how gender and sexuality become targets in digital cultures, policy debates, and human rights framings. It is fully delivered in English by lecturers from four European institutions and international guest experts.

What inspired this project idea?

The necessity of thinking interdisciplinarily about disinformation and how gender has been weaponized in hateful speeches and narratives.

Why is this international collaboration essential to your work?

One of the key reasons for this collaboration is bringing together scholars preoccupied with gendered disinformation and hate speech under several theoretical lenses and departure points. Scholars from different countries and backgrounds will bring unique experiences and examples during the lectures. Diversity will enrich class discussion.

How did this collaboration come together?

I was invited by one of the lecturers, and this is my first time collaborating with the team members.

Does your project connect to other research, teaching or outreach activities you are involved in?

I primarily research gendered disinformation via journalism studies. My perspective is that gendered disinformation is a type of violence and should be treated as such, no matter if the content was spread intentionally or unintentionally.

The team at the UG:

• Dr. Marília Gehrke, Faculty of Arts, Centre for Media and Journalism Studies

We are happy for the DIS/CONNECT team and are excited for the outcomes of this project!