Networked Activism, Gender Justice, and Backlash

Power, Visibility, and Political Contestation

I examine how marginalized communities — especially women, survivors of sexual violence, and racial and ethnic minorities — use digital platforms to build solidarity and transform personal testimony into collective political action. A central finding of this work is that visibility for marginalized groups is not simply enabling; it is also a site of political struggle in which amplification and backlash are structurally linked. My research traces how activist discourse travels across platforms, hybridizes across geo-linguistic contexts, and becomes the object of partisan contestation as it gains public prominence.

Key Research Questions

  • How do marginalized communities build civic voice and solidarity across platforms?
  • How does activist discourse hybridize across borders and platforms for contextual relevance?
  • When and why does visibility generate backlash, politicization, and polarization?
  • How are social justice and DEI discourses contested and politicized over time?