Dear Colleagues, It will be much appreciated if you could help me to post the call for new members for our TransDI research network via Air-L! Hi folks! Our Transcultural Digital Intimacies Research Network (TransDI) is now calling for new members! Feel free to fill in the form and join us via the link below. 🌏 Join the Transcultural Digital Intimacies Research Network (TransDI)! How is intimacy changing in our hyper-connected world? From AI companions and digital platforms to gaming and embodied technologies, digital media are reshaping how we connect, care, and desire across cultures. The Transcultural Digital Intimacies Research Network (TransDI) critically explores how technologies blur boundaries between online/offline lives and human/non-human connections. We bring together global researchers to examine the shifting landscapes of connection, affect, and sociality in digital cultures. Now chaired by Liang Ge (Lecturer in Sociology, University of Manchester) and Tingting Hu (Assistant Professor in Media and Communications, University of Liverpool), TransDI is expanding its community of scholars, artists, and practitioners interested in digital intimacies, transcultural communication, and mediated relationships. 💌 Join and Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on upcoming events, collaborations, and opportunities: 👉 https://www.liangge.blog/transdi-subscription Let’s explore together how intimacy, technology, and culture intersect in today’s digital world. Sincere thanks and best wishes, Liang Dr Liang Ge (they/them), PhD, FHEA Lecturer in Sociology 3.054, Arthur Lewis Building, University of Manchester, M13 9PL Chair, Transcultural Digital Intimacies Network (TransDI)<https://bsky.app/profile/transdi.bsky.social> Honorary Research Fellow, Social research Institute, University College London Executive Member, Race Equality Network (REN) Email: liang.ge@manchester.ac.uk<mailto:liang.ge@manchester.ac.uk> Tel: +44 0161 306 2816 Web: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/liang-ge Blog: https://www.liangge.blog Office Hour: Mondays 14.30-16.30 for SEM 1 2025/26<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/fd73a2555d074f23a8f775bba8380232@manchester.ac.uk/meetingtype/EauCXfLQ9kawIPh4Ows0nQ2?anonymous&ismsaljsauthenabled&ep=mLinkFromTile> Liang Ge - Google Scholar<https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&pli=1&user=wq4A_RUAAAAJ> Plz Check My New Publications here: Ge, L. (2027). The Grammar of Ambivalences: Subjects, Desires and Affects in the Digital Production and Consumption of Boys’ Love. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Ge, L. (2025). Ambivalent desiring subjects: young women, agency and post-(socialist-)feminist sensibilities in China. Feminist Theory, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/14647001251334949 Ge, L., Luther, J. D., & Li, E. C.-Y. (2025). Editorial introduction: Queer Asia as Method. Media, Culture & Society, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437251351143 Ge, L., & Hu, T. (2025). Gamifying intimacy: AI-driven affective engagement and human-virtual human relationships. Media, Culture & Society, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437251337239 Hu, T., & Ge, L. (2025). Datafication of Digital Intimacy: The Dual Logic of Empowerment and Commodification. Games and Culture, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120251358522 Ge, L. (2025). Feminization of labor: Over-representation, invisibility and vulnerability of women workers in the digital audio drama industry. Convergence, Online First. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548565251325531 Ge, L. (2025). The Haitang Incident 2024 and the ugliness of danmei culture/industry. European Journal of Cultural Studies, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494251326775 Yang, Z., Liu, L. and Ge, L. (2025) ‘Claiming queerness on Weibo: Public interaction discourse towards Chinese queer women athletes and their chugui’, Women’s Studies International Forum, 110, p. 103082. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103082. Ge, L. (2024). Ambivalent affective labor: The datafication of qing and danmei writers in the cultural industry. European Journal of Cultural Studies, Online First.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13675494241270468 My working hours might not be yours – please don’t feel obliged to respond outside your usual working time.