Susanna
Paasonen
Professor, Art History, Musicology and Media Studies
Professor of Media Studies
Areas of expertise
internet research
sexuality studies
popular culture
affect theory
media theory
pornography
Biography
Susanna Paasonen is professor of Media Studies. After finishing her PhD in Media Studies in Turku in 2002 she acted as lecturer in Media Culture at University of Tampere (2003), as an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Women's Studies in Turku (2004-5), as senior research associate in Digital Culture at University of Jyväskylä (2005-7), as researcher at the Collegium for Advanced Studies at University of Helsinki (2007-10) and as professor of Digital Culture at Jyväskylä (2010-11) before starting in her current post in August 2011. Paasonen was appointed docent in Media Culture at University of Tampere in 2004 and as docent in Feminist Media Studies in Turku in 2006.
She was the first recipient of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters' Jutikkala Award in Humanities in 2011 and the Association of Internet Researchers' Nancy Baym Annual Book Award in 2020. She spent part of her sabbatical research leave in 2016 as visiting scholar at MIT's department of Comparative Media Studies and at Microsoft Research New England's Social Media Collective and was briefly visiting professor at University of Florence during the covid-19 spring of 2020, as well as a Hunt-Simes Visiting Chair in Sexuality Studies at University of Sydney in 2022.
She was the first recipient of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters' Jutikkala Award in Humanities in 2011 and the Association of Internet Researchers' Nancy Baym Annual Book Award in 2020. She spent part of her sabbatical research leave in 2016 as visiting scholar at MIT's department of Comparative Media Studies and at Microsoft Research New England's Social Media Collective and was briefly visiting professor at University of Florence during the covid-19 spring of 2020, as well as a Hunt-Simes Visiting Chair in Sexuality Studies at University of Sydney in 2022.
Teaching
Paasonen has broad teaching experience in media studies, cultural studies, digital culture and gender studies. She is in charge of postgraduate studies at the department of Media Studies, and participates in MA teaching and supervision. In addition, she teaches BA-level classes on media and networks, as well as theme courses connected to social media, sexuality, affect and pornography.
Research
With an interest in studies of networked media, affect, sexuality, and media theory, Paasonen is the PI of the research consortium, "Intimacy in Data-Driven Culture" (IDA, 2019-2022/25), funded by The Strategic Research Council (SRC).
She's the author of e.g. the author of Carnal Resonance: Affect and Online Pornography (MIT Press 2011), Many Splendored Things: Thinking Sex and Play (Goldsmiths Press 2018), Not Safe for Work: Sex, Humor, and Risk in Social Media (with Kylie Jarrett and Ben Light, MITP 2019), Who's Laughing Now? Feminist Tactics in Social Media (with Jenny Sundén, MITP 2020), Objectification: On the Difference Between Sex and Sexism (with Feona Attwood, Alan McKee, John Mercer and Clarissa Smith, Routledge 2020), Distracted, Frustrated, Bored: Affective Formations in Networked Media (MITP 2021) and TechnoPharmacology (with Joshua Neves, Aleena Chia and Ravi Sundaram, University of Minnesota Press 2022).
Paasonen is co-editor of e.g. Pornification: Sex and Sexuality in Media Culture (with Kaarina Nikunen and Laura Saarenmaa, Berg 2007), Working with Affect in Feminist Readings: Disturbing Differences (with Marianne Liljeström, Routledge 2010) and Networked Affect (with Ken Hillis and Michael Petit, MIT Press 2015) and serves on the editorial boards member of the journals New Media & Society, Social Media + Society, Sexualities, Porn Studies, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Capacious, Postmodern Culture, Journal of Scandinavian Cinema and Monstrum.
She's the author of e.g. the author of Carnal Resonance: Affect and Online Pornography (MIT Press 2011), Many Splendored Things: Thinking Sex and Play (Goldsmiths Press 2018), Not Safe for Work: Sex, Humor, and Risk in Social Media (with Kylie Jarrett and Ben Light, MITP 2019), Who's Laughing Now? Feminist Tactics in Social Media (with Jenny Sundén, MITP 2020), Objectification: On the Difference Between Sex and Sexism (with Feona Attwood, Alan McKee, John Mercer and Clarissa Smith, Routledge 2020), Distracted, Frustrated, Bored: Affective Formations in Networked Media (MITP 2021) and TechnoPharmacology (with Joshua Neves, Aleena Chia and Ravi Sundaram, University of Minnesota Press 2022).
Paasonen is co-editor of e.g. Pornification: Sex and Sexuality in Media Culture (with Kaarina Nikunen and Laura Saarenmaa, Berg 2007), Working with Affect in Feminist Readings: Disturbing Differences (with Marianne Liljeström, Routledge 2010) and Networked Affect (with Ken Hillis and Michael Petit, MIT Press 2015) and serves on the editorial boards member of the journals New Media & Society, Social Media + Society, Sexualities, Porn Studies, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Capacious, Postmodern Culture, Journal of Scandinavian Cinema and Monstrum.
Her full CV and list of publications can be accessed at susannapaasonen.org
Publications
Kinky, leaky, opaque: Sexual intimacies and data (2023)
Interactions
(Artikkeli ammattilehdessä tai kirjoitus ammatillisessa blogissa (D1))
About sex, open-mindedness and cinnamon buns: Exploring sexual social media (2023)
Social Media + Society
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Yul Brynner: Exoticism, Cosmopolitanism and Screen Masculinity (2023)
(Vertaisarvioitu tieteellinen erillisteos tai raportti (C1))Local flavour, film fantasies and shifting selections: Finnish sex magazines, 1972–1973 (2023)
Porn Studies
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
“Natalie Wood Day”: Sexual Violence and Celebrity Remembrance in the #MeToo Era (2022)
Celebrity Studies
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Rethinking Dick Pics (2022)
(Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli kokoomateoksessa (A3))Pompöösin lajin keinoin, intiimiyden ehdoilla: SQS:n juhlanumero Leena-Maija Rossin kunniaksi (2022)
SQS : Journal of Queer Studies in Finland
(Kirjoitus tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (B1))
Gag Order on Sexuality in Social Media—A Critical Reading From the Perspective of Sexual Rights (2022)
Congress of the World Association for Sexual Health, International Journal of Sexual Health
(Vertaisarvioimaton konferenssijulkaisu (B3))
Locating sex: regional geographies of sexual social media (2022)
Gender, Place and Culture
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Gag Order on Sexuality in Social Media—A Critical Reading From the Perspective of Sexual Rights (2022)
Congress of the World Association for Sexual Health, International Journal of Sexual Health
(Muu (O2))