Grad Workshop: The Paradox of Shared Reality

What happens when recognition fails to deliver the connection it promises? This workshop pairs two papers exploring how encounters with a shared reality can destabilize rather than affirm the self. Talia Fiester (PhD Student, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania) theorizes the "paradox of collective resonance," arguing that when survivors of sexual violence recognize their experience in others' disclosures, the resulting solidarity can paradoxically dispossess them of the singularity that had organized their sense of self. Natalia Reis Gomes (PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information, University of Coimbra) turns to bolsonarista audiences' rejection of journalistic COVID-19 coverage in Brazil, reading their skepticism through Vladimir Safatle's theory of cynicism. Together, the papers ask what is gained, lost, or refused when reality is no longer one's own to interpret alone.
Paper links will be sent after registration. For those unable to join us in person, a Zoom link will also be sent to registrants.
Lunch provided.
Speaker bios:
Talia Fiester’s (PhD Student, Annenberg School of Communication, Penn) research examines the affective and political dimensions of gendered experience in digital culture. Working at the intersection of feminist theory and affect theory, she is interested in how platforms mediate feminist politics, sexual violence survivorship, and the public negotiation of gendered harm. Her work attends to platform logics, racial and gendered capitalism, and structural conditions while operating at the level of discourse and affect.
Natalia Reis Gomes holds a Postgraduate qualification in Digital Media from the Maringá University Centre, and a Master’s degree in Journalism and Communication from the University of Coimbra, where she is currently a PhD candidate in Communication Sciences. She is a researcher in the Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information at the Faculty of Arts, University of Coimbra, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) of Portugal, and has undertaken research internships at the University of Copenhagen and University College Dublin. Her research focuses on political communication, media representations, gender and digital cultures, and her work has been published in academic journals and edited volumes by publishers including Emerald Publishing and UMinho Press.