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 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 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 was awarded 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, was briefly visiting professor at University of Florence during the COVID-19 spring of 2020, and was a Hunt-Simes Visiting Chair in Sexuality Studies at SSSHARC/ 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 was awarded 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, was briefly visiting professor at University of Florence during the COVID-19 spring of 2020, and was a Hunt-Simes Visiting Chair in Sexuality Studies at SSSHARC/ 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.
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, 2019-25) funded by The Strategic Research Council (SRC) at the Research Council of Finland.
She's the author of e.g. Carnal Resonance: Affect and Online Pornography (MIT Press 2011), Many Splendored Things: Thinking Sex and Play (Goldsmiths Press 2018), NSFW: 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), Technopharmacology (with Joshua Neves, Aleena Chia and Ravi Sundaram, University of Minnesota Press 2022) and Yul Brynner: Exoticism, Cosmopolitanism and Screen Masculinity (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).
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, Postmodern Culture, Capacious, Postmodern Culture, Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, Kvinder, kön och forskning, MedieKultur and Monstrum.
She's the author of e.g. Carnal Resonance: Affect and Online Pornography (MIT Press 2011), Many Splendored Things: Thinking Sex and Play (Goldsmiths Press 2018), NSFW: 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), Technopharmacology (with Joshua Neves, Aleena Chia and Ravi Sundaram, University of Minnesota Press 2022) and Yul Brynner: Exoticism, Cosmopolitanism and Screen Masculinity (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).
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, Postmodern Culture, Capacious, Postmodern Culture, Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, Kvinder, kön och forskning, MedieKultur and Monstrum.
Publications
Between Meaning and Mattering – On Affect and Porn Studies (2014)
On Affect and Porn Studies
Porn Studies
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Nettiaika luo läheisyyttä, mutta tuottaa myös etäisyyttä (2014)
Turun Sanomat
(Yleistajuinen artikkeli tai blogikirjoitus (E1))
Things to do with the alternative – Distinction and fragmentation in online pornography (2014)
Distinction and fragmentation in online pornography
(Kirjan tai muun kokoomateoksen osa (B2))
Diagnoses of Transformation – Pornification, digital media, and the diversification of the pornographic (2014)
"Pornification," digital media, and the diversification of the pornographic
(Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli kokoomateoksessa (A3))
Pornographies – An interview with Susanna Paasonen (2014)
An interview with Susanna Paasonen
Revista Crítica Cultural
(Kirjoitus tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (B1))
Grains of resonance – Affect, pornography and visual sensation (2013)
Affect, pornography and visual sensation
Somatechnics
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Slimy Traces – Memory, technology and the archive (2013)
Memory, technology and the archive
(Kirjan tai muun kokoomateoksen osa (B2))
Social Media – Implications for Everyday Life, Politics and Human Agency (2013)
Implications for Everyday Life, Politics and Human Agency
Approaching Religion
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Ihmisiä, kuvia ja tekstejä (2013)
(Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli kokoomateoksessa (A3))Coming to mind – Pornography and the mediation of intensity (2013)
Pornography and the mediation of intensity
(Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli kokoomateoksessa (A3))