{"id":2796,"date":"2017-11-04T00:49:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T00:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/?page_id=2796"},"modified":"2026-04-24T11:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:33:45","slug":"kj-bio","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"Bio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Katrien Jacobs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am academic and artistic researcher employed as Associate Professor in digital media and communication at Monash University, Malaysia. I am also affiliated with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and with the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of Ghent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have lectured and published widely about sexuality and gender in and around digital media, contemporary arts, online activism and Artificial Intelligence. I am now completing Deepfake Bodies: The Sexual Politics of AI<\/em>, a book and art project that questions GenAI technology and its models of generating bodies, gender and sexuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Generating drawings of aquatic humanoids <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
KJ at Bogliasco’s Villa Dei Pini, 2024 Photo Laura Bianchi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As an artist-scholar I have produced several art works, documentaries and performance art pieces alongside my academic, curatorial and ethnographic fieldwork. My artwork can be characterized as tragi-comic and absurdist media and performative reflections on our immersion in digital media and AI . In 2024 I was granted an art residency at the Bogliasco Center to initiate an art project about deepfake bodies. I developed The Wet Ones<\/em><\/a>, a video installation and performance-lecture<\/a> involving a drag persona “Dr. Jacobs” and a making of new humanoid water creatures. As a research fellow at the University of Grenoble Alpes <\/a>in Spring 2026 I was able to fine-tune, film, edit, synthesize and rehearse the component of this artwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an academic, I am critical and open-minded thinker in sexuality studies who investigates the interplay between changing media environments and techno-politics. In 2022 I published Tit-For-Tat Media: The Contentious Bodies and Sex Imagery of Political Activism<\/em><\/a> (UK and USA, Routledge). The book examines social media discourses in China, Hong Kong and the EU in the field of online activism and sex\/gender politics with a particular focus on the protest years of 2018-2020.  Presenting a socially engaged theory of \u201ctit-for-tat media\u201d and including case-studies on political movements such as the Alt-right, the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, and revolutionary artists in China, this study reveals how visual cultures, including gendered or sexualized imagery, are utilised to influence public perception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first book Netporn: DIY Web Culture and Sexual Politics<\/em> (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007) received critical claim amongst media scholars for tracking emerging sex and online porn cultures that challenged hetero-sexism in censorship regulations and the economies of corporate expansionism. My books People\u2019s Pornography: Sex and Surveillance on the Chinese Internet<\/em> (Bristol: Intellect, 2012) and The Afterglow of Women\u2019s Pornography in Post-Digital China<\/em> (New York: Palgrave, 2015) were pioneering studies of mainland China\u2019s immersion in new trends in sexually explicit media and gender inclusivity. They were widely commented on in academia and the news media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find my full CV here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/research.monash.edu\/en\/persons\/katrien-jacobs<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www2.crs.cuhk.edu.hk\/faculty-staff\/adjunct-professors\/katrien-jacobs<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/research.flw.ugent.be\/en\/katrien.jacobs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katrien Jacobs I am academic and artistic researcher employed as Associate Professor in digital media and communication at Monash University, Malaysia. I am also affiliated with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and with the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of Ghent. I have lectured and published widely about sexuality and gender… Continue reading Bio<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2796","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2796"}],"version-history":[{"count":124,"href":"https:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5361,"href":"https:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2796\/revisions\/5361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libidot.org\/wp\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}