Robert W. Gehl | Publications: Presentations

Recent Keynotes and Invited Presentations

I'm available to give keynotes and presentations about alternative social media and Internet culture. Contact me via email for details if you want to book me to speak.

2024. “Fleeing Facebook and Exiting X: How activists show the path away from corporate social media.” York University Circle Lecture, 26 Oct.
2024. “From Reverse Engineering to Building Bridges: Adventures in Alternative Social Media.” George Mason University, Cultural Studies Colloquium, 26 Sept.
2023. “From Codes of Conduct to the Digital Covenant: Mastodon and the Struggle for Ethical Social Media.” Behind the Scenes: Conversations on Empirical Platform Governance Research, University of Bremen/University of Gronigen. 24 Oct.
2023: “The Road to AoIR.social: A Critical Genealogy.” Warwick Mastodon Symposium, University of Warwick. 22 June.
2023. With Diana Zulli. “The digital covenant: examining the fediverse through the lens of federalist political theory.” Oxford Platform Economy Seminar. 6 June.
2023. “Automating Manipulative Communication: Masspersonal Social Engineering from Propaganda to ChatGPT.” Colorado Mesa University. 25 April.
2022. “Beyond Big Tech and Past the Trolls: On Covenantal Social Media.” Digital Society Series. Malmö University, Sweden.
2022. With Sean Lawson. “Propaganda, Deception, and the Manipulation of Information.” Town Hall Seattle. 25 March.
2022. With Sean Lawson. “Masspersonal Social Engineering: Manipulative Communication at the Intersections of Cyber and Information Operations.” Marine Corps University. 9 March.
2021. With Sean Lawson. “A History of Masspersonal Social Engineering.” After Optimization Speaker Series, Concordia University. 2 December.
2021. “Hackers and Misinformation: What Social Engineers Can Teach Us About Manipulative Communication.” BARC Commons Workshop Series, Louisiana Tech. 8 April.
2021. With Sean Lawson. “Masspersonal Social Engineering: Manipulative Communication at the Intersections of Cyber and Information Operations.” U.S. Department of Defense Strategic Multilayer Assessment/Integrating Information in Joint Operations Speaker Series. 18 February.
2020. "Rethinking the 'social' in 'social media': Insights into topology, abstraction, and scale on the Mastodon social network." Digital Synergies, University of Alberta. 2 April.
2020. "From Bullshitting the Operator to Bullshitting an Election." Connections Speaker Series, University of Calgary. 31 January.
2019. "Truth in Dark Web Advertising." Dark Social Spaces, Deakin University – Melbourne. 7 October.
2019. “A Deep Dive into the Marianas Web: Surveillance, Information, and Mythologies of the Dark Web.” School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures & Cultures, University of Calgary. 1 March.
2017. "From Agorism to OPSEC: The New Informational Politics of Dark Web Markets." Colloquium Series, School of Information, University of Texas-Austin.
2016. "Is the Dark Web Legit?" Cultural Studies Program Alumnus Event Keynote. George Mason University, 17 March.
2015. "Power/Freedom on the Dark Web: A Digital Ethnography." University of Oregon, 27 February.

Robert W Gehl

Ontario Research Chair

Department of Communication and Media Studies

York University

Recent Keynotes and Invited Presentations

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