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» People » Simon CoplandSimon Copland
Position: Graduated PhD Student
School and/or Centres: School of Sociology
Email: simon.copland@anu.edu.au
Location: Level 4, RSSS Building, 146 Ellery Crescent
Website: http://www.simoncopland.com
Thesis title: Reddit, The Manosphere and the Male Complaint
Simon Copland is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the Australian National University (ANU), studying online men’s rights groups and communities ‘manosphere’. He has research expertise in masculinity, the far-right, online hate, and digital media platforms. He has a Masters in Science Communication.
Simon has also worked on several research projects during his PhD. This has included research of the harassment campaign #thotaudit on Twitter and Reddit, in which men reported online sex workers to the IRS for auditing. He is also currently working with colleagues at the QUT DMRC on a project studying the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories from Sky News Australia on their social media platforms. Finally, he is collaborating with researchers at Deakin University on a project examining the links between masculinity and violent extremism, as well as on a project on the far-right in Australia.
Simon is also a freelance writer and has been published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC Online and Overland Journal, amongst others. He has a number of high-quality publications and chapters in books including a chapter in the books Global Anti-feminism (upcoming), Rise of the Far-Right: Technologies and Mobilisation, Queer Stories and Going Postal.
Simon is a David Bowie and rugby union fanatic, and volunteers for the SES.
Follow Simon on Twitter to keep up-to-date with this research.
The Manosphere, Masculinity, the far-right, social media, online misogyny, extremism
Articles in Refereed Journals
• “’It was a shared duty: bereaved fathers’ perspectives, experiences and practices in relation to their partners’ lactation after infant death’”, Breastfeeding Review Journal (Q4) (with Carroll, K & Noble-Carr, D). forthcoming
o Winner of the Mary Paton Research Award – prize of $5,000
• “Memetic moments: the speed of Twitter memes”, Journal of Digital Social Research, 4(1), 2022
• “Dark, clear or brackish? Using Reddit to break down the binary of the dark and clear web,” Continuum (Q1), 35(5): 719 – 731, 2021
• “Anti-Politics in Australia.” Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE) (Q3). 86: 122-56, 2021. (with Humphrys, E and Mansillo, L).
• “Reddit quarantined: can changing platform affordances reduce hateful material online?” Internet Policy Review (Q1), 9(4), 2020.
• Anti-politics and global climate inaction: the case of the Australian carbon tax”, Critical Sociology (Q1), 46(4-5), 2019.
• Researching young men and family formation: two stories”, Men and Masculinities (Q1), forthcoming, 2019, (with Rasmussen M, Evans A, Carroll K, Gray E, Todd R and Price K).
• “The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey and the limitations of vulnerability-based politics”, Australian Feminist Studies (Q2), 33(96): 261 – 274, 2018.
• “The infantilized researcher and research subject: ethics, consent and risk.” Qualitative Research (Q1), 1 – 16. Available online: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1468794117730686 , 2017.
Book Chapters
• “Weak men have created this situations”: reacting against the feminization of society in the manosphere and far right, In Goetz, J., & Mayer, S (eds), Global Antifeminism, Edinburgh University Press
• “The online manosphere and misogyny in the far-right”. In Devries M, Bessant J and Watts R (eds), Rise of the Far Right: Technologies of Recruitment and Mobilization, Rowman and Littlefield, Forthcoming.
• “Safe Schools, marriage equality, and LGBT youth suicide.” In Duggan S, Finn K, Gagnon J, Gray E and Kelly P (eds), Social Justice in Times of Crisis and Hope: Young People, Wellbeing, and the Politics of Education Peter Lang Publishing (With Professor Mary Lou Rasmussen), 2019.
• “How We Failed our Bit of a Bent Community” In Eades Q (ed), Going Postal: More than Yes or No Brow Books: Melbourne, 2018.
• “Building a Household.” In Marsden M (ed), Queer Stories Hachette: United Kingdom, 2018.
• “Safe Schools, marriage equality, and LGBT youth suicide.” In Jones T (ed), Bent Street 1 – 2017, Clouds of Magellan: Melbourne (with Professor Mary Lou Rasmussen). 2017.
• “Labor or Green: The left and the crisis of politics.” In Altman D and Sclamer S (eds), How to vote progressive in Australia: Labor or Green? Monash University Publishing: Melbourne, 2016.
- Highly Recommended, College of Arts and Social Sciences Award for Excellence in Tutoring and Demonstrating, Australian National University, 2019.
- ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences internal grant to present at the Space and Surface Conference at Cambridge University in September 2018. Grant total: Return flights to the United Kingdom and accommodation, 2018.
- The Gender Institute Signature Event Grant to host the conference "Happy Anniversary? One Year Since Marriage Equality" in November 2018. The grant was awarded in conjunction with colleagues from the ANU School of Sociology, The ANU School of Politics and International Relations, and the ANU School of Law. Grant total: $10,000 ,2017.
- Postgraduate travel bursary from Monash University for the Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) Conference, held in Melbourne in February 2018, awarded 2017.
• Course Convenor: Social Policy: Principles and Practice, School of Sociology, Australian National University, 2020.
• Marker: CCN106: Introduction to Social Media Analytics, Queensland University of Technology, 2020 and 2021
• Course Co-Convenor: Sex, Gender and Identity: An Introduction to Gender Studies, School of Sociology, Australian National University, 2019.
• Tutor: Environmental Sociology, School of Sociology, Australian National University, 2018.
• Tutor: Qualitative Research Methods, School of Sociology, Australian National University, 2016.
• Tutor: Organisational Behaviour, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) Campus, 2016.
• Tutor: Environment and Society and Complex Environmental Problems in Action, Fenner School for Environment and Society, Australian National University, 2016.
• Tutor: Elections, Campaigns and Lobbying, University of Canberra, 2016
