Sexuality, gender, and culture in Spanish Audiovisual Communication Studies: the GECA Case, a Permanent Inter University Research Seminar/Sexualidad, Genero y Cultura en los estudios de comunicacion audiovisual en Espana: el caso de GECA, seminario interuniversitario permanente de Investigacion

Audiovisual media constitute a field of cultural production that plays a crucial role in the construction of gender identities in contemporary societies. In order to gain insight into these processes and encourage cultural transformations that might favour gender equality and diversity, we started the Permanent Inter-University Research Seminar "Genero, Estetica y Cultura Audiovisual" (GECA), currently at the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising I (UCM) and under the UCM Research Group "Formacion en Nuevas Tecnologias del Audiovisual" (FONTA). GECA is an inter-university, interdisciplinar and international web of research focused on Gender, Feminist, Men, Women, Masculinities, LGBTI and Queer studies, as may be used--but not solely--for the study of contemporary spanish audiovisual culture. GECA's activities--such as Workshops, seminars, publications or PhD Thesises--conform a new and crucial field of research within the spanish university and communication studies. Its consolidation should serve as a starting point for future lines of research related to the fields of aesthetics, audiovisual culture, gender and cultural studies.