The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in nearly every sphere of modern life has reshaped how we approach daily tasks, including the way we navigate romantic relationships through dating apps. AI-powered features, such as conversation prompts, personalized recommendations, and matchmaking algorithms, promise to decrease or even eliminate "dating fatigue," a state of emotional exhaustion caused by the repetitive, impersonal, and transactional nature of online dating that has become a common challenge for users. This chapter explores the ethical implications of using AI in dating apps, questioning whether it is appropriate to outsource certain intimate tasks to technology and to what extent AI can ethically mediate such interactions. It discusses major risks associated with AI-mediated dating, including algorithmic biases, lack of transparency, and the fostering of dependency on algorithm-driven interactions. Subsequently, it proposes a harm-reduction approach to managing AI-mediated dating. This approach aims to mitigate the potential harm AI may cause, while recognizing that AI-mediated dating itself may offer a way to reduce the harm caused by traditional online dating. Ultimately, this work seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of how technology can be designed to foster healthy and authentic relationships in the digital age.

The fast development and expansion of AI chatbots, such as the most discussed one nowadays, ChatGTP, has already affected the romantic and sexual sphere, and their influence will only rise in the future. This paper broadly explores discrimination in romantic and sexual relationships with AI: whether and how romantic and sexual relationships with chatbots, robots, and other artificial partners can diminish or enhance discrimination. Since using chatbots, AI has shown racist, sexist, and discriminatory behavior, and there is plenty of research on this topic. They have demonstrated that AI is not racist itself; it only reflects human prejudices and stereotypes that it learns from the data (Wolf etc., 2017; Howard, Borenstein, 2018; Kong, 2022). Thus, there is a way to fix it by giving him inclusive and non-discriminatory data that will not further reinforce societal stereotypes and might even help against discrimination. Applying this to romantic and sexual relationships, does it mean that AI can be an ideal partner that never discriminates? In my talk, I will explore this possibility and argue that AI could be such a perfect partner. I will also discuss how it will change the dating culture and the possible increase of discrimination in love and sex by having such an "artificial" opportunity. With my paper, I hope to bring a technological aspect to the discussion of discrimination in dating and encourage further research on human-robot relationships.

С самого начала феминистского движения женщины в разных странах выступали против войн. Какова история и в чем особенности женского антивоенного протеста в разных странах? И что говорят современные украинские феминистки про войну? Обсудим, почему в Украине феминизм тесно связан с национализмом, и как это помогает бороться против колониальной политики России.

This chapter explores how Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian women who self-identify as practicing Muslims understand and negotiate gender equality through their search for “true” Islam, which they believe is a right, just, and good religion for women, also morally better than certain cultural practices or a mixture of Islam and culture. It shows that the “true” Islam serves these women as a code of conduct regarding the aspects of life-related to gender equality, such as divorce, virginity, contraception, artificial insemination, abortion, sexual education, violence against women, LGBTQ+ rights, gender, and the female role in the family and the workplace. Female attitudes towards gender equality and understanding of “true” Islam fall into the relative theoretical categories of “traditional,” “pragmatic,” and “post-traditional”, spired by the categories of Inglehart and Welzel (2005). Despite these overarching trends, the research reveals that pious Baltic Muslim women do not fit into clear traditional, pragmatic, or post-traditional patterns; their individual attitudes are diverse, which is reflective of the attitudes of Muslim women living in other non-Muslim societies. However, the chapter also aims to point out the uniqueness of Baltic Muslim women’s narratives, as determined by historical and cultural context.

The fast development and expansion of digital technologies in every sphere of our everyday life have also affected sex. While in the 90s, the term "cybersex" was used for imagining a bright (or dark) techno future with cyborgs, virtual bodies, and advanced technologies mostly by geeks, nowadays it describes various online sexual activities that a lot of people do (and COVID-19 pandemics has only intensified this by forcing people to move their offline life to the online world including sex). However, despite the fact that cybersex has become a part of modern everyday life, there is little attention from philosophers on it, and with my presentation (based on my PhD thesis, which I am currently working on), I want to start filling this gap. In my presentation, I will make an overview of becoming more widespread and relevant moral issues surrounding cybersex: online infidelity, cybersex work, cybersexual harassment, cyberrape, etc. I will show how clarifying the definition of cybersex may help in discussing those ethical problems that have been arising with the development of technologies and with more activities going online. Thus, I will argue for the need to build the ethics of cybersex that will consider all those issues, paying attention to the specificity of online relationships.

The fast development and expansion of digital technologies in every sphere of our everyday life have also affected love and sex. In the 90s, terms like "cyberlove" and "cybersex" were used mostly by geeks to imagine a bright (or dark) techno future with cyborgs, virtual bodies, and advanced technologies, nowadays it describes various online romantic and sexual activities that a lot of people do (and the COVID-19 pandemic has only intensified this by forcing people to move their offline lives to the online world). This paper tries to explore the concept of equality in cyberrelationships broadly: whether the cyberworld enhances or diminishes intimate equality, or whether there is any specific kind of "online equality" that cannot be achievable in offline relationships, etc.

At its beginning, the cyberworld seemed like a dream paradise where we could be free from our embodied selves and, thus, from all our prejudices about gender, race, age, origin, etc. The functionality of the World Wide Web rather сultivated equality: once you entered the forum or chat, you had the same set of rights as others, as well as it became much easier (compared to the offline world) to escape unwanted communication – you close the window on your screen. Clearly, such an egalitarian setting has boosted cyberromance and cybersex and their positive perception: for example, feminists noticed that cyberspace enhances women's sexual autonomy by providing them a safe space to study their own sexuality with less level of shame, less control over their bodies and appearances, and with greater anonymity. But I believe those findings can be extended to all users in cyberspaces: the safety of cyberspace encourages building more intimate and vulnerable relationships. In my paper, I would like to discuss in more detail in what sense the online world promotes equality in our intimate relationships.

At the same time, with the wider expansion of digital technologies in our everyday lives, we see how they affect our relationships negatively undermining intimacy. This paper will collect all possible ways how do this and, thus, challenge the positive perception. Additionally, I will focus on discussing the equal status of our online and offline lovers. Namely, I want to answer the question: should we treat our online partners equally to our offline ones? To do this, I will engage in a long-lasting discussion about online infidelity and whether cheating online is as morally bad as cheating offline. With my paper, I hope to bring a technological aspect to the discussion of intimacy and equality and encourage further research on cyberlove and cybersex.

In this paper, I would like to research how the current (bad) definitions of internally displaced persons (IDPs)/refugees lead to problems in defining one's own identity and, as a result, (self-)silencing and (self-)neglecting that on its turn lead to the less public and scientific attention and continuing circulating of bad definitions. By doing this, I hope to break this vicious circle and draw attention to this usually under-researched issue that was born from my personal story.

The starting point for all the discussions on the definition of refugees and IDPs is the definition provided by the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. According to them, the main difference between a refugee and an IDP is whether the person who is forced to move has crossed the international border or not: the one who did is defined as a refugee, and the one who stayed in their own country is an IDP. While most of the public and scientific community's attention is on the problems of refugees and those who have crossed the border, the UNHCR itself admits that IDPs are the most vulnerable group among all those who were forced to leave their homes. They name several reasons for that: a) it is harder to deliver humanitarian assistance to areas where they have moved; b) they have to rely on their own government, even if this government is the reason for their displacement; c) they often are already from the vulnerable groups and cannot cross the border because of the lack of money, health issues, age, gender, obligations over family, etc. In addition to these problems, I want to add that IDPs might even struggle with defining themselves as IDPs or using similar terms. It can happen for different reasons: a) the government does not adopt a special legal status for IDPs and, thus, refuses them help and denies their existence; b) the definition of IDP exists in the legal system of the country, but it has problems not covering all personal cases (e.g., I was studying at the university when my region was occupied, therefore, after getting the degree I cannot be qualified as an IDP, according to the existing laws, because I was not living there at the moment of occupation, but nevertheless I cannot come back home); c) displaced people themselves do not want to adopt this identity because they are afraid of persecution, bullying, or simply of its vulnerable/negative connotations. People who cannot even define themselves as a certain group with a specific experience cannot process it and speak up for themselves. In turn, it leads to our less abilities to help them and even knowing about their existence. I do believe that we should look into the identity crisis that forced displacement brings. Following Arendt's writing on the refugees (1943), the broken identity, the desire to completely vanish from the old one and forget, and, thus, silencing are the issues that we continue to face today, not only within IDPs but also refugees seeking asylum abroad.

"Very few individuals have the strength to conserve their own integrity if their social, political and legal status is completely confused. Lacking the courage to fight for a change of our social and legal status, we have decided instead, so many of us, to try a change of identity. [...] Whatever we do, whatever we pretend to be, we reveal nothing but our insane desire to be changed, not to be Jews." (Arendt, 1943).

Broken identity, shameful denial of it, or desperately seeking a completely new one - all those issues need our attention as researchers and become even more entangled with IDPs, which we usually overlook. How do the people who are forced to leave their houses but remain in their country for different reasons name themselves and/or want to be named? How could we name those like me who did not live in their homes when the crisis arose but are unable to come back home and feel that they lost it? How is the concept of home crucial for our identity and what happens with our own identity when we lose home? I hope to research answers to those questions in my full paper.

The fourth-wave feminism is distinguished by its increased use of digital technologies (Cochrane, 2013): various hashtag movements (e.g. #MeToo), the quick growth of online communities, and an active engagement in social media between women with different backgrounds have benefited gender emancipation. Parallelly, theologians have noticed the so-called “Digital Reformation” (Drescher, 2012) and, thus, described different ways ordinary believers share spiritual practices online and how religious institutions adapt to the digital revolution. This talk will analyze both these processes by focusing on religious feminist online communities (e.g. Feminism and Religion blog, WATER community, the LDS women project, etc.) as a possible way to contest the religious-secular binary. Particularly, I will argue that both secular and religious feminist online communities are sharing much more similarities than differences: they both promote inclusivity and “makes allowance for different identities within a single person” (Heywood, 2006). They give a voice to different women and the possibility to group and discuss in a safe online environment. They also promote education and women's autonomy. Despite the fact that digital technologies create “social bubbles” and, as a result, could make harder a dialogue between religious and secular feminists who could be stuck in their circles, the quick learning from each other and adaptation of tools (e.g. #ChurchToo as a continuation of #MeToo movement) benefits both parties and enhances dialogue. Clearly, there is a need for further more engagement between secular and religious feminists, but I do believe that online communities could be a possible platform in which the opposition between religious and secular will be diminished and, thus, they need more attention from the scholars and feminist activists.

My presentation will discuss the life and works of the first Ukrainian feminist writer and activist, Nataliya Kobrynska (1855-1920). Particularly, I will focus on her original idea that literature and organization of the free press oriented on female audiences was the most important task for Ukrainian women's liberation at the end of the 19th century due to the specific condition in which Ukrainian women (mostly, peasants) turned out to be. Following her beliefs, Kobrynska organized the first association of Ukrainian women (called Tovarystvo Rus'kykh Zhinok) in 1884, the main goal of which was to “develop the female spirit through literature because literature was a comprehensive image of the good and bad sides of the social order, its needs, and shortcomings”. She was herself a literature writer who described the women’s position in society (e.g. "Shuminska" (also known as The Spirit of the Times), “For a Piece of Bread”). Together with her friend Olena Pchilka, she also published the first almanac for women Pershy vinok (The First Garland, 1887), which was a collection of literary and political works. Later, she organized a publishing house Zhinocha Sprava (Women’s Cause) and edited the other three issues of a female almanac named Nasha dolya (Our Fate 1893, 1895, 1896). She was convinced that almanacs oriented on women would raise women’s consciousness and, thus, help them fight their subjugated position in society. In her essays, Kobrynska also emphasized the educational rights of women, as well as the importance of developing patriotism. She believed that women should understand their origin - this helps them better fight against inequalities in their specific situation. She also argued with Clara Zetkin, claiming that socialism will not automatically lead to women's liberation. Even though she supported workers' rights, she believed that women must go their own separate ways.

The idea of soulmates traces back to antiquity: in Plato’s Symposium, Aristophanes tells the myth of androgynes who angered the gods, so Zeus cut each person in two and since that, they are condemned to seek the “other half” to complete themselves. This ancient story can be found in different variations through cultures and time. Unsurprisingly, this narrative is exploited by contemporary technologies (e.g. Tinder, OkCupid, eHarmony, etc.) that promise help in finding a “perfect match”. However, only in fiction this dream becomes fully true: recently, popular television shows started to explore the near future in which advanced technologies are able to find you a soulmate (e.g. Hang the DJ episode (2017) of Black Mirror, Soulmates (2020), The One (2021), etc).

In my presentation, I want to have a close look at Soulmates, an American science fiction television anthology series, the main theme of which is the imagined technology developed by the company Soul Connex that can determine your soulmate with 100% accuracy. Besides the discussions of the very possibility of creating such technology, I believe that the world presented in Soulmates is an interesting “thought experiment” that specifically shows what role choice and perfection play in the value of love and that there are areas where we do not want algorithms to make choices for us. Contemporary dating apps create a “paradox of choice” (Schwartz, 2004), making us doubt whether our partner is a perfect match and even leading to a rejection mindset (Pronk, Denissen, 2019), so we desire certainty. The Soul Connex test provides it: you know who your soulmate is, and there is no need to seek them anymore. Interestingly, the TV show clearly states this certainty does not guarantee happiness. On the contrary, it creates even more problems: the soulmate-ness of someone compared to other persons is unlikely to make you happier (episode 1). Moreover, your soulmate could die before you meet (episode 5) or turn out to be a morally bad person (episode 6). In episode 4 the main character even makes a conscious choice to build a relationship with his not-soulmate, thus fighting against the determinism of technologies. Soulmates is also arguing with Aristophanes’ myth itself. Episode 3 researches poly-romantic relationships, proving that the idea of the one does not fit all people. The whole television series is riddled with the narrative that the feeling of love makes someone perfect for us, but not the person herself. All television series on this topic teach us to give up the idea of soulmates, but dating apps are still attractive to people partially because of this idea and partially because they use this narrative in their ads (even though it is questionable and also not profitable to make it real). That is why I do believe that we should discuss more why the idea of soulmates is so desirable for us.

In her paper “Transcendental Relationships? A Theological Reflection on Cybersex and Cyber-relationships” (2009), theologian Stefanie Knauss argued that there are at least four aspects of cybersex that can enrich our understanding of transcendence: a) the imaginative nature of cybersex, b) the bigger role of the mind compared to the role of the body, c) the different understanding of time and space in cyberworld, and d) the playful component of cybersex. However, twelve years have passed since she did her research and during this period, technologies have developed enormously, as well as our everyday usage of them. I would like to start my presentation by discussing how those four aspects proposed by Knauss can be addressed and nuanced in the contemporary world. Moreover, I would like to pay attention to the fact that during the last decade, the Internet and technologies have become highly integrated into our everyday lives: there is no more online/offline time (at least in the Western world) - we are connected 24/7, as well as technologies penetrate all spheres of our lives (this can be considered as the way how technologies symbolize transcendence). The COVID pandemic has intensified this even more. Clearly, such pervasion of technologies has changed dramatically the ways we find romantic and sexual partners, as well as the way we fall in love and have sex. However, cyberrelationships have a dual nature: on the one hand, they approach transcendence by giving us more choices (it is much easier than even before to meet a person from a different continent or a person with very specific interests) and more possibilities (you can text, call, see, play through technologies), but on the other hand, technologies disconnect us from each other (create “social bubbles”, make the distinction us/them worse, etc.). I believe that the ways to decrease the negative effects of technology and especially how they influence our relationships could be found in accepting our need for transcendence. Specifically, I argue that our technological progress (especially in technologies that enhance our ways of communication) is driven by our desire to be connected and, thus, be in some way transcendent. I believe that in order to decrease the negative effects, we need to make this more clear.

In my talk, I will give an overview of the research done on cybersex in theology and religious studies.

As Martha Nussbaum claimed in her interview, "all feminist theory in the sense is about this question [meaning of life - author's note] because it is started with women who woke up and saw that their lives have been programmed for them by men" (URL: https://youtu.be/dK1IQr6pA7w). In other words, feminist philosophy has started with the question "What is a meaningful life?" and, particularly, "What is a meaningful life for me as a woman?". The answer to it has led to the liberation of women and the political actions taken for the promotion of gender equality that we experience nowadays. However, feminist philosophers have not paid much attention to the question. There is only one book in the field of philosophy of life (Sharp, Hasana; Taylor, Chloë (eds) (2016). Feminist philosophies of life. McGill-Queen's University Press) and only several papers (e.g. Webber, Jonathan (2018). Beauvoir and the Meaning of Life. In The Meaning of Life and the Great Philosophers (eds. Leach and Tartaglia) Routledge) directly addressing this question. I do believe that this situation must be changed, and the feminist approach could bring some interesting contributions that will enrich both feminist philosophy and the philosophy of life.

In my paper, I will try to analyze how the feminist view on the meaning of life can raise such interesting questions as "Does the meaning of life is gender-specific?". Firstly, I want to discuss how three different philosophical approaches could answer this question: supernaturalism, subjectivism, and objectivism (Metz, Thaddeus (2013). Meaning in Life, Oxford University Press). Secondly, I will analyze why it is so important who is the constructor of the meaning of life and why, if we want to achieve gender equality, the question of the meaning of life must be discussed not only by male philosophers but also by women and what have already some female philosophers have said on this topic (e.g. Beauvoir, Arendt, Nussbaum). Thirdly, I want to discuss how the concept of "the dignity of the body" proposed by Masahiro Morioka (Morioka, Masahiro (2001). Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics: A New Perspective on Brain Death, Feminism, and Disability. Japan: Keiso Shobo) shows the need of feminist approach to the meaning of life. With my paper, I want to bring more attention to the interrelation of the philosophy of life and feminist philosophy and raise some new questions that will need further exploration.

The quick development of digital technologies and easy access to any sort of information, together with the fight against gender, racial, and other inequalities, have dramatically changed our relation to religion. From the feminist perspective, many voices criticize religious worldviews as old-fashioned, patriarchal, and gender-biased (Stanton, 1885; De Beauvoir, 1953; Hartmann, 1981; Johnson, 1993, etc.). It seems that the relationships between feminism and religion could be best described as a conflict if we apply Barbour's model of science and religion relations (Barbour, 2000). Digital technologies and popular culture support and even deepen this conflict: religion is portrayed as hostile and patriarchal in popular books and movies (e.g. The Handmaid's Tale), a lot of feminists hold atheist views, the rise of social media and, as a result of it, feminist online activism have shown how religious worldview institutionalize patriarchy through the interpretations of scriptures, religious ceremonies, practices, and the church's organization. It seems that we have a religious crisis in the feminist movement. But are there any ways for the reconciliation between religion and feminism? In my talk, I try to argue that feminism and religion could have a productive dialogue and even integration. Thus, my interest in the investigations in the field of sexual theology, as well as the new interpretations of sacred texts, gave me the opportunity to show that religion does not always mean patriarchy. We can build a feminist theology in which a woman is equal to a man and create accordingly new interpretations of scriptures as well as religious practices. At the same time, we can show women have a right to choose to be religious or not and that religion is perfectly suitable with the feminist worldview and even helps to liberate women.

In my public lecture, I talk about how modern technologies have changed our definition of sexuality. I explain: - What is virtual sex? - What does it mean to have sex through technology? - And why does virtual sex feel so real? You will also learn a little more about the philosophy and ethics of sex.

In our public lecture, I speak about what philosophers and feminists say about sex work, while my colleague, Anastasiia, explains this topic from a sociological perspective

In my public lecture, I explain whether it is possible to define what is normal and perverted sex in the philosophy and ethics of sex.

In my public lecture, I talk about how modern technologies have changed our definition of sexuality. I explain: - What is virtual sex? - What does it mean to have sex through technology? - And why does virtual sex feel so real? You will also learn a little more about the philosophy and ethics of sex.