UvA Communication & Media Studies again best in world in QS ranking

Various subject areas at the University of Amsterdam are highly ranked in the 2019 QS World University Rankings by Subject, which were published on Wednesday, 27 February. The UvA ranks among the top 100 worldwide in 29 out of the 48 subject areas measured by QS. In the area of Communication Science & Media Studies, the UvA is ranked best in the world for the second year in a row. Another top ranked subject area is dentistry (joint UvA-VU), which jumps to 2nd in the world (up from 4 last year). Several other subject areas at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) also have a high ranking. There are top 20 positions for Sociology, Linguistics, Psychology, Anthropology, Geography, and Library & Information Management. Sociology is in 12th place, Linguistics in 15th, Psychology in 16th and Anthropology in 17th place. Geography and Library & Information Management are both at 19. A number... >

Dr. Catherine Lord in nominated short research film ‘Now Circa’

By professor Redell Olsen

Now Circa (1918) is shortlisted for the Research in Film Award of the AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council). ‘Now Circa’ is a film essay that quotes original archival research undertaken at John Rylands Suffrage Collection, Manchester and The Women’s Library, LSE. It embodies historical detail and texture relating to the material culture of the suffragettes: such as the handwritten inventory of costs for a march. The film marks the one hundred year anniversary of female suffrage in the UK. The judges remarked that this was ‘an interesting, excellent and imaginative use of the medium of film to explore issues of feminism and explain the history of women’s suffrage.’ Read more here. >

SISTERS! – Proposal Extension & Keynote Announcement

Women and the Silent Screen – Eye International Conference

We are proud to announce the names of the keynote speakers: Prof. Jaqueline Stewart: a professor at the Department of Cinema and Media Studies of the University of Chicago, her research and teaching explore African American film cultures from the origins of the medium to the present. Stewart’s research topics also include the archiving and preservation of moving images, and “orphan” media histories, including nontheatrical, amateur, and activist film and video. Dr. Annette Förster: a media historian and film curator who specializes in women in film history. Förster was among the initiators of the first Women and the Silent Screen Conference which took place in Utrecht in 1999. Her acclaimed book Women in the Silent Cinema. Histories of Fame and Fate (Amsterdam University Press) was published in 2017. Extension of deadline: The deadline for the call for proposals has been extended to 7th December 10:00 am (CET). The committee looks forward to receiving your proposals at conference@eyefilm.nl. More information on the CfP here: https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/call-for-papers-eye-international-conference-2019 >

Sal Hagen, UvA-alumnus of Media Studies, wins internet thesis prize 2018

Hagen won with his thesis: 'Here I Am, Praying to an Egyptian Frog. Exploring Political Fluidity on 4chan/pol/'

On the 1st of November 2018, Hagen won the internet thesis prize 2018. Hagen wrote this thesis as part of the research master of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Read more here (in Dutch).     >

The Making of the Humanities VII

15-17 November 2018

The major conference on the history of the humanities will take place in Amsterdam, 15-17 November 2018, “The Making of the Humanities VII”, with three keynote speakers and 140+ contributions including sessions on: History of Television Studies Circulation of Humanistic Knowledge Humanities’ Grand Visions Digital History of Humanities and much more. See http://www.historyofhumanities.org/.   >

Call for papers: Sisters – conference 25-28 May 2019 –

submission before 30 November 2018

Once a year, Eye Filmmuseum is the venue for an international conference attended by film scholars, archivists, curators and restorers. The conferences are organized in collaboration with national and international partners from both the academic world and the field of film heritage. In 2019, the 5th Eye International Conference will host the 10th Women and the Silent Screen Conference. Women and the Silent Screen (WSS), a biennial international conference, has been a hub for the exchange of research focused on all forms of women’s involvement during the earliest decades of film history. Having first convened in Utrecht in 1999, the conference returns to the Netherlands in celebration of its twentieth year of activity. The theme of WSS 10 is SISTERS, to be explored both literally and figuratively, and is open to consideration using different methods and from a range of historical and theoretical angles. In her essay “A Room of... >

Call for papers: SEMIA Symposium 25-26 February 2019 –

submission before 23 November 2018

Date: 25-26 February, 2019 Location: Doelenzaal, University Library, University of Amsterdam, Singel 425, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Registration: Entrance is free but seats are limited, so please register by emailing c.g.olesen@uva.nl . The international two-day symposium Sensory Moving Image Archives: Visualization, Exploration and Reuse of Moving Image Data comes out of the research project The Sensory Moving Image Archive: Boosting Creative Reuse for Artistic Practice and Research ( SEMIA, 2017-2019 ) . Working with diverse archival material from Eye Filmmuseum and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, SEMIA develops alternative ways of exploring moving image archives by analyzing data concerning visual features – such as colour, movement and shape. To achieve this, SEMIA has trained deep-learning networks for extracting sensory data from moving images and developed an interface for exploring the results. The project’s outcomes will support alternative ways of accessing collections and facilitate new forms of reuse based on... >

Alumni master Film Studies win NFF Talent Award

Malou Wagenmaker and Bo van der Meer, both alumni of the Master Film Studies, received the NFF Talent Award for Cheek to Cheek, a documentary about both fragility and strenght of getting older. Read more >

Stefania Milan awarded ERC Proof of Concept Grant

for her research on deciphering social media algorithms

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Proof of Concept Grant to Stefania Milan, associate professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the UvA. Milan will receive €150,000 for her research on deciphering social media algorithms. Personalisation algorithms, which filter content on the basis of someone’s profile, increasingly mediate the web experience of users. By forging a specific reality for each individual, they determine which news, opinions and rumours users are exposed to. But these algorithms are kept a closely guarded secret by social media platform companies such as Facebook. The few experiments auditing these algorithms rely on data provided by platform companies themselves, are highly technical and fail to put social media users in the driver seat. Read more >

Collecting and Conserving Net Art. Moving Beyond Conventional Methods

by Annet Dekker

In Collecting and Conserving Net Art. Moving Beyond Conventional Methods published by Routledge, Annet Dekker analyses and proposes new views on the conservation of net art, and (re)consider traditional concepts such as authenticity, performativity and networks, while questioning what is a document? As the publisher mentions: Collecting and Conserving Net Art explores the qualities and characteristics of net art and its influence on conservation practices. By addressing and answering some of the challenges facing net art and providing an exploration of its intersection with conservation, the book casts a new light on net art, conservation, curating and museum studies.Viewing net art as a process rather than as a fixed object, the book considers how this is influenced by and executed through other systems and users. Arguing that these processes and networks are imbued with ambiguity, the book suggests that this is strategically used to create suspense, obfuscate existing systems and... >