War and the Screen Machine: Film Lecture by Patricia Pisters

Donderdag 9 mei 2019, 19:15 uur

War and the Screen Machine: Film Lecture by Patricia Pisters Patricia Pisters will take us on an audio-visual ‘tour of duty’ across contemporary war cinema, demonstrating how ‘war’ and ‘cinema’ have a long and entangled history.  Military equipment nowadays includes cameras and other media devices, the battlefield has exploded on multiple screens, refracting many points of view, forming traumatic kernels in our screen culture. In his book War and Cinema, Paul Virilio has shown how military technologies of enhancing perception and logistics of warfare have developed in pair with cinema and entertainment media. Ranging from colour film during the Second World War to video games and drone operations in more recent times, there is a tight link between war and media technologies. In her lecture, Patricia Pisters will sketch an overview of the most recent developments in the tight bonds between war and media. She will discuss different media strategies to ‘cover’ the war,... >

Patricia Pisters & Amir Vudka about mental health in the digital age

Donderdag 18 april 2019, 17:00-18:30

Media as “Pharmakon”. Mental health in the digital age In cooperation with the Amsterdam Research Institute of the Arts and Sciences Are digital media like narcotic drugs? Such comparisons have become increasingly common in the rampant discussion on smartphone and technology addiction. In his book ‘Plato’s Pharmacy’ (1968) philosopher Jacques Derrida discusses the ambiguity of the “pharmakon”, designating both poison and medicine, depending on context and individual differences. Can our contemporary media be seen as pharmaka for our mental health? For the 5th session of the “SAY AAHH!” series Amir Vudka, Patricia Pisters and Marlies Brouwer will discuss their ongoing work on this topic. In the field of psychiatry, articles appear about smartphone technology in obsessive compulsive behavior (OCD) and depression; burn-out and other mental health problems in youth are increasingly related to digital media culture. At the same time media in themselves are never just the only cause. Furthermore... >

Stefania Milan presents book launch ‘Communities at Crossroads’ by Annalisa Pelizza

Monday 15 April 2019, 17:00-18:30

Communities at Crossroads in Cyberculture In cooperation with the Institute of Network Cultures How should we understand and discuss online culture and communities in the 21st century? To answer this question, Annalisa Pelizza looks back at the mid-2000s in her new book ‘Communities at Crossroads’. In this event Pelizza will discuss her findings together with Stefania Milan and the audience. The mid-2000s were a turning point for digital communitarian cultures, with the burst of the creative-entrepreneur alliance, the territorialization of the internet and the commercialization of interpersonal ties. Up until then, ideas for online sociability had been underpinned by the utopian perspectives of a techno-libertarian culture. However, these ideas began to face systematic counter evidence in the mid-2000s, causing a change of paradigm that has consequences to this very day. Annalisa Pelizza investigates the theories of actions supporting the techno-social digital assemblages that developed after the ‘golden age’ of online communities.... >

Communication & Media Studies UvA opnieuw wereldwijd nummer 1 in QS Ranking

In de QS World University Rankings by subject 2019, die is gepubliceerd op woensdag 27 februari, staan verschillende vakgebieden aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) hoog genoteerd: in 29 van de 48 disciplines die QS onderscheidt, staat de UvA in de wereldwijde top 100. Op het terrein van Communication & Media Studies is de UvA de beste van de wereld. Net als vorig jaar bekleedt het vakgebied aan de UvA de nummer 1-positie. Een zeer hoge positie is er ook voor ACTA, de gezamenlijke tandheelkundefaculteit van UvA en VU: Dentistry aan ACTA klimt dit jaar naar plaats 2 van de wereld (vorig jaar stond ACTA op 4). Naast de hoge noteringen voor Communication & Media Studies en Dentistry zijn er in de ranking top 20-posities voor Sociology, Linguistics, Psychology, Anthropology, Geography en Library & Information Management. Sociology staat op een 12de plaats, Linguistics staat op 15, Psychology op 16 en... >

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 Media Studies, wint internetscriptieprijs 2018

Met zijn scriptie 'Here I Am, Praying to an Egyptian Frog. Exploring Political Fluidity on 4chan/pol/'

Op 1 november won Hagen met zijn scriptie de internetscriptieprijs 2018. Hij schreef deze scriptie als onderdeel van zijn onderzoeksmaster Media Studies aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. De internetscriptieprijs is een wetenschappelijke prijs voor de beste afstudeerscripties over een internet-gerelateerd onderwerp en wordt uitgereikt in vier verschillende disciplines. Sal won de prijs in de categorie internet & maatschappij- of geesteswetenschappen. Uit de 25 ingezonden scripties selecteerde de jury vijf scripties voor de shortlist. Deze scripties werden beoordeeld op onder andere de algehele wetenschappelijke kwaliteit en de innovativiteit van het onderwerp en de onderzoeksmethode. De jury bekroonde de scriptie van Sal met de eerste prijs. Daarnaast won Sal de publieksprijs voor zijn presentatie tijdens de uitreiking. Lees hier meer.   >

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... >