Public lecture by Prof. Zygmunt Bauman

Between separation and integration: Strategies of cohabitation in the era of diasporization and Internet

On 16 December, Prof. Zygmunt Bauman (Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Leeds) will give a public lecture. The lecture is a part of the Academy Colloquium Connected migrants: encapsulation or cosmopolitanism?, organised by Dr Koen Leurs and Prof. Sandra Ponzanesi.

Zygmunt Bauman is one of the world's most eminent social theorists writing on a number of common themes, including globalisation, modernity and postmodernity, consumerism, and morality. Well known for his groundbreaking work Liquid Modernity (2000), he is the author of 57 books and over a hundred articles.

Publications in recent years include monographs and co-authored books such as Strangers at our door, Babel, Practices of Selfhood, State of Crisis, Moral Blindness: The Loss of Sensitivity, and Liquid Modernity, Liquid Surveillance: A Conversation (all published with Polity).

Practical information
Date: 16 December
Location: Trippenhuis Building, Kloveniersburgwal 29, 1011 JV Amsterdam
For more information please visit the website of the KNAW.
The lecture is fully booked.

PCI Film Series presents The Nine Muses

KNAW Colloquium & masterclass ‘Connected migrants: encapsulation or cosmopolitanism?’ (Amsterdam, NL)
 

This colloquium brings experts in the field together to acknowledge how boundary making and cosmopolitanisation operate simultaneously. It explores the social, cultural and political implications of migrant digital practices as grounded in everyday practice. The postcolonial and gender scholars will organise a two-day seminar and a one-day masterclass for advanced PhD students and emerging scholars. In our contemporary world, migrants should be considered as 'connected migrants'. More than ever before, migrants can chose between different technologies to be in contact with loved ones living in their country of origin. This colloquium will innovatively address how digital practices of migrants revolves around the dialectic of 'encapsulation' and 'cosmopolitanism'. World renown emeritus professor Zygmunt Bauman will assess contemporary formations of the internet, diaspora, migration and multiculturalism. Prior to the Academy Colloquium a one-day master class (December 14, 2016) will be organised, intended for PhD students, post-docs and early-career researchers.

Practical information
Date: 15- 16 December
Location: KNAW, Trippenhuis, Kloveniersburgwal 29, 1011 JV Amsterdam.
Admission: Participants are requested to pay a registration fee of EUR 150.
For more information or to register, please visit the website.

Launch of the Special Issue of Cultural Studies (Vol. 30, Issue 5), “Relocating Subalternity” (eds. S. de Jong and J.M.H. Mascat)

After almost 30 years from Spivak's seminal essay 'Can the subaltern speak?' (1988), her gendered notion of subalternity still remains one of the crucial references in the postcolonial feminist debate. Drawing on Spivak's definition of the subaltern as a "position without identity", the special issue “Relocating Subaltrnity” aims to explore the possibility of repositioning subalternity in new theoretical, cultural and political frameworks.  

The issue includes an interview/dialogue between Étienne Balibar and Gayatri Spivak.

With: 
Dr. Debjani Bhattacharyya (Drexel University, Philapdelphia, USA)
Dr. Sara de Jong (Open University, Milton Keynes, UK)
Pr. Dr. AshaVaradharajan (Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada)
Dr. Jamila M.H. Mascat (Utrecht University)

Chair:
Pr. Dr. Sandra Ponzanesi (Utrecht University).

Practical Information
Date: 8 December
Time: 17.15-18.45
Location: Drift 23, room 1.03.
Read the issue here.

Public lecture and master class by Jason King

On December 2nd, musician, writer and Associate Professor Jason King will be visiting Utrecht University, as part of the Master's programme Arts & Society, organised by MCW Expertise Centre for public partnerships. 

The program consists of two elements:

1) Arts and Society Speaker Series (13:00-15:00)

TRANSFORMING 21st CENTURY POP

In this discussion and lecture, Jason King shares some of his thoughts about the state and future of global pop music into the second decade of the 21st century, and he shares some of his current work, including his international orchestral disco collective Company Freak (recorded in NY, Toronto, Addis Ababa, Lagos, and Istanbul), and his forthcoming revisionist biography of rock icon Freddie Mercury, which takes a closer look at the superstar’s roots/routes in Zanzibar and Bombay.

2) Master Class (15:00-17:00) 
SHOCK VALUE: FLOW, FENG SHUI AND SPACE IN THE TIMBALAND SOUND
Jason King will present part of a chapter of his forthcoming book project for Duke University Press on the mechanics of energy – elusive properties like “vibe” and “soul” and “funk” – in contemporary popular music.  In this presentation, King looks at the presence of what hip-hop fans call “flow” as it pertains to the innovative work of Grammy-winning producer/hit machine Timbaland, especially the work he has done in collaboration with rap superstar Jay Z and late R&B singer Aaliyah. One of the central arguments in the chapter is that the hip-hop producer’s architectural siting and placement design of the beat – the way that the rhythm is designed to make you dance, to move, and to shake your body to inspire good feeling on the dancefloor or on the street – is analogous to the process of siting and placement in Feng Shui, the geoscience that involves manipulation of the energy of a room or a space to inspire good feeling and prosperity.

Practical information
Date: 2 December
Location: Theatre Room, Parnassos, Kruisstraat 201 Utrecht.
More information here. 

Public lecture by Ted Gournelos

“Transmedia Storytelling and Social Change" 

On Tuesday 6 December, Ted Gournelos will give a talk on transmedia storytelling and social.

Ted Gournelos is an Associate Professor of Communication at Rollins College in the United States, and founder/CEO of the consulting firm Story | Strategy. His work as a cultural studies scholar focuses on media and progressive social change, ranging from investigations of South Park to the transgressions and battles fought every day in contemporary digital media.

Ted Gournelos will present on how fighting for social change goes beyond protest songs, marches, and investigative journalism. Governments, non-governmental organizations and businesses tell stories every day that advocate for some kind of change. This lecture will discuss a few of the ways in which organizations approach advocacy, which techniques might work and when, and what we should think about in terms of an ethic of storytelling. Beyond that, it will discuss best practices for story structure in the digital age, and suggest that advocacy might happen in the United Nations, but it can just as easily happen in a church, a startup, or a massive corporation. It's about telling the right story to the right people, for the right reasons.

 
Practical information
Date: 6 December, 17:00-18:30 
Location: Utrecht University, Janskerkhof 15A, room 004

Symposium 'Black History & Gender' (Amsterdam, NL)

On Friday the 9th of December, Amsterdam University is organising a special issue ‘Black Gender’ of Historica, journal for gender history will be presented during the symposium ‘Black History & Gender’.
 

Summer School on Black Europe

Interrogating Citizenship, Race and Ethnic Relations

From 26 June til 7 July 2017, the Center of Study and Investigation for Decolonial Dialogues is organizing an intensive two week course offered in Amsterdam. The overall goal of this course is to examine the contemporary circumstances of the African Diaspora (and 'other' immigrants of color) in Europe. Amongst the speakers are Prof. Gloria Wekker (Utrecht University) and Dr Philomena Essed (Essex University).

Themes
Participants will focus on and discuss the origins of Black Europe and investigate the impact of these legacies on policies, social organizations and legislation today. This course will begin with a historical overview of the African Diaspora in Europe that traces the involvement of European nations in the colonization of the Americas. We will address the migration and settlement of Blacks in Europe, and examine immigration and citizenship laws that regulated their settlement.

We will also look at anti-discrimination laws as they have arisen in various European countries. We compare the history of regulation and management of race and ethnic relations and the discourse surrounding the concept of Blackness and self-identification. Historically, social forces and social movements within Europe have given rise to policies to combat racism. We will trace the chain of events following social and civil conflicts that prompted these policies and analyze the legislative and intellectual discourse produced in the aftermath.

In addition, we will explore notions of Blackness as official categorization; as a social construction employed by the dominant groups to indicate (non) belonging; as a Diaspora living within Europe; and as a contestation of the dominant (White) paradigm. In this way, we examine the social mobilization of Blacks to resist domination.

Practical information
Date: 26 June til 7 July 2017
Location: International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE), Amsterdam
For more information or to register, please visit the website.

PCI Film Series presents: Letter to a Refusing Pilot (2013)

Directed by Akram Zaatari
Introduced by Dr Layal Ftouni (Gender Studies, UU) 

During this edition of the PCI Film Series, Dr Layal Ftouni will introduce Letter to a Refusing Pilot by director Akram Zaatari. 

Taking a cue from Albert Camus' epistolary essay "Letters to a German Friend," in Letter to a Refusing Pilot, Zaatari conducts both an investigation and a stirring tribute to an act of resistance (or forbearance) that marked his childhood memories: the refusal of an Israeli pilot to bomb a boys' high school on June 6, 1982 in south Lebanon. Oscillating between documentary, essay and fiction, this elegant and multi-layered film and installation combine personal and archival documents as it seeks to recuperate historical truth from the annals of personal reminiscence, laced with both enchantment and fear. Framed like a coming-of-age filled with wonderment and insuperable curiosity, Letter to a Refusing Pilot humanizes a personal gesture in face of a greater conflict. 

Practical information 
Date: 17 January 

Time: 19:15 to 22:00
Location: Drift 21, room 032

PCI Film Series presents: Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea, 2016)

Directed by Francesco Rosi
Introduced by Prof. dr. Sandra Ponzanesi (Gender Studies, UU) 

During this edition of the PCI Film Series, Prof. dr. Sandra Ponzanesi will present Francesco Rosi's Fuocoammare (Fire At sea).  Italy/France, 114 min.

In this internationally prize-winning documentary, which focuses on the refugee crisis, Gianfranco Rosi contrasts the lives of the desperate migrants landing on the shores of Lampedusa with the everyday existence of the locals. Using mainly fixed camera positions and no narrative voiceover, Gianfranco Rosi enigmatically juxtaposes scenes, switching between the migrants’ daily, desperate arrivals, and the everyday existence of one Lampedusa family: and one young boy in particular, Samuele, whose solitary meandering through the beautiful rugged island, making naught slingshots, creates a strong contrast between his carefree childhood and the harsh realities of the refugees.
 
Samuele has a lazy eye that doctors are treating with the old-fashioned method of blanking out one lens for the good eye. This becomes a metaphor for the lazy eyes of Europe, or for the EU desire to look away. Though his camera work Rosi forces us to look at and focus on the tragedy that continues to unfold in the Mediterranean. Samuele is also suffering from hyperventilation and anxiety, and is treated by the same island doctor, dr. Bartolo, who has to attend to the migrants for many years and continue to carry out autopsies on their wretched corpses. He is the one of the few explicit points of contact between the migrants’ story and Samuele, one hint of a symptom, or a larger malaise.
 
Practical information 
Date: 28 February 

Time: 19:15 to 22:00
Location: Drift 21, room 032

PCI Film Series presents: The Pearl Button

Directed by Patricio Guzmán 
Introduced by dr. Doro Wiese (Comparative Literature, UU)

During this edition of the PCI Film Series, dr. Doro Wiese will introduce Patricio Guzmán’s, The Pearl Button (2015).
 
An exquisite essayist and intuitive interviewer, (the Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán) embarks on a wondering examination of indigenous coastal tribes, subject to extermination long before Pinochet’s crackdowns on civilians. From there, he discusses (and visualizes) one of that dictatorship’s signature atrocities: flying helicopters over the Pacific to dump the bodies of torture victims into that vast anonymous grave. (...) A master of voice-over and metaphor (the title alone has an amazing payoff), he sifts through essential truths and draws links between Chile’s past and present inhabitants. (Oct-22, 2015). (Nicolas Rapold, New York Times).
 
Practical information 
Date: 14 March
Time: 19:15 to 22:00
Location: Drift 21, room 032


The other dates and movies will be announced soon. 
Admission to the screenings of the Postcolonial film series is free of charge.
For more information and updates please visit www.postcolonialstudies.nl and like our Facebook page, or send an e-mail to Prof. Sandra Ponzanesi.

Postdoctoral Researcher in Information Studies 
Within an ERC project “Understanding information for legal protection of people against information-induced harms” (INFO-LEG)
The Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society, Tilburg University
Deadline: 6 December 

INFO-LEG aims to improve legal protection against harms of data processing, inter alia, based on the information studies insights on the nature of information, information processing technologies and practices. INFO-LEG will develop more appropriate information-related concept(s) to serve as a cornerstone of legal protection against information-induced harms.

Afroeuropeans: Black Cultures and Identities in Europe
Sixth biennial network conference

African European Studies and Black European Studies explore social spaces and cultural practices that are characterised by a series of contemporary and historical overlaps between Africa, the African diasporas, and Europe. This sixth biennial network conference aims to contribute to the existing scholarship in Europe with a view to establish it more firmly in its several disciplinary locations. 

The general theme of the Afroeuropeans 2017 conference is African diaspora and European cultural heritage. We encourage submissions exploring the topics below as well as proposals on other topics related to African/Black European communities and cultures, which can be found here. 

Other Globes: Past and Peripheral Imaginations of the Global

Conference Affects – Media – Power

Gendered Tropes in War Photography: Mothers, Mourners, Soldiers

Photographic stills of women, appearing in both press coverage and relief campaigns, have long been central to the documentation of war and civil conflict. Images of non-Western women, in particular, regularly function as symbols of the misery and hopelessness of the oppressed. Featured on the front pages of newspapers and in NGO reports, they inform public understandings of war and peace, victims and perpetrators, but within a discourse that often obscures social and political subjectivities.

Uniquely, this book deconstructs – in a systematic, gender-sensitive way – the repetitive circulation of certain images of war, conflict and state violence, in order to scrutinize the role of photographic tropes in the globalized visual sphere. Zarzycka builds on feminist theories of representations of war to explore how the concepts of femininity and war secure each other’s intelligibility in photographic practices. This book examines the complex connections between photographic tropes and the individuals and communities they represent, in order to rethink the medium of photography as a discursive and political practice. 
 

This book interrogates both the structure and transmission of contemporary encounters with war, violence, and conflict. It will appeal to advanced students and scholars of gender studies, visual studies, media studies, photography theory, cultural anthropology, cultural studies, and trauma and memory studies.
 

Get your copy here.
 

Special issue of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, titled "Kurdish media and culture in the shifting Middle East".
 

Kurds have come to occupy an increasingly important position in the contemporary Middle East, notably in the struggle against Islamic State (IS). This has brought about an increased presence of Kurds in global media. At the same time, the Kurdish media landscape in the Middle East and in the diaspora has developed rapidly. The timing is thus appropriate to reconsider Kurdish media and cultural production in the light of the recent political, cultural, social and technological shifts.

In this editorial introduction to the special issue on Kurdish media and cultural production we reflect on this growing field of research, focusing on three questions: How do media and cultural production contribute to contemporary (discourses on) Kurdish movements, and vice versa? How can we explain the emergence of a Kurdish mediascape in the Middle East and Europe theoretically and methodologically? And, what is the relevance and potential effect of this emerging Kurdish mediascape for the existing politics of media at the national and international level? We give a brief overview of the current state of research on Kurdish media and cultural production and discuss the articles in this special issue and how they contribute to a stronger understanding of the relations between media, culture and society in the Middle East.

Read the whole issue here.

Studi postcoloniali di cinema e media (Postcolonial Film and Media Studies)