RMeS Winterschool & Graduate Symposium 2014-15 – VU University

Date: January 28 & 29, 2015
Time: 10.00 – 18.00 hrs (28th, followed by dinner at a restaurant)
Venue: VU University Amsterdam
ECTS: 2 (two full days plus preparation 3 days)
Organized by: Professor José van Dijck (UvA) and professors Ginette Verstraete and Irene Costera Meijer (VU) on behalf of the RMeS Advisory Board
Open to: PhD candidates who are a member of a Dutch Graduate Research School (onderzoekschool)
Fee (non-members): € 150
Registration: max number of participants: 25 This Winterschool will feature different types of sessions: 1) parallel sessions for presenting your work to peers 2) lectures by members of the RMeS Board and 3) a workshop on career perspectives for PhDs in Media Studies inside and outside academia.

1.  PhD’s are kindly asked to submit an abstract of their paper presentation. This may regard a chapter of your dissertation, a draft for an article, or a write-up of research results, which you would like to discuss with your peers. We will group your abstracts into panels, selecting panels on the basis of your theme/subject, approach and your level of advancement in the PhD track. If you want to be in a session with one or two of your peers (people whose judgment you value, or people you haven’t worked with yet) please feel free to indicate this on your abstract. We will then try to organize panels on the basis of your proposals. You will be assigned to peer-review one paper and to chair or respond to one paper in another session. A month before the Winterschool starts, you will be asked to send in your full chapter or article, which will be peer-reviewed and responded to during the Winterschool.
2.  Lectures/workshops by prof. dr. Irene Costera Meijer (VU) and prof. dr. Ginette Verstraete (VU)
3.  Finally, this Winterschool graduate seminar will also offer a workshop session on “career perspectives for Media Studies PhDs ” by prof. dr. José van Dijck on the national and international job market (how to prepare, how to qualify) and a guest lecturer working outside of the academic world (to be announced).

Sign up for Winterschool

If you are interested in participating and earning credit (both in EC and social credit from your peers), please

• Register for the Winterschool before November 1, 2014 via our website. You will receive a confirmation email from our RMeS office.
• Please submit abstracts for individual presentations before November 15, 2014. Abstracts for individual presentations are max 300 words, including a clear research question or thesis statement. Please indicate on your abstract whether you would like to be in a panel with specified other participants and/or whom you consider a suitable reviewer for your paper (although we cannot promise that all your wishes will come true…).
• You can opt for three formats in terms of paper submission:

1. Those of you who are in the very early stages of your PhD, may also consider to hand in your PhD proposal, which will then be commented upon by your peers. (recommended to PhDs who have just started)
2. Most PhD candidates will opt to hand in a chapter/article format: a full paper of approx..5,000 – 6,000 words.
3. If you are in the advanced stage (or last stage) of your PhD, you may want to consider to hand in 2 chapters (preferably a methodological and/or theoretical chapter plus one case study), in combination with a solid summary of the dissertation. We will then organize a “mock defense” where we assign a small committee of PhDs and staff to ask you questions.

• Full papers of (or one of the above formats) are due by December 15, 2014. On the basis of your submissions, we will group the panels, assign reviewers and organize responses. We will distribute the papers to all panel-members and assign the tasks of writing a full peer review (1-2 pages long). Each of you will have to write one peer review.
• Presentations: During the Winterschool, each participant will give a presentation of 5-10 minutes. Each presentation will receive a prepared peer review (in writing, handed in the same day, and a short oral summary of the review). Another panel member will be assigned as discussant/respondent. All session members engage in discussion and feedback.

Programme

Wednesday January 28, 2015

11:30 – 12:00 PM      Reception with coffee, tea and snacks
12:00 – 12:30 PM      Introduction by prof. dr. José van Dijck, RMeS director
12:30 – 14:00 PM      Parallel sessions, first round
TEA BREAK
14:30 – 16:00 PM      Parallel sessions, second round
16:00 – 16:15 PM      Short break
16:15 – 17:00 PM        Lecture by prof. dr. Ginette Verstraete.
Here we are now. Amsterdam’s North-South Metro Line and the Emergence of a networked Public
17:00 – 17:30 PM      Plenary session: Exchange of results from first parallel sessions; discussion.
18:30                         Dinner at local restaurant

Thursday January 29th, 2015
09:30 – 10:30 AM     Lecture by prof. dr. Irene Costera Meijer (VU)
Researching digitilization from a user’s perspective: some strategic principles
10:30 – 12:30 PM      Parallel session, third round
LUNCH BREAK
13:30 – 15:00 PM      Workshop on Career perspectives, prof. José van Dijck, Ward Rennen (PlaceMaker) en Taco Rijssemus (KRO-NCRV)
15:00 –15:15 PM       Tea break
15:30 – 16:30 PM      Workshop on Career perspectives
16:30 – 17:00 PM      Wrap up and look forward to RMeS Summerschool in Amsterdam

Practical matters

We invite you for drinks and dinner on Wednesday night at a restaurant in Amsterdam; all participants and lecturers at this Winterschool are invited to join. As for accommodation, we advise you to book your stay as soon as possible as hotels, especially the budget variety, tend to fill up quickly in Amsterdam. If you like, you can email us for some recommendations. For those of you who are not reimbursed for travel and accommodation from your own faculty, we have a small budget available to cover these costs. Please send an e-mail to Chantal Olijerhoek at: rmes-fgw@uva.nl. On both days, lunches, coffee and tea will be served at the university location.