When: November-December 2023, exact dates see below
Where: Leiden University – room Gravensteen 1.11 (Pieterskerkhof 6, Leiden)
ECTS: 5
Coordinator: Dr. Ksenia Fedorova
Organisation: RMeS
For: First and second year RMa students in Media Studies, who are a member of a Dutch Graduate Research School (onderzoekschool). Students who are members of RMeS will have first access.

Registration will open 11 September 2023 via this link.

In this course students examine ethical and humanistic dimensions of life sciences through art and reflect on the application of digital methods within science. From the onset of medical research in history, the cultural worlds of art and science have interacted. More recently, artists have been directly inspired by the fields of genetics, bioinformatics and biophysics and by the media employed and generated by them. The science-art relationship has become an exciting and dynamic field where controversial ethical issues, societal consequences of technoscience, and the art of science itself are being addressed. How do artworks provoke new ways of thinking about science and the world? What moral and critical dilemmas are involved in the intersections between technoscience and society and how can art play a role in this? The usage of biofeedback tracking and other digital technologies invites yet another series of questions about the impacts of algorithmization on our relation to the body and knowledge about physical and organic processes in general. Finally, looking at the biological entities in terms of their agency will allow a discussion about the shift towards the posthumanist paradigm in today’s humanities and science studies.

The students will:

Learn to reflect on the social and cultural consequences of the life sciences by studying art works;
be able to signal and evaluate ethical issues and controversies in science addressed by art;
analyze the specificity of the usage of media in technological and science art by engaging media theoretical, STS and aesthetic perspectives.

Programme

Tuesday mornings from 10:15-13:00 hrs

14 November 2023
21 November 2023
28 November 2023
5 December 2023
12 December 2023

Paper deadline: January 5, 2024

When: 2 February 2024
Time: TBA
Where: University of Groningen
ECTS: 1
Organized by: Prof. dr Marcel Broersma and RMeS
For: 2nd-year RMA students who are a member of RMeS

Registration will open 11 September 2023 via this link | Register before 10 December 2023

This year we will organise a special RMa Day during our RMeS Winter School & Graduate Symposium.

The sessions during the RMA Day of the RMeS Winter School will be primarily intended for 2nd-year RMA students, so that they can present their thesis proposals and receive constructive feedback from peers. It’s also possible to present another research topic you’re currently working on. The RMa students that wish to take part will have to contribute the following:

1. A brief thesis proposal or abstract of your research topic (1-2 A4) that will be collected prior to the event and circulated among fellow RMa Students and Winter School teachers.
2. An 8-10-minute presentation on the day itself, which should include an introduction to the subject matter, the method/approach, expected outcomes, and the significance of the research for the field.
3. A written response to a peer (participants will serve as respondents to each other’s presentations), of 3-5-minutes, that presents questions, notes, and constructive feedback.

The overall exercise is intended to provide RMa students with the opportunity to present work and respond to an Q&A like they would in a symposium or conference, and also to receive feedback on their research proposals.

Keynote speakers

• TBA

Sign up for the Winter School

If you are interested in participating and earning credit (1 EC) please

• Register for the Winter School before December 10, 2023 via our website. You will receive a confirmation email from the RMeS office.
• Please submit a brief thesis proposal (1-2 A4) for individual presentations before January 14, 2024. This proposal should include a short introduction to the subject matter, method/approach, expected outcomes, and the significance of the research for the field into this proposal (which you will expand on in the presentation). On the basis of your submissions, we assign reviewers and organize responses. We will distribute the proposals to all participants and assign the tasks of writing a response, including a set of questions (1-2 pages long). Each of you will have to write one peer review.
• Presentations: During the Winter School, each participant will give a presentation about their thesis proposal of 8-10 minutes. The peer assigned to be respondent will then provide a prepared peer review (as an oral summary during the session, and then in writing on the same day). All session members engage in general discussion and feedback.