RMeS RMa Course: Trending Topics – Engaging Objects
When: February-March 2024, exact dates, see below
Where: Utrecht University, exact rooms, see below
ECTS: 6
Coordinator: Dr Rik Smit (RuG)
Guest lectures by: Sandra Banjac (RuG), Tim Groot Kormelink (VU), Çigdem Bozdag (RuG), Koen Leurs (UU), Joost Raessens (UU), Stefan Werning (UU), Judith Keilbach (UU) Marek Jancovic (VU)
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. RMeS staff and PhD researchers are welcome to sit in on specific sessions; please send an e-mail to RMeS if you intend to attend one or more seminar sessions: rmes@rug.nl.
Registration will open 25 October 2023 via this link.
General description:
Each spring, the Research School for Media Studies offers a Trending Topics course where faculty members from nine participating universities (UvA, UU, VU, EUR, UL, UM, RUG, RUN, TU) present the latest research in their fields of interest through a series of lectures and workshops. The course invites RMA students to participate in an international, cutting edge research environment, while earning credits towards their degree. It presents a unique opportunity to get to know other students and leading academics from all over The Netherlands, in an open setting of engaging and ambitious exchange that would prove particularly fruitful for students who are aspiring to pursue a future career in academic research or teaching. All nine universities accept the credits earned in this module.
The field of media studies today is decreasingly tied to specific media types (film, television, or digital media) or practices (e.g. journalism), and instead often turns towards the areas of interaction between them, and their shared concepts and ideas. Larger trends such as globalisation, digitisation and convergence have prompted researchers to study the complex interrelation of technological changes and media content, as well as the new relations between users and producers, while different modes of media consumption have brought about new areas for aesthetics and politics that continue to require intense critical enquiry. These crossovers are both theoretically and methodologically challenging. Moreover, it requires us to rethink our engagement with specific media objects, and our critical analysis skills. Close reading remains incredibly important, but it can no longer stay isolated. In order to improve and enrich our understanding of the media objects we engage in our research, it is important to understand where different perspectives add to, overlap, or digress from one another.
In the ‘Trending Topics – Engaging Objects’ course, the lecture sessions will each take a specific media objects as a primary case study (from the field of film, television, digital media, and journalism studies), and bring two guest lecturers and their respective areas of expertise into dialogue about their objects. Each afternoon will be dedicated to the analysis, research and discussion of specific media objects. A fifth session revolves around student presentations in preparation of their final written assignment. All sessions, assignments, readings and preparatory work will be supervised and marked by the coordinator of the course. The grading will be based on both the presentation (30%) and the final written assignment (70%).
Venues:
Utrecht University
9 February: Janskerkhof 15A – room 001
16 February: Janskerkhof 2-3 – room 116
1 March: Janskerkhof 2-3 – room 116
8 March: Janskerkhof 2-3 – room 116
22 March: Janskerkhof 2-3 – room 219
Programme:
9 February 2024: Media Production & Environmental Challenges
- Judith Keilbach, UU
- Marek Jancovic, VU
16 February 2024: Audiences, receptions & news
- Sandra Banjac, RuG
- Tim Groot Kormelink, VU
1 March 2024: Inclusivity and Media literacy
- Çigdem Bozdag, RuG
- Koen Leurs, UU
8 March 2024: Green Media and Civic Engagement
- Joost Raessens, UU
- Stefan Werning, UU
Presentations: 22 March 2024 – 10.00-17.00