MCW organizes a number of ongoing research seminars:

UTRECHT MEDIA & PERFORMANCE RESEARCH SEMINAR ‘09-’10

The Utrecht Media & Performance Research Seminar invites participation of both junior and senior researchers from various research areas in a new series of discussions about the concept of liveness, presence and mediatization in debates about new and transforming media and performance technologies and practices.

In seven sessions we will discuss key publications on notions of liveness, presence, mediatization, aura, dis/appearance, and the relationship between public and private spaces, including work by authors like Philip Auslander, Herbert Blau, Walter Benjamin, Jay David Bolter, Steve Dixon, Adrian Heartfield, and Amelia Jones.

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CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL THEORY

Organised by: Dr. Rick Dolphijn (Media and Culture Studies), Dr. Iris van der Tuin (Gender Studies)

The Centre for the Humanities in co-operation with the Graduate Gender
Programme and Media and Culture Studies hosts a fifth round of the seminar on Cultural Theory. The seminar is a close-reading seminar, which focuses on texts that are valuable to the humanities as a whole and is open to scholars, students and people working outside of academia. In the sessions we do not build up knowledge, which means that you can join in whenever you like. Yet we work with themes in order to structure our thoughts a little bit. Earlier we have discussed “naturecultures”, “immanent times/ immanent spaces”, “Linguistics/signification/ communication”, and “After Finitude”. We hope many of you will be interested in contributing to our discussions. The reading material can be copied at Kromme nieuwegracht 20 (cursuspostvakken; ground floor).

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——–SKIP INTRO——–

The series is foremostly aimed at uncovering and discussing concrete cultural practices in which software, protocols, databases — in short: all manifestations of Digital Material (http://tinyurl.com/y9w6zkg) — have a defining place. Some of the themes that will be covered this year are Open Access (Future of Publishing), TechSkin (Locative Media & Augmented Reality) and Programming Society.exe (Software Delegation).

Skip Intro deals with the most recent issues and invites speakers who sometimes are in the Netherlands for only a very brief period, which can make for some creative announcement schedules. >[It's not a bug, it's a feature]<

—> An initiative by UU (Underground University) <—

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WHAT & WHY?!

What & Why is a research platform that consists of two seminars: What’s Cooking?! and Why Theatre? What’s Cooking?! is the place where Media and Culture Studies (MCW) researchers and invited guest speakers present their work in an informal setting. Why Theatre? organizes guest lectures and meetings with theater and dance practitioners. Bringing these platforms together will contribute to MCW’s rich and diverse research culture by providing a regular setting for exchange and debate.

If you would like us to keep you informed about WHAT & WHY?! events, check this site regularly or send an e-mail to N.Verhoeff@uu.nl