The NOISE Summerschool is again coming up this summer!

Stillness and Movement of Images:
New Perspectives on Temporality, Technology and the Senses in Feminist Theory

27 - 31 August 2012, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Organised by the Netherlands Research School of Genderstudies

This year’s (the 20th) edition of NOI♀SE will introduce you to cutting edge scholarship at the crossroads of images, temporality, movement, technology and the senses. We will take a closer look at the interplay between images, sounds, environments and affects in a range of different media such as film, photography, art, medicine, biotechnology, neurology, music and new media cultures. We will investigate the role of images in national (print media, televised political debates, news, science broadcasting) and transnational (films, blogs, youtube clips, social media) contexts, and attend to the complex interrelations arising at their meeting points. These will include strategies of representation and popularization of and societal debates about the developments in medical and biotechnological research, as well as artistic and cultural practices. These developments and practices will be reviewed from an intersectional perspective, paying particular attention to issues of gender, race, ethnicity, class and dis/ability.

The Summer School aims to familiarize students with the epistemological, methodological and thematic issues central to the interdisciplinary and transnational field of visual studies, broadly understood. We will explore how various categories of social differentiation structure both the content of as well as the encounter with images. As a starting point, we will explore concepts such as movement vs. stillness, moment vs. duration, immersion vs. critical distance, multi-sensorial engagement vs. visuality, ‘the gaze’ vs. ‘the look’, voyeurism and scopophilia vs. ethical encounter, ‘nature’ vs. ‘technology’. Consequently, we will aim at the dissolution of these dichotomies.

For more information on registration and deadline, click here.

Postcolonial Cinema Studies Conference

7 June, 2012 Utrecht University
Organised by Sandra Ponzanesi

In collaboration with: Postcolonial Studies Initiative, Centre for the Humanities, Culture & Identities and the Gender Studies Programme

What is, or what might constitute, ‘Postcolonial cinema studies?’ This one-day conference does not propose ‘postcolonial cinema’ as a genre or wish to essentialise it by fitting it into a taxonomy. It envisions instead ‘postcolonial cinema’ in relation to dynamic departures from colonial paradigms of knowledge and power. The participants in this conference focus on the elaboration and deployment of a postcolonial lens and on the nature of cinematic engagement with audiences through that lens. It explores ‘postcolonial cinema’ as constituted by and within a conceptual space in which making connection and drawing inferences, specifically those that are occluded by national and colonial frames, is encouraged. The conference is organized to celebrate the publication of Postcolonial Cinema Studies edited by Sandra Ponzanesi and Marguerite Waller (London and New York, Routledge, 2011).

"Postcolonial Cinema Studies is an essential book that orchestrates an enriching dialogue between postcolonial studies and cinema studies, in ways that mutually illuminate both fields. Interdisciplinary and transnational, the volume goes beyond the usual Anglo-phone boundaries. Not only does it stretch the corpus of films to be studied, it also productively counterpoints theories, methodologies, and regions." Ella Shohat, New York University, USA and Robert Stam, Tisch School of the Arts, USA

For more information on the programme see www.postcolonialstudies.nl

DOING GENDER Lecture Series ~ Spring 2012

In 2012 the Netherlands Research School of Genderstudies (NOG) in cooperation with the Graduate Gender Programme of Utrecht University will organize the Doing Gender Lecture Series.

Tuesday May 22, 2012: Visiting Professor Femke Halsema: Women & Digital Democracy
Time: 16.00 hrs - 17.30 hrs
Location: Utrecht, to be announced
In this Doing Gender Lecture, Treaty of Utrecht Professor Femke Halsema looks back at her career as a politician. After deciding to quit Dutch politics in January 2011, Treaty of Utrecht, Professor Femke Halsema has started to build a new, politically independent career in the Academia, in writing and making programs for television and in consultancy in the private and the public sector. In this Doing Gender Lecture, Treaty of Utrecht Professor Femke Halsema looks back at her career as a politician while focusing on how she used her gender capital in the development of her professional skills. She will situate her critical thoughts and experiences as a leader and a public persona in the context of the performances and political styles of female politicians like Margaret Thatcher, Madeleine Albright and others. There will be ample opportunity to formulate questions and exchange thoughts and ideas with the speaker after her talk. The discussion will be moderated by Rosemarie Buikema.
From January to June 2012, Femke Halsema will hold the Treaty of Utrecht (Vrede van Utrecht) Visiting Chair at Utrecht University Centre for the Humanities. In her role as visiting professor, she will conduct research on the meaning of communication technology and social media for human rights and democracy.

Friday June 8, 2012: Prof. dr. Ella Shohat and Prof. dr. Robert Stam: Race in Translation: Culture Wars around the postcolonial Atlantic
Time: 14.00 hrs - 16.00 hrs
Location: Utrecht, Drift 21: room 0.05
Lecture: The lecture will be on the jointly written book by Stam/Shohat, which will come out in May 2012: Race in Translation: Culture Wars around the Postcolonial Atlantic. The book covers many debates in three different languages/nations/cultures--Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone. The book is at once a report from various fronts in the culture wars, a discussion of the relevant literature in three languages/spaces, and a polemic advancing our own views arguing with figures such as Bourdieu/Wacquant, Zizek, and many others attacking such fields of studies as multicultural/postcolonial studies and to a lesser extent feminist studies.
Professor Ella Shohat teaches at the departments of Art & Public Policy and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies at New York University, and is also affiliated faculty with NYU Abu Dhabi. She has lectured and written extensively on issues such as Eurocentrism and Orientalism, as well as with Post/colonial and transnational approaches to Cultural studies. Her award-winning publications include: Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices (2006), Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation (1989); Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age (1998); Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation and Postcolonial Perspectives (1997); and with Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism (1994); Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality and Transnational Media (2003); Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism (2007); and Culture Wars in Translation (2011)
Professor Robert Stam is University Professor at New York University. He has lectured and published widely on Literature, Film and Muliticulturalism. Among his many publications are Literature through Film: Realism, Magic, and the Art of Adaptation (2004); Film Theory: An Introduction (2000); Francois Truffaut and Friends (2006); Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture (1997); and Subversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism, and Film (1989).

On March 15 Professor Inderpal Grewal (Yale University, USA) gave a lecture and on April 18 Professor Griselda Pollock and Professor and artist Bracha L. Ettinger.
More information on the lectures can be found here.
Entrance is free, but registration is appreciated: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

GEMMA Call for Applicants: Scholarships available for European and Third Country students and scholars

The GEMMA program is a two-year postgraduate interdisciplinary study programme that provides high quality education and professional competencies for personnel working or intending to work in the areas of Women's Studies, Gender Studies and Equal Opportunities across Europe and beyond. Partner Universities are University of Granada, Spain; University of Bologna, Italy; Central European University of Budapest, Hungary; University of Hull, United Kingdom; University of Łodź, Poland; University of Oviedo, Spain; University of Utrecht, the Netherlands; Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA.

Find out more about the programme (detailed description of the scholarships, information on eligibility for scholarships, application procedures, required documents, available mobility routes, courses, etc.) on the website: http://masteres.ugr.es/gemma/pages/index.

The deadline for applying for scholarships was December 31, 2011 (start of the programme September 2012).

In Spring 2012 there is another application round for students (start of the programme September 2012; however scholarships are not available anymore). The deadline is Monday April 30, 2012.