Stadtgespräch. Metropolitan Perspectives #19

Thursday, November 26, 2015, 7 pm
Coloniality of Form. Media Studies and Post_Colonial Theory
Lecture by Ulrike Bergermann (Professor of media studies, University of Art Brunswick) and Nanna Heidenreich (research associate, University of Art Brunswick and film curator, Berlin)

Even if media studies emerged after the European age of colonialism, it inherits directly from colonialism’s history of science. European Universities still undertake an “embedded” scholarship, but now in a world that is called “globalized” rather than colonized, where much of the past is continued. What colonial legacies are administered by media studies today and what form of coloniality can be found in concepts of mediacy? What is or would be a post-colonial media theory in relationship to this? In recent years, decolonizing projects on renaming streets were undertaken in many cities across Germany. From a media-studies perspective, we should ask what the street networks have to do with colonial history. To what extent is the city itself a medium of colonialism? How are urbanity and migration visually linked? What intersections exist between a critical perspective of post_coloniality and migration?

Ulrike Bergermann has been professor for media studies at University of Art Brunswick since 2009, and her work focuses on media theory, gender, and postcolonial studies. She completed her doctoral thesis in Hamburg on the inscription of sign language and has participated in various feminist projects (Bildwechsel, thealit, The Thing, etc.). With Nanna Heidenreich, she has organized several workshops on postcolonial media studies at University of Art Brunswick and edited a book series on the subject for Transcript Verlag.

Since 2011, Nanna Heidenreich has been a researcher in media studies at University of Art Brunswick and co-curator of the art film program Forum Expanded at the Berlin Berlinale. In addition, she curates independent projects in film and video, especially at the intersection of politics, cinema, and art. Her book V/Erkennungsdienste, das Kino und die Perspektive der Migration was published in 2015 by Transcript Verlag.