The goal of the Summer Academy is to engage in a cross-disciplinary dialogue about media and cultural change. We seek projects that are historically and geographically situated, and/or localized investigations. How does the interplay of cultural and technological change take place? How was the historical power of media substantiated in their respective specificity? And also when, in which discursive context and with which arguments? We are keen to see research that revises theories of historical change and canonical accounts (e.g. McLuhan on the book, Brecht on radio, Enzensberger on TV, Guattari on digital media). We are also interested in the recursive relation of media-technological and cultural change, for example contemporary feudal worlds/historical mediality of feudalization; the historicization and ongoing relevance of Soviet computing; the history of old “new” media; the interplay of media technologies; the mediation of “spirits of capitalism” and organized life; aesthetic shifts and continuities across time that are intertwined with media and cultural change. We especially invite projects concerned with the Global South or that revise center/periphery narratives.

Core Faculty

1. Timon Beyes (Sociology of Organisation and Culture, Leuphana)
2. Shane Denson (Film and Media Studies, Stanford)
3. Marisa Galvez (French, Italian, and German Studies, Stanford)
4. Karla Oeler (Film and Media Studies, Stanford)
5. Claus Pias (History and Epistemology of Media, Leuphana)
6. Fred Turner (Communication, Stanford)
7. Sybille Krämer (Philosophy, Leuphana)
8. Ruth Mayer (American Studies, Hannover)
9. Bernhard Siegert (History and Epistemology of Cultural Techniques, Weimar)

Special Guests

Simon Denny (University of Fine Arts Hamburg)
Wolfgang Ernst (Media Studies, Humboldt University Berlin)

Application

All applications from advanced doctoral candidates must be submitted electronically in PDF format. Please submit your CV (1–2 pages) along with a 500-word abstract of your topic and a short letter of intent explaining why you would like to attend this Summer Academy.

Please use the following naming convention for your application files: Lastname_CV.pdf, Lastname_Abstract.pdf, Lastname_Letter_of_Intent.pdf.
Please email your applications by March 1, 2023 to mgalvez@stanford.edu and timon.beyes@leuphana.de