2nd Ph.D. Summer School of Cultural Transformations:
Cultural Im/materialities:
Contagion, Affective Rhythms and
Mobilization
International PhD course, Aarhus University 23-27 June 2014
Organisers
Associate Professor, PhD, Britta Timm Knudsen
Associate Professor, PhD, Mads Krogh
Assistant Professor, PhD, Carsten Stage
Associate Professor, PhD, Anne Marit Waade
Partners: Warwick University, UK, University of Southern Denmark, DK,
Södertörns Högskola, SE, CESAU, DK, Copenhagen Business School, DK
Keynotes
Professor Georgina Born (Music and Anthropology, Oxford University),
UK
Senior Lecturer Tony D. Sampson (Digital Culture and Communications),
University of East London, UK
Professor John Protevi (Philosophy and French Studies, Loyola University
Chicago), US
Senior Lecturer Luciana Parisi (Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths), UK
Jenny Sundén, Södertorn Högskola
Lecturers/workshop
organizers/discussants Karen Hvidtfelt Madsen, University of Southern Denmark
Olga Gurionova, Warwick University
Christian Borch, Copenhagen Business School
Anne Marit Waade, Aarhus University
Carsten Stage, Aarhus University
Mads Krogh, Aarhus University
Britta Timm Knudsen, Aarhus University
Christoffer Kølvraa, Aarhus University
Louise Fabian, Aarhus University
Camilla Møhring Reestorff, Aarhus University
Bodil Marie Thomsen, Aarhus University
5 ECTS
Time
June 23-27 2014
Room and Place
Aarhus University
Cost/ Policy
No cost fee, each participant covers travel & accommodation.
Max. number of
participants
30
Description
The summer school wants to explore the role of affect, suggestive rhythms and contagion for the
somatic mobilization of agents across a range of socio-cultural situations (e.g. protest events,
dance halls, online forums, catastrophes), practises and processes (e.g. political mobilization and
engagement, school bullying, youth loneliness, xenophobic/nationalist panics). In recent years an
increasing interest in materiality, space, technology and embodiment has developed in the
humanities and social sciences combined with an ‘affective turn’ (Clough, Massumi, Thrift,
Seigworth and Gregg, Ahmed) to immaterial dimensions of these phenomena.
This has re-actualised early sociological theories about affective suggestion, contagion and
imitation (e.g. Gustave Le Bon and Gabriel Tarde), which offer valuable insights to the analysis of a
contemporary cultural landscape characterised by for instance viral/memetic phenomena,
mediated/networked/rhythmically coordinated crowds, affective online communication and
political modulation of citizen affects (Blackman, Borch, Gibbs, Sampson, Butler). During the
summer school we wish to collectively explore the immaterial dimensions of the material social
world and vice versa, discuss the potentialities, implications and risks of such analysis in an open
interdisciplinary environment.
The event will attract PhD students from a range of academic fields (anthropology, geography,
media, cultural studies, aesthetics, sociology, political science etc.) interested in, and doing
research on, the affective turn, processes of imitation/suggestion/contagion, the rhythmically
attuning mobilisation of bodies, and the im/material dimensions of culture and the social world.
Possible areas/topics:
- The affective dimensions of materiality, space, technology and things
- Aesthetics and affectivity, sensual design
- Mobilization within public and private spheres of action
- Viral communication, virality in the media, memes, social media
- The methodological challenges of analysing cultural materialities and immaterial processes
- Theoretical legacies to the ‘affective turn’ and new materialist orientations within the
humanities and social sciences; early sociologies of contagion, suggestion and imitation
-
Moral, media and financial panics
Music culture, sound, dance and rhythm
Industries of affect, affective consumption
Tourism, black spot/dark tourism
Artistic agency, idols and fandom
Crowds, protest culture, social movements, (creative/eventful) activism, political events
Depression, loneliness, bullying, affective exclusion
Charity, empathy and sympathy
Affect, emotion and power, war and affective modulation
Xenophobia, nationalism, the strategic production of fear and hate
Atmosphere, aura, prestige
Sexuality, porn, love and care
The affectivity of catastrophes
Blasphemy, fanaticism and provocative politics
The Ph.D.-summer school will be based on keynote presentations, workshops and students own
project presentations and organized feedback sessions.
Exam:
The examination will consist of three parts: 1. Full paper hand-in (deadline May 15); 2. Attending
workshops and doing group assignments; 3. Paper presentation and discussion of papers.
Deadline for submission
Deadline:
March 1 2014,
Send an email to: Marianne Hoffmeister mho@adm.au.dk
Attach a description of your research topic and project (max. 300 words).
March 15:
You will get to know if you participate, and you will be asked to confirm your
participation.
Preparation for PhD students
April 1:
The organizers will form groups out of the participants (5 in al) and each group has to
organize a slot of one hour each with a social and/or academic content (e.g.
academic speed-dating, guided tours in Aarhus for strangers by strangers, exercises
between the slots).
May 15:
Deadline for submitting a full paper (10 pages)
Preparation for teachers
Medio March: Organizers must read the abstracts and form participants groups.
Medio May: The group of teachers will be responsible for 3-4 papers, that he/she has read
carefully in advance in order to 1) place the paper within the theme of the summer
school 2) to be a discussant of the paper and to give an open and constructive
feedback at the summer school
Program
Monday 23 June 2014
Time
8.30
Activity
Registration
9.15
Welcome and practical information
9.45
Building 5335
Room 091
11.00
Lecture I: Jenny Sundén (Södertörn University, Sweden): “Out
of Breath: Affect, Relationality, Power”
Hit and run coffee break
10.30
Workshop I: “Rhythm”
Building 5335
Room 091
13.15
Lunch
14.15
Parallel paper-session I
16.15
Coffee break
16.45
Lecture II: Tom Apperley (University of New South Wales,
Australia): “Gaming Rhythms”
Academic programme ends
Group dinner and evening event
Including activity organized by local PhD students
18.00
19.00-?
Venue
Building 5335
Room 091
Building 5335
Room 091
Tuesday 24 June 2014
Time
09.00
Activity
Lecture III: Luciana Parisi (Goldsmiths, UK): tba
10.15
Hit and run coffee break
10.30
Parallel paper session II
12.30
Lunch
13.30
Workshop II: “Affect”
15.30
Coffee break
16.00
Activity organized by student group A
16.30
Lecture IV: Nathaniel Tkacz (Warwick University, UK):
“AdVenture Capitalism: On Crowdfunding and The
Financialisation of The Web ”
Academic programme ends for the day
18.00
Venue
Building 5335
Room 091
Building 5335
Room 091
Building 5335
Room 091
Building 5335
Room 091
Wednesday 25 June 2014
Time
09.00
Venue
10.15
Activity
Lecture V: Tony D. Sampson (University of East London, UK):
“Affect, Contagion and the Brain”
Hit and run coffee break
10.30
Parallel paper session III
Building 5335
Room 091
12.30
Lunch
13.30
Workshop III: “Contagion”
Building 5335
Room 091
Building 5335
Room 091
15.30
Coffee break
16.00
Activity organized by student group B
16.30
Lecture VI: Christian Borch (CBS, Denmark): “The Politics of
Crowds: Organizing Bodies and Affect”
Academic programme ends
17.45
18.00-?
Building 5335
Room 091
Group dinner followed by a walk through the city and a visit at
a museum
Thursday 26 June 2014
Time
9.00
Activity: Partner keynotes
Lecture VII: Georgina Born (Oxford University, UK): tba
10.15
Hit and run coffee break
10.30
Parallel paper session IV
12.30
Lunch
13.00
Workshop IV: “Assemblages”
14.30
Afternoon
18.00-?
Activity organized by student group C
Organized sightseeing
Venue
Building 5335
Room 091
Building 5335
Room 091
Group dinner
Friday 27 June 2014
Time
09.00
Activity
Lecture VIII: John Protevi (Louisiana State University, US):
“Rhythm, Affect and the Greeks”
10.15
Hit and run coffee break
10.30
Workshop V: “Biopolitics and mobilization”
12.30
Lunch
13.30
Parallel paper session V
15.30
Coffee break
16.00
Paper session VI
18.00
Activity organized by student group D
18.30
Goodbye
Venue
Building 5335
Room 091
Building 5335
Room 091
Building 5335
Room 091
Building 5335
Room 091