Colloquia Spring 2016

 Sarah Banet-Weiser is Director of the School of Communication at USC Annenberg. Her teaching and research interests include feminist theory, race and the media, youth culture, popular and consumer culture, and citizenship and national identity. Her book, Authentic™: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture, explores brand culture and political possibility through an investigation of self-branding, creativity, politics, and religion.

 Prof. Michael Lacy is co-editor of Race and Hegemonic Struggle in the U.S.: Pop Culture, Politics, and Protest. In it, he offers a reading of the post-apocalyptic film, The Book of Eli in light of racial, religious, and economic traumas experienced in the U.S. since 9/11. Lacy will share his latest work, while also giving an overview of studying race from a critical rhetorical/communication perspective.

 Brian Hughes studies the media expressions and origins of political and religious extremism. His work explores the communications strategies of fringe and terrorist groups, asking if such groups might be in part the product of technology and content that they themselves did not create. He will discuss his paper “Brand of Brothers: Marketing the Islamic State,” which was recently presented at the National Communications Association 2015 conference.

 Dr. Yavuz Kerem Demirbas studies, designs and plays video games. His first video game “Huys” is considered the first political video game in Turkey. His “counter-gamification” approach to media technologies pursues alternative practices of maker communities around 3D printing. His presentation will start with a brief introduction to game studies and continue with his view of gamification and counter-gamification.

Laura Hanna is a filmmaker, media activist and political organizer. She will lead attendees in a model “Debtors Assembly,” addressing real, in-the-room student debt. She will also discuss the development of Strike Debt, the Rolling Jubilee, and her experiences as a filmmaker and co-founder (with 2015 Colloquium guest Astra Taylor) of HiddenDriver Productions.

 Dr. Madhuja Mukherjee is an artist, filmmaker, and writer. Her work seeks to extend the boundaries between histories of cinema, filmmaking, art installation, and comics. She is presently Associate Professor at the Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata and the author of the book New Theatres Ltd., The Emblem of Art, The Picture of Success.

Firat Erdogmus is a professor of New Media and an activist from Turkey. He will join us to discuss his doctoral research on and first-hand experience of insurgent practices during ‘Gezi Park Protests.’ Drawing on anecdotes from the intertwined digital and actual realms, he will present a framework for how ‘playfulness’ can subvert established power relations and contribute to the realization of counter-hegemonic praxis.

 Rick Maxwell is a political economist of media. His writing on media and cultural consumption draws attention to the specter of living life under ever expanding governmental and commercial surveillance. His current work on the environmental impact of media focuses on the ecological harms caused by media, information technologies, and electronics.

 Jamia Wilson is a movement builder, storyteller, and feminist activist. She works training next generation activists (of all ages) on media literacy, grassroots organizing, media readiness, and using social media to ignite social change. She has appeared at events such as TED Women, Netroots Nation, Facing Race, and on college campuses worldwide to talk about race, feminism, spirituality, and leadership.