Queens College Media Studies
Colloquium Series Fall 2023
Graduate Media Studies at Queens College convenes regular colloquia to engage colleagues and outside practitioners in conversations about their work, research and scholarship.
Unless noted, all colloquia take place in G-Building, Room 200, from 5:30-6:20pm, and are open to the entire CUNY community.
Mara Einstein September 6
Mara Einstein is professor of media studies at Queens College, City University of New York, and an independent marketing consultant. She has been working in, or writing about, media and marketing for more than 25 years, and been an executive at NBC, MTV Networks, and at major advertising agencies. Dr. Einstein is the author of Compassion, Inc. (University of California Press), which examines the growing trend of promoting consumer products as a means to fund social causes and effective social change, and BlackOps Advertising, which dissects this rapid rise of “sponsored content,” a strategy whereby advertisers have become publishers and publishers create advertising—all under the guise of unbiased information. Her current research is on how brands use cult marketing tactics in the age of digital media. http://drmaraeinstein.com
France Winddance Twine September 20
A Professor of Sociology, ethnographer, documentary filmmaker, feminist race theorist and visual artist, Twine’s research sits at the intersections of feminist studies, science & technology studies, comparative race studies and justice studies. She introduced the concept of racial literacy in a 2014 article published in the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies. In A White Side of Black Britain: Interracial Intimacy and Racial Literacy (2010), she further developed this concept. Racial literacy is one of her theoretical contributions to critical race studies and refers to forms of intellectual labor, cultural practices and strategies employed to counter and respond to anti-Black racism.
She is also the founder of the Technologies for Justice Lab at UCSB, and author of Geek Girls: Inequality and Opportunity in Silicon Valley.
https://www.francewinddancetwine.net/
Dennis Yi Tenen September 27
An associate professor of comparative literature and digital humanities at Columbia University, Dennis’ new book, Literary Theory for Robots: How the Computer Learned to Write, unfolds the interdependent histories of literary theory and computer science in prose, exploring what intelligent objects might reveal about what is most human in us. A co-founder of Columbia’s Group for Experimental Methods in Humanistic Research and the editor of the On Method book series at Columbia University Press, he is the author of Plain Text: The Poetics of Computation.
Katherine Fry October 4
Professor of Television, Radio & Emerging Media at Brooklyn College, Professor Fry specializes in media literacy and media ecology.
Frye’s latest book, Dynamic Media Environments: Expanding the Scope of Media Literacy, outlines a unique model and approach to media literacy and media education, developed over years working with college and university students, and with many other age groups and contexts in her work with The LAMP, the NYC-based media literacy organization she co-founded in 2007.
https://www.bctvr.org/KATHERINE_FRY.html
Tara Mateik October 11
“I am a multimedia performance artist and videomaker with an extensive background in education and community activism. My creative work and pedagogy are driven by my interdisciplinary practice, which draws on a range of fields, including media activism, performance studies, video art, queer theory and history, arts education, and media archaeology.”
An Associate Professor in the Media Culture Department at the College of Staten Island, Mateik’s projects revisit key moments in pop culture where sexual, social, and economic power structures are in flux; these reenactments, then, are not passive recreations of the past, but political interventions into our understanding of history. http://www.mateik.com/
Jamie Cohen October 18
An assistant professor of Media Studies at Queens where he teaches Digital Activism, Social Media, Aesthetics and Advertising Inequalities, Cohen’s research focuses on memes and digital culture. He is currently working on a book about Virality and Violence and the kinetic energy of memes, and he is a weekly writer at Medium. He is also the head of education at Digital Void, a workshop, salon, podcast and event project bridging the gap between the digital life and cultural understanding. His expertise covers the fields of new and digital media and where they intersect with culture — both IRL and in digital spaces.
https://www.jamesncohen.com
Rebecca Bray October 25
Executive Director of the Center for Artistic Activism, Bray is an artist, educator and interaction designer who is passionate about audiences and engagement, and about creative and experimental approaches.
Former Chief of Experience Design and Evaluation at the Smithsonian, Rebecca has taught media history, interaction design, and education practices. Her work as an artist and activist includes The Meatrix, Botanicalls, and Windowfarms – projects at the intersection of art, science, technology, and the environment, along with Silosphere and Framing Device.
Noah Tsika November 1
Noah Tsika is Professor of Media Studies at Queens College, CUNY. A film historian, his research centers on Hollywood and Nollywood, sometimes simultaneously.
He is the author of eight books, including, most recently, I’m Not There, a study of Todd Haynes’s 2007 Bob Dylan biopic and its implications for copyright law, trademark law, libel law, and more.
Heather Dewey Hagborg November 8
Dr. Heather Dewey-Hagborg is a trans-disciplinary artist and educator who is interested in art as research and critical practice. Her controversial biopolitical art practice includes the project Stranger Visions in which she created portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic material (such as hair, cigarette butts, or chewed up gum) collected in public places. Heather has shown work internationally at events and venues including the World Economic Forum, the Daejeon Biennale, and PS1 MOMA. She is also a co-founder and co-curator of REFRESH, an inclusive and politically engaged collaborative platform.
Please see her new installation, which opens November 1 at the Fridman Gallery, as preparation for her visit. https://www.fridmangallery.com/heather-dewey-hagborg