Visual design: Meike Schipper

On 26 June 2018 the international conference Media in Transition (MiT)  – in the past hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – will take place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, organized by media scholars from Utrecht University (UU). The day before, on June 25, we will also run several exciting pre-conference workshops at University College Utrecht.

The MiT@UU conference brings together eminent scholars and key-players from related organizations and the industry to share perspectives and research results revolving around ongoing transformations affecting the very foundations of traditional media.

In four plenary sessions international scholars William Uricchio, Jay Bolter, Jennifer Holt, Erkki Huhtamo, Henry Jenkins, Amanda Lotz, Vicki Mayer, Jussi Parikka, Lisa Parks, Roberta Pearson, and Lynn Spigel will address topics such as datafication, changing media infrastructures, public values, participatory empowerment, and niche strategies in conversation with discussants from VPRO, EYE Film Institute Netherlands, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Beeld en Geluid), and the European Broadcasting Union.

MiT@UU thus recognizes the urgency to rethink existing analytical models for timely research. It aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between academics and practitioners and addresses the tension between the global and the local.
As organizers we are aware of the conference’s limited European-American perspective and our privileged speaking position. Therefore we hope that critical self-reflection will be part of the discussion.

Accompanying events:
MiT@UU is a pre-conference event of this year’s NECS conference. NECS 2018 is dedicated to Media Tactics and Engagement and will take place from 27-29 June 2018. It is hosted by the University of Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam and Utrecht University. More information can be found here.

The NECS Graduate Workshop To Prefer Not To: Media Inoperativities will take place on 25 June 2018. Hosted by Utrecht University, its organizers are: Alba Giménez (University of South Wales), Christian Sancto (Utrecht University), Jiyu Zhang (Leiden University).
Workshop location: University College Utrecht.