Beyond Endurance: Reimaging Media Praxis

This symposium from the Center for Media at Risk will envision new possibilities for media research and practice that center creativity, community and hope.

About the Symposium 

At a time of profound upheaval, this symposium centers media research and practice as a force not only for survival, but for hope and transformation. Across two days of interactive workshops and reflective panels, alumni from the Center for Media at Risk’s network will convene with external experts to offer actionable strategies for media makers and media researchers that foreground collective action and creativity. How do researchers and practitioners see (in)humanity? What potential do multimodal approaches hold for disrupting past and present knowledge hierarchies and preserving stories? How can media be a practical resource for resistance in a world that feels increasingly unstable, unequal and on fire? By reuniting to explore these urgent questions, the Center for Media at Risk leverages its diverse network of researchers, journalists, filmmakers and artists to envision new possibilities for media research and practice that center creativity, community and hope.

Symposium Schedule

Thursday, December 4

5:00 -5:30 pm Light Reception

5:30- 5:45 pm Opening Remarks

5:45- 7:15 pm Keynote

• André de Quadros
  Moderated by Perry B. Johnson

7:15- 8:30 pm Reception

Friday, December 5

9:30-10:00 am Breakfast

10:00-10:15 am Opening Remarks

10:15-11:45 am PANEL 1: WITNESSING

Research begins with making meaning from what we feel, hear and see. The scopic regimes of modernity form the contested terrain upon which media research and practice play out. In the context of genocide, authoritarianism and global injustice, what is the role of witnessing and evidence across the institutions that produce and arbitrate truth and facts? In this context, how can media scholars and media makers be ethical witnesses? Where do they look? Who do they listen to? How do they see (in)humanity? And how do they translate what they see into research and practice? This panel explores these questions and puts forward reparative frameworks for engaging in practices of ethical witnessing and listening.

Speakers:

• j. Siguru Wahutu
• Richard Stupart
• Sandra Ristovska
  Moderated by Valentina Proust

11:45-1:00 pm Lunch

1:00-2:30 pm PANEL 2: MATERIALIZING
Location: Room 109

In this moment of multiple co-constituted crises that put public scholarship at risk, multimodal approaches have the potential to disrupt hegemonic knowledge hierarchies, democratize knowledge production and create new communicative pathways. This panel offers actionable methods for researchers seeking to move toward public, community-engaged and/or multimodal research methods. Panelists will explore how these approaches to scholarship uncover systemic harm, produce knowledge in accessible ways and encapsulate meaningful resistance.

Speakers:

• Roopa Vasudevan 
• Azsaneé Truss 
• Antoine Haywood 
  Moderated by Nidah Mohammed

2:30-2:45 pm Break

2:45-4:15 pm PANEL 3: SUSTAINING

What does it take to sustain critical and creative scholarship over time in the face of political intimidation and institutional resistance? How can media researchers and practitioners continue to engage work that challenges power in the face of personalized backlash? What practical tools can researchers use to sustain their knowledge production and push back against threats to academic freedom? In this practical panel, each speaker shares a specific technique for sustaining knowledge production that pushes back against threats to media freedom.

Speakers:

• Arwa Mahdawi 
• Muira McCammon 
• Samira Rajabi 
  Moderated by Natacha Yazbeck 

4:15-4:45 pm Closing Remarks

4:45-6:00 pm Reception