Event | NICAxRMeS Young Researcher Career Event: Finding Your Value(s) in Society

Event | NICAxRMeS Young Researcher Career Event: Finding Your Value(s) in Society
Date: 15 November 2024
Time: 11:00-16:00
Location: University of Amsterdam (Roeterseilandcampus; REC M1.03)
Registration: here.

In our current time of ‘polycrisis,’ typical humanities skills have become more important than ever to tackle issues relating to societal change, new forms of intelligence, and conflicting truth regimes. Yet, as scholars of culture, we remain highly invisible in the public sphere, finding ourselves unable to effectively engage with current debates. 

At both the NICA and RMeS PhDxrMA Councils, we believe it is high time for young researchers to let themselves be heard and find new forms of engagement with society as well as with other university departments. During the NICAxRMeS Career Event: Finding Your Value(s) in Society, we touch upon the experienced friction between the public values, fostered in cultural studies departments, and value as a contemporary form of corporate and neoliberal quantification. We reposition the humanities as an essential aspect of social and technological innovation and highlight the ‘value’ of cultural analysis in a broader context. 

Intended for PhD candidates and rMA students, the event facilitates debates on how impact should be defined and acted upon, both in- and outside of the university. We invite researchers, activists, policy makers and artists to share their different perspectives with each other and come to a conceptual framework for young researchers to find their own (academic) contribution to society.

We host various workshops and talks, offering practical tips for young researchers to design and advance their academic career. Various opportunities are provided to ask questions and dive deeper into the process of writing applications and obtaining grants. Simultaneously, we reflect upon what constitutes meaningful research and attempt to come to a shared conception of the value of cultural studies – now!

What this event offers, or, in other terms, the value of this event:

• Practical tips for young researchers to design and advance their (academic) career
• Opportunities to ask questions and dive deeper into the process of writing applications and obtaining grants within a variety of national contexts
• A deeper understanding of (social) impact of your research as an indispensable facet of the  contemporary academic 
• Free lunch and drinks

Program

11.15 – 11.30 Opening @REC M1.03
11.30 – 12.30 Plenary Session @REC M1.03

As she takes us along her own career path through different institutions, dr. Marleen van de Vate shares her insights about finding your values in Dutch society. Having worked at Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Dutch Research Council) and Adviesraad voor wetenschap, technologie en innovatie (Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation), she explains the policy landscape in the Netherlands and demonstrates how our skills as researchers are essential to conserve and cultivate social and scientific values in society.

Speakers:

• Marleen van de Vate, council officer at AWTI

12.30 – 13.30 Lunch
13.30 – 14.30 Workshops

PhD Workshop: Life after your PhD: designing your academic career, obtaining grants and research support @REC C3.01

Dr. Gerlov van Engelenhoven will be sharing insights from his VENI project and the social relevance of his research. He will be joined by Chris Flinterman, external PhD candidate and Research Manager at LUCAS, who has assisted him throughout the application process. Together, they will engage in an open discussion with the room on laying out your future after your PhD, going through application processes for early-career grants, and the paramount importance of Research Support. All audience members are invited to ask questions throughout and share their own experiences in making career choices and applying for grants.

Speakers:

• Gerlov van Engelenhoven, assistant professor at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society
• Chris Flinterman MA, PhD candidate at the University of Groningen and Research Manager at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS)

rMA Workshop: Searching across borders – the benefits and challenges of pursuing a PhD abroad @REC M1.03

During this workshop, we invite you to get acquainted with different PhD-biographies. Early-career researchers Silvia Vari, Max Casey, dr. Ilios Willemars and Franziska Westhäuser will share their perspectives on finding and finishing their PhD abroad. In an open conversation, we want to compare different academic environments and explore how rMA students can best approach their search for a PhD position across borders. All audience members are invited to ask questions throughout and reflect on their own criteria for continuing their academic journey at different universities.

Speakers:

• Silvia Vari, PhD candidate at the University of Warwick
• Franziska Westhäuser, PhD candidate at University of Amsterdam
• Max Casey, PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Ilios Willemars, Assistant Professor at Leiden University

14.30 – 15.00 Coffee Break
15.00 – 16.30 Roundtable @REC M1.03

 Roundtable: Defining value and impact; finding shared grounds about the role of cultural & media studies in the public sphere.

We bring together engaged practitioners from different corners of society to discuss and problematize definitions of the core concepts of the day: value and impact. Taking the ideas and research practices of Chris Julien, Ohad Ben Shimon, Tanne Harris-Nijmeijer and Nele Kadastik as a starting point, we aim to come closer to shared grounds on the contribution of cultural and media studies to society. How can we add ‘value’ through collaborations with different departments and institutions? And how to do so on the basis of our own ‘values’?

Speakers:

• Chair: dr. Pepita Hesselberth, assistant professor at Leiden University and NICA director
• Chris Julien, PhD candidate at Utrecht University and activist
• Ohad Ben Shimon, PhD candidate at Utrecht University and artist
• Tanne Harris-Nijmeijer, PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Nele Kadastik, PhD candidate at Radboud University

16.30 – 16.45 Closing
17.00 Borrel @REC M1.50