Dissertation Defense Shuaishuai Wang | Supervisors: Jeroen de Kloet and Rachel Spronk. | UvA, 19 November, 10:00 hrs., Agnietenkapel. | This dissertation studies the political economy and cultural politics of Chinese gay dating apps, namely, Blued, Aloha, and ZANK. Unlike their Western counterparts such as Grindr and Jack’d whose functionalities are concentrated on location-based browsing, Chinese gay dating apps frequently integrate new features into their basic dating structures.

Dissertation Defense Looi van Kessel | 4 December 16:15 hrs. | Auditorium of the Leiden University Academy Building, Rapenburg 73, Leiden | In his dissertation, Looi van Kessel explores the ways in which the early works of the American author James Purdy undermine the notion of a stable and true identity.

Lin Jian | University of Amsterdam
The main question of this study is what kind of governmentality the academia, policies and practices of cultural industries reflected in contemporary China. This would consist of three objects: the outcomes of cultural industries studies in Chinese mainland, the policies of cultural industries, and the agents (cultural workers and entrepreneurs, namely creative class) in cultural industries.

Mimi Mitchell | University of Amsterdam
I propose to examine the history of the baroque violin revival through interviews with the baroque violin pioneers. An oral history of these violinists will be my subject and the interviews with them will be my primary research tool.

Alejandra Espinosa | University of Amsterdam
This project analyzes the methodologies used in Latin American public space planning processes. It explores innovative public space planning proposals that consider and assume a cultural and local identity approach. Some central questions of the research are: On what kind of epistemological perspectives and idea of “development” are such planning processes based? Which parameters and notions of human being do they predispose? How do notions of culture and identity inform the planning of public space in Latin America?

Elisa Fiore | Radboud University Nijmegen | Memory and Materiality: Multisensory Ethnography of Culturally Diverse Urban Settings | Supervisors: Anneke Smelik, Liedeke Plate My PhD research develops a multisensory ethnography of gentrifying multicultural urban settings to investigate how gentrification contributes to the inclusion or exclusion of certain cultural expressions in those areas. The two selected […]

Penn Ip | My research studies how spaces control and enable lower class single migrant women’s intimate lives in contemporary Shanghai. The project focuses on single migrant women at the age of 20-35, in Shanghai who work in 3 distinctive sectors: factories, bars/night clubs, and domestic services. By employing affect theory to bridge city spaces to […]

Thijs Witty | Despite a long and varied history, rooted in sixteenth-century France via the writings of Michel de Montaigne, essays are usually associated with highly derivative activities: school assignments, newspaper commentaries, or other standardised modes of opinionated thinking.

Joana Ozorio de Almeida Meroz | This research examines the history of the construction of the idea of Dutch Design, 1945-2010. It advances from the premise that Dutch Design is the product of a discursive construction rather than the natural result of a ‘typically Dutch’ identity or culture. Accordingly, this research traces the development of ideas about Dutch Design as well as the actors involved in the production and institutionalisation of those ideas.

Melle Jan Kromhout | ‘Noise’ is often referred to in opposition to ‘sound’ and ‘music’: an abject, transgressive or disruptive element, a threat to identity. Contrary to this view, recording practices, musical developments and listening habits show that noise is actually an important feature of recorded music. Based on this, the project argues noise is not just […]