Review of the Research Institute for History and - Universiteit Utrecht

A. Documentation regarding the level of the research programme
Title of the programme:
The Cultural Construction of Media
Starting date:
1994/2002*
* From 1994 till 2002 the programme “Cultural History” included what since 2002 is labeled “Cultural
Infrastructure and Intellectual Culture in the Modern Age”, “The Cultural Construction of Media” and
“Arts, Culture and their Contexts”. In 2002 a process was initiated to split Cultural History in these
three independent programmes.
Research area and mission:
Film, television, mobile telephone, internet, computer games
Programme leaders:
Prof. W. Uricchio (until 2001), Prof. F. Kessler (from 2001)
Affi liations outside the institute (e.g. research school) and other cooperations and
relations with national and international research groups
Huizinga Instituut: Research Institute for Cultural History
Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies
A 1. Leadership
This is a medium sized group of 11,39 fte with 4 full professors, 1 extra-ordinary
professor, 1 associate professor, 8 assistant professors, and 13 PhD-students. Until
his appointment at MIT in August 2001, prof. William Uricchio, was team leader.
His role was taken over by prof. Frank Kessler. Uricchio’s combined affi liation
—he remains for 0.3 fte in Utrecht—has strengthened the network of the Utrecht
group. Prof. Christina Slade was appointed chair in Media Theory in September
2004. The appointment of a chair in the Theatre Studies Department, expected in
2006, will bring the leadership of this group back to full strength. The leadership
of this programme has a strong international outlook. The group as a whole maintains
a lively intellectual atmosphere, with regular seminars and (international)
conferences being organized in Utrecht.
A 2. Strategy and policy
Utrecht Media Studies are wide-ranging, encompassing research on fi lm and
television, performance, internet and computer games. The fi eld of Media Studies
is relatively new and therefore confronted with the usual newcomers’ problems
(methodology and research issues are still poorly defi ned, a comparatively underdeveloped
institutional environment, a limited availability of qualifi ed researchers).
During the period under review the research group has worked hard to overcome
these problems The focal points in research have become more clearly defi ned,
much energy has been devoted to initiate cooperation on a national as well as
international level, and a specifi c training programme for young scholars in this
fi eld has been inaugurated by OGC.
As far as the fi rst point is concerned: until 2004 the programme focused on
four distinct areas: the role of media in the cultural construction of identity, the
representation of modern life, discursive constructions of media and media forms,
the history of Dutch media. In 2004 the group decided to focus on three areas:
emerging media, comparative media studies, and media cultures. Utrecht has long
been concerned with research into the media’s cultural construction, both dia-
OGC The Cultural Construction of Media
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