Projects
City Symphonies: Urban Modernity, Film, and Avant-Garde (1920-1940) Ghent University
Study about the city symphony, a film genre of the inter-war period that combines aspects of the feature film, documentary, and experimental cinema. The genre is closely connected to metropolitan modernity as well as the art of contemporaneous avant-garde currents.
Imperialism in British, South African and New Zealand history textbooks: representations of 19th century conflict during the decolonial period (1947-1997) KU Leuven
This research focuses on how empire figured in post Second World War history education. There is a lack of literature that explores the intra-imperial connections between the metropolitan education system and ex-dominion education systems, which played a crucial role in shaping white, non-white and indigenous perceptions of empire. This PhD will provide a comparative and entangled perspective on the ways in which representations of Britain’s ...
Transcendental Materialism and its Disciplinary Concern' - On the Systematization, History and Practice of a Philosophy after the Žižekian Synthesis Ghent University
This project aims to systematize the contemporary, increasingly influential movement named ‘Transcendental Materialism’ (‘TM’) by philosopher Adrian Johnston. Associated with, among others, Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou, this philosophy eclectically draws from German idealist, psychoanalytical, and Marxist traditions. Recent scholarship shows that TM, despite earlier attempts at systematization, is currently still unable to reflect on its key ...
Sabbatical Filip De Boeck: Decolonising anthropological knowledge. A History of the Lunda Frontier KU Leuven
Content Sabbaticial: Book publication (title: The Frontier Files: Life along the Congo-Angola Border, in collaboration with Peabody Museum, Harvard), construction of accompanying exhibition, production of accompanying ethnographic film in collaboration with visual artist Sammy Baloji and arts center Picha (Lubumbashi)
Cinema Ecosystem (CINECOS): an open access data platform for cinema history in Flanders and Belgium Ghent University
CINECOS will develop an open access platform for sharing, enriching, analysing and sustaining data on cinema history in Flanders and Belgium from 1896 onwards. Integrating 14 existing datasets covering key aspects of production, distribution, exhibition, programming, censorship and reception, the CINECOS platform will significantly improve the understanding and further exploration of cinema as a dominant public entertainment industry and as ...
Screening multiple identities. National, subnational and transnational discourses in post-war Belgian cinema. University of Antwerp
Critical Archives of Ordinariness: Vernacular Moving Image Practices and Migrant Identity in Polish Chicago KU Leuven
This project explores home movies and related oral histories of Polish Chicago before the digital era (1960s–2000s) to challenge and broaden our understanding of evolving migrant and diaspora identities. Following critical archive studies’ call to empower communities underrepresented in historiography by developing and interrogating archival collections, the project juxtaposes home movies – “ordinary” motion pictures created for family and ...
Interior(ized) Frontiers. Spatializing colonial housing politics and domestic cultures in the former Dutch East Indies through a mobilization of the 'colonial archive’ Ghent University
This research will study colonial housing politics and colonial domestic culture in the city of Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia, between 1900 and 1942, through an (1) in depth historical research with a particular attention for (visual) source material; and (2) an mobilisation of the colonial archive, in collaboration with local stakeholders. More in particular, the research seeks to investigate the extent to which cultural and moral ...
Belgian Avant-Garde Art on Paper in a European Context, 1918-1950 KU Leuven
The BePAPER project This PhD, under supervision of promotor Prof. dr. Sascha Bru and co-promotor Prof. dr. Barbara Baert is a component of the BePAPER project, Belgian Art on Paper in a European Perspective, 1918-1950. It is part of the research programme BRAIN-be 2.0, Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks (https://www.belspo.be/belspo/brain2-be/project_p2_nl.stm), funded by BELSPO. The project is conducted in ...