ECHO
MEDIA, CULTURE AND POLITICS
ECHO is devoted to the study of meaning across media, culture and politics, and their intersections. The group is home to an international group of scholars working on how meaning circulates, fluctuates, and resonates in society. Echo's aim is to produce a critical and nuanced understanding of how the reproduction and contestation of meaning contributes to social, cultural and political change and continuity.
Latest Publications
Pakistani transgender activists on Instagram: The politics of postcolonial language appropriation and abrogation
Fatima Zahid Ali, Kevin Smets and Benjamin De Cleen This study examines marginalized communities in postcolonial states, in particular transgender people, and attempts to understand the tension between globalized or transnational ‘queer’ language and local vernacular ‘Indigenous’ language.
Revealing activist experiences through film-viewing: emotional geographies at the border of Ceuta and Melilla
Silvia Almenara-Niebla Ceuta and Melilla are considered exemplary models of the border spectacle. The fences of these cities typify the notion of ‘Fortress Europe’ and impel the emotional engagement of the inhabitants with migration control policies.
News & Events
Practical info-Public Lecture - The Aesthetics of Subversion: Resistance at the Borders by Federica Mazzara
On the 20th May, and in the framework of Prof. Kevin Smets’ ERC Reel Borders, we are organizing a public lecture titled "The Aesthetics of Subversion: Resistance at the Borders." This talk will explore the intersection of politics and aesthetics, with a focus on border art and visual production. The lecture will be delivered by Federica Mazzara, a cultural studies scholar from Westminster and a contributor to Minor Keywords of Political Theory, a recently published yet widely referenced text in critical border studies.
Practical info-Benjamin De Cleen wins the 2024 Harrison Prize
The paper 'Populism of the Privileged: On the Use of Underdog Identities by Comparatively Privileged Groups', co-authored by ECHO co-director prof. dr. Benjamin De Cleen has been announced winner of The 2024 Harrison Prize by the editors of Political Studies, Sage.
