ZeMKI-News (9)

Together with Kevin Barth from Deutschlandfunk, ZeMKI member Dr. Philip Sinner discussed Milano Cortina d'Ampezzo 2026, focusing in particular on the great successes of media coverage and further processing from a communication and media studies perspective. The report was broadcast on Deutschlandfunk's Sport am Sonntag program.

ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Cornelius Puschmann was a guest on the latest episode of the news podcast "im Loop". The interview focused on the current debate surrounding a social media ban for minors.

For 2026, the ZeMKI Steering Committee has selected seven international visiting scholars as part of the Visiting Research Fellowship program. Each fellow will spend at least four weeks collaborating with selected ZeMKI Labs.

The new ZeMKI working paper by Tara B. Smith, entitled “Administered Dehumanization: Absurdity, Automation, and Resistance in We, Brazil, and Robodebt,” is now available.

ZeMKI member Dr. Rieke Böhling is offering two workshops entitled “Your family, your history – try your hand at family research” for children aged 8-12 as part of the Children's University on March 25 and 26.

ZeMKI member Dr. Philip Sinner talks to journalist Leon Hütter on BremenNEXT's live radio show about the hype surrounding the successful series Heated Rivalry.

ZeMKI members Dr. Tatiana Astafeva and PD Dr. Rasmus Greiner will present at the SCMS Annual Conference of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) in Chicago on March 26, 2026.

On February 10, ZeMKI members Paula Goerke, Jule Jensen, and Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter will speak  12 p.m. at UC Berkeley about “AI and Student Experience in German Universities” as part of a lecture series funded by the Center for Studies in Higher Education.

We are delighted that our ZeMKI member Hendrik Kühn successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Im Dialog mit Abwesenden" (In Dialogue with Absentees) on February 5, 2026.

A new workshop which is organized by ZeMKI members Dr. Vesi Vuković and Prof. Dr. Winfried Pauleit and also Prof. Dr. Sanja Bahn from the University of Essex focuses on Yugoslav women film workers, who are largely overlooked in the historical accounts of the cinema of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (approximately from 1947 to 1991). It examines the work behind the camera, for instance of film directors, editors, and screenwriters. 

At the beginning of this week, the ZeMKI Lab „Datafication and Mediatization“ came together for its annual, multi-day lab retreat at the educational center in Bad Zwischenahn. The retreat once again provided the lab members with ample time and opportunity to discuss current research and publication projects in a larger group, to exchange teaching experiences, and to receive valuable feedback on upcoming work.

ZeMKI member Kerstin Radde Antweiler was interviewed by up2date, the online magazine of the University of Bremen. The interview discussed the relevance of video games to society. Whether serious games, environmental games, or first-person shooters: they all offer insights into human values. They promote violence, incite aggression, or are simply a waste of time: this is how video games are often portrayed. But this perspective is outdated, as religious and media studies scholar Kerstin Radde-Antweiler demonstrates.