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News Archive from Media, Film and Communication

News archive from Media, Film and Communication.

Inaugural Professorial Lecture – Professor Catherine Fowler

Tuesday, 4 April 2023 - Castle 1 Lecture Theatre, Dunedin
Professor Catherine Fowler delivers her Inaugural Professorial Lecture (IPL) titled: ‘(How) do I add to the images in movies?’

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Four generations through Otago's doors

Monday, 16 May 2022 2:05pm

Graduation is a special time and a rite of passage for many. Even more so when a family celebrates the first direct fourth-generation graduate woman to pass through Otago’s doors.

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The power of none: New book explores childfree perspectives

Thursday, 31 March 2022 4:21pm

Ahead of its launch next month, editor Dr Davinia Thornley (Media, Film and Communication) discusses "Childfree across the Disciplines: Academic and Activist Perspectives on Not Choosing Children" 

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The suprising substance behind a selfie

Thursday, 10 February 2022 1:56pm

When enrolling for Summer School papers, you might not think to go searching for one on selfies, but that’s exactly what could be found on offer this year.

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Otago announces Professorial promotions for 2022

Monday, 22 November 2021 10:28am

Twenty-eight University of Otago academics are being promoted to the position of professor this year.

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Contagious Communication: A Historical Perspective

Tuesday, 21 September 2021 - BURN4, Arts Building, Albany Street, Dunedin
Dr Heidi Tworek, University of British Columbia, will explore how ways of communicating disease in the twentieth century can inform new ways of communicating Covid today.

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Research seminar

Tuesday, 17 August 2021 - BURN4, Arts Building, University of Otago, Dunedin
Seminar on 'The transitional spectator: into the liminal spaces of post-cinema' by Dr Maud Ceuterick, a senior lecturer in Film and Digital Culture at the University of Bergen, Norway.

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Media, Film and Communication Seminar: “Public Understanding of Ignorance as Critical Science Literacy”

Tuesday, 10 August 2021 - Arts Building, BURN4, University of Otago, Dunedin
Dr Fabien Medvecky of The Centre for Science Communication discusses how, despite its common perception as a negative trait, ignorance is a complex and essential part of the scientific process and its communication.

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Why we should tax international aviation seminar with Professor Elisabeth Ellis

Tuesday, 20 April 2021 - Burns 4, Ground Floor
Arts Building
95 Albany Street
University of Otago
Dunedin
Join us for this seminar with Professor Elisabeth Ellis

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This Is Not Reality (Ceci n'est pas la réalité): Capturing the Imagination of the People

Tuesday, 30 March 2021 - Seminar Room 8, Central Library (second floor), Dunedin
Professor Paola Voci investigates how documentary has (re)presented subaltern creativity in post-socialist China.

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Second award for Space museum research 

Thursday, 11 March 2021 3:34pm

Media, Film and Communication Associate Professor Hugh Slotten is looking forward to boldly researching where he’s gone before; the Smithsonian Institution Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. 

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Can't Get You Out Of My Head: Power Politics & the Films of Adam Curtis (A Panel Discussion)

Thursday, 4 March 2021 - Online via Zoom
Adam Curtis is one of the pre-eminent documentary film-makers of our time. This panel features speakers from UK, USA and Otago.

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The Posthuman as Genre

Thursday, 9 May 2019 - Richardson 6N4

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Reparative Aesthetics

Wednesday, 10 April 2019 - Room 6N4, 6th Floor, Richardson Building, Dunedin Campus

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Pussy Riot: Art, Protest & Power

Saturday, 16 March 2019 - Castle 1

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Foucault and the Politics of Language Today - Mark Kelly (Western Sydney University)

Thursday, 28 February 2019 - Burns 1 Lecture theatre, Arts Building
Media, Film and Communication are kicking off our research seminar series for 2019 with a talk be Mark Kelly (Western Sydney University) on “Foucault and the Politics of Language Today”, Burns / Arts 1, 4pm 28th February.

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Performing Ecologies Conference

Wednesday, 21 November 2018 - Allen Hall Theatre and Orokonui Ecosanctuary
An interdisciplinary conference organised by the Performance of the Real Research Theme.

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Gay Hawkins: Making animals public – the ABC and televisual animality

Monday, 15 October 2018 - Moot Court, Richardson Building
This paper draws on a major research project done in partnership with the ABC investigating their animal archive.

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Panel discussion on 'Frankenstein' and screening of 'Bride of Frankenstein'

Thursday, 4 October 2018
Join us for a panel discussion about Mary Shelley's famous novel, and a screening of the 1935 film 'Bride of Frankenstein'.

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Framing Frankenstein: Mary Shelley and the monster after 200 years

Wednesday, 3 October 2018 - Burns 1 Lecture Theatre, Arts Building
Professor Susan Lederer considers the ways in which the Frankenstein framework has infused both medical and popular discussions from the late 19th century to the present.

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Sean Phelan: Friedrich Hayek and the 'social justice warrior'

Friday, 14 September 2018 - Richardson Building, 6th Floor, R6N4
Come along and hear SEAN PHELAN (Massey University) talk on “Friedrich Hayek and the “social justice warrior”” at 4pm 14th September 2018 in R6N4

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Mari Ruti: What is the universal - between Lacan and affect

Friday, 3 August 2018 - R6N4
6th floor, Richardson Building
 Mari Ruti (University of Toronto) discusses the notion of the 'universal' drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis as a way of engaging with the so-called 'affective turn' in the humanities.

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Mari Ruti: Queer theory between negativity and flourishing

Thursday, 2 August 2018 - R6N4, 6th floor, Richardson Building
A public lecture on the intersections between Queer theory and critical thought by Mari Ruti (University of Toronto)

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On the Anthropocene

Monday, 30 July 2018 - R6N4, 6th floor, Richardson Building
Join us for a discussion on the anthropocene and its intersections with philosophy, arts and critical media studies. Featuring a keynote from Chris Russill (Carleton University)

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Space, Race, Bodies III: Walls

Saturday, 30 June 2018 - University of Otago, Dunedin
Space, Race, Bodies III: Walls is an academic and activist conference that addresses contemporary geographical and cultural practices premised on the construction and maintenance of walls, fences, barriers, and borders of all kinds. The conference is scheduled to take place on 30 June-1 July 2018, at the University of Otago.

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Gaming, VR & Empathy

Friday, 25 May 2018 - Richardson Building, R6N4
Amanda Faye Martin (Otago)

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Indigenous social, cultural and political engagements on social media

Friday, 27 April 2018 - Richardson 6N4
*CANCELLED* - Challenging the stereotypical notion that Indigenous people do not engage with modern technology, this presentation explores how platforms such as Facebook and Twitter present a ‘new frontier’ for Indigenous activists.

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The most feminist show on television’?: The Fall, The Female Detective and Contemporary TV Crime Drama

Monday, 23 April 2018 - Richardson 6N4
This paper will examine the reception of the widely celebrated UK crime series The Fall (BBC, 2013- 2017), asking what it may suggest about the state of play for women in TV crime drama in today’s
postfeminist culture.

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Between Thriller and Comedy: Divided Belfast in Contemporary Film

Tuesday, 27 February 2018 - R6N4, Richardson Building, University of Otago - 85 Albany Street
Professor Stephanie Schwerter, Professor of Anglophone Literature, University of Valenciennes, France

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Cultures of Capitalism

Wednesday, 6 December 2017 - Massey University, Wellington Campus
Keynote Speakers: Professor Patricia Hill Collins (University of Maryland), Professor Jodi Dean (Hobart and William Smith Colleges), Professor Jeremy Gilbert (University of East London), Professor Wendy Larner (University of Victoria, Wellington).

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Laurie J. Ouellette: Fake President: Telemorphosis and the performance of grotesque sovereignty

Thursday, 23 November 2017 - Richardson Building, 6th Floor, North, Room 4 (R6N4)

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Kim Toffoletti: Sexy surfers, selfies, and social media – Encounters with Jean Baudrillard, Postfeminism and Post-truth

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 - Richardson, 6th Floor, North, Room 4 (R6N4)

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Mediating the Real 2: Mediations in a 'post-truth' era

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 - Richardson Building, 6th Floor, North, room 4 (R6N4), Dunedin campus
This conference asks and unpacks the interactions of (post) truth, the 'real' and contemporary media.

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Will the real racist please stand up?

Friday, 3 November 2017 - Richardson 6N4
This presentation build son critiques of post-racialism and use Charles Mills’ concept of white ignorance, to demonstrate how the disavowal of race in the Spanish context is related to a form of colonial amnesia.

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Screening the stage: Actresses and acting in France from Theatre to Silent Cinema

Wednesday, 25 October 2017 - Richardson Building, R6N6
Victoria Duckett is a lecturer in Screen and the Director of Entertainment Production at Deakin University. She has published extensively on actresses, archives and early film. Her book, Seeing Sarah Bernhardt: Performance and Silent Film (University of Illinois Press, 2015) was named a 2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. This year, she was awarded a Harry Ransom Center Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin and the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (University of Exeter) International Stipend.

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The algorithmic subject: The neo-liberal apparatus and the social media technology of power

Friday, 20 October 2017 - R6N4
Drawing on Foucault, the research shows that neo-liberalism has a varied and, at times, contradictory relationship with social media platforms.

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Big Data goes to the movies: Reshaping cinema studies

Friday, 29 September 2017
Every discipline has a metaphorical geography that delineates the shape and course of its intellectual itineraries. Cinema Studies is no exception. In reflecting on the ways in which our scholarly explorations might be experienced as expressions of, and interactions with, surfaces, spaces, situations and speeds we might ask, what are the particular perspectives and projections that delineate our paths to knowledge. And more importantly, how might they be reshaped.

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Teenage History, Popular Media and the 'Scrapbook Self'

Friday, 15 September 2017
Associate Professor Chris Brickell, Gender Studies, University of Otago

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White Noise of Desire

Friday, 25 August 2017
This paper considers two related propositions, which are interrogated as part of the Lacanian struggle for subjective articulation. The first proposition is that information and communication technologies retain their autonomy beyond the subject and the second is that such technologies are a product of their storage and containment.

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OUSA Art Week: Art as a political tool

Monday, 14 August 2017 - Castle 2
University of Otago

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Flags Die Harder than Men

Thursday, 13 July 2017 - Richardson 6N4
This presentation explores portrayals of the American Civil War (1861-1865) in the dominant television primetime genre of the early 1960s, the western.

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International screenwriters drawn to Dunedin for conference

Wednesday, 12 July 2017 10:29am

Some of the most prolific and central figures of the New Zealand film industry have been attracted to the country’s first international conference dedicated to screenwriting, being held at the University of Otago.

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Analysing Pleasure: A Symposium

Friday, 21 April 2017
CANCELLED - Analysing Pleasure: A Symposium - Masterclass with Professor Richard Dyer

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“Security, Race, Biopower” Book Launch

Friday, 31 March 2017 - Pequeño Lounge Bar, 50 Princes St, opposite Rialto Cinema
Come celebrate the launch of “Security, Race, Biopower: Essays on Technology and Corporeality”, a new collection from Palgrave MacMillan, edited by Dr Holly Randell-Moon and Ryan Tippet from the University of Otago’s Department of Media, Film and Communication.

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Disentangling Race: Re-narrating apartheid sport?

Friday, 24 March 2017 3:54pm

This presentation involves a search for interracial entanglements in South African sporrt and considers how these experiences may be narrated.

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Nietzschean Killers Meet Feminist Cop: Murder by Numbers and the Storying of Leopold and Loeb

Thursday, 20 October 2016 10:30am

This seminar examines the group of films based on the story of Nathan F. Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, whose joint kidnap and murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago on May 21, 1924 was famously dubbed the ‘crime of the century’.

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Screenwriting Research Network Conference

Sunday, 28 August 2016 10:36am

In 2017 the annual international conference on screenwriting research will be hosted and organised by the Department of Media, Film, and Communication at the University of Otago in Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.

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Otago alumnus receives prestigious MEA award

Tuesday, 28 June 2016 1:42pm

Dr David Paterno, who gained his PhD at Otago in 2015, has received a prestigious Media Ecology Association (MEA) award for his PhD thesis.

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2015 MFCO 300-level Undergraduate Essay Prize Winners

Thursday, 17 December 2015 10:39am

MFCO rewards top 300-level essays ...

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From Reality to the Dream

Thursday, 9 July 2015 4:36pm

Himiona Grace
Friday 31 July at 11:00am
Richardson 6N4
From Reality to the Dream is an open discussion about film making, from small story to big screen.

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Family Portraits

Thursday, 9 July 2015 4:26pm

Family Portraits: telling rainbow stories through comic style narratives

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ANZCA conference, Queenstown, July 2015

Wednesday, 8 July 2015 4:16pm

MFCO lecturer, Dr Michael Bourk and Donald Matheson from the University of Canterbury are co-convening the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association's 2015 conference titled Rethinking Communication, Place and Identity.

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Dr Davinia Thornley’s book launch

Thursday, 2 July 2015 11:15am

A celebration was held recently to launch Dr Davinia Thornley’s book, 'Cinema, Cross-Cultural Collaboration, and Criticism: Filming on an Uneven Field', published by Palgrave Macmillan.

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MFCO Student Winners

Thursday, 11 June 2015 10:33am

The strategic communication activities of local community organisations were on display in a student competition at the Dunedin Council Chambers last night.

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HoD to chair young writers’ panel

Thursday, 28 May 2015 4:28pm

NZ Young Writers Festival

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Mobilizing Māori identity: cultural capital and expatriate “portable personhood”

Thursday, 7 May 2015 8:48am

Article by Davinia Thornley - Mobilizing Māori identity: cultural capital and expatriate “portable personhood”

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Cinema and Post-Disaster Public Space

Friday, 13 March 2015 3:27pm

Cinema and Post-Disaster Public Space

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Latest papers for 2015

Monday, 9 February 2015 1:20pm

Writing for the Media and Digital Asia

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Need help choosing papers?

Sunday, 8 February 2015 11:03am

There are MFCO academic advisers available to help you choose papers for 2015.

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MFCO December Graduation Morning Tea

Thursday, 18 December 2014 2:19pm

MFCO December Graduation Morning Tea

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Essay Competition Awards

Thursday, 13 November 2014 9:01am

Winners of this year's Essay Competition

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Screenwriting Research Network International Conference 2017

Thursday, 13 November 2014 10:31am

The Department of Media, Film and Communication is bidding to host the annual international conference on screenwriting research in 2017 at the University of Otago in Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.

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Staff Publication: Edward Said: Intellectual Cultural Critic, Activist

Thursday, 16 October 2014 10:53am

Edward Said: Intellectual Cultural Critic, Activist

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Staff Publication: States of Violence: Geopolitics, Law, Technology

Thursday, 16 October 2014 10:54am

States of Violence: Geopolitics, Law, Technology

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Latest Staff Publications - Holly Randell-Moon

Tuesday, 10 June 2014 12:51pm

The latest issue of Critical Race and Whiteness Studies is out

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Surveillance, Copyright, Privacy: the End of the Open Internet - 30 January-1 February 2014

Wednesday, 5 February 2014 12:05pm

The Inaugural conference of the Digital Humanities Otago Research Group "Surveillance, Copyright, Privacy: the end of the open internet" was hosted by the MFCO department 30 January-1 February 2014.

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Cultures of Capitalism

Friday, 6 December 2013 11:37am

Keynote Speakers:
Professor Patricia Hill Collins (University of Maryland), Professor Jodi Dean (Hobart and William Smith Colleges), Professor Jeremy Gilbert (University of East London), Professor Wendy Larner (University of Victoria, Wellington).

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2013 MFCO 300-level Undergraduate Essay Prize Winners

Friday, 1 November 2013 12:41pm

MFCO rewards top 300-level essays ...

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400 level dissertation hand in

Friday, 1 November 2013 10:11am

Congratulations to the 2013 400 level students for a successful year, culminating in the submission of their dissertations

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2015 papers

Friday, 1 November 2013 10:22am

New papers for 2015

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Environments, Spaces and Transformations: Inaugural MFCO Early Career-Graduate Conference
5-6 June 2014

Friday, 1 November 2013 12:30pm



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2014 BAFTSS award given to Associate Professor Catherine Fowler

Friday, 1 November 2013 4:22pm

Associate Professor Catherine Fowler was awarded a prize in the recent 2014 BAFTSS award ceremony

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Special Olympics 2013

Friday, 1 November 2013 10:05am

Anumber of MFCO students have been awarded interships with the Special Olympics 2013

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Indian Cinema Conference 2013

Friday, 1 November 2013 10:11am

The Centenary of Indian Cinema Conference was held in Dunedin on 3-4 October 2013.  It was a thoroughly successful event and a good opportunity to share ideas and research opportunities with colleagues.

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MFCO student wins video competition

Tuesday, 8 October 2013 4:14pm

MFCO student Will Prosor has won the 2013 Humanities Student Phone Video competition. 

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MFCO 219 Broadcast and News Media

Friday, 27 September 2013 11:48am

Summer School at MFCO will be HOT!
This topical 200-level paper will have you thinking about the news and media that surrounds us.

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MFCO 113 Screen Production: Light, Sound, Motion.

Friday, 27 September 2013 3:47pm

Summer School at MFCO will be HOT!
Learn studio production skills in this intensive course.

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MFCO High Schools Open Day

Friday, 27 September 2013 4:11pm

The Department of Media, Film and Communication will be hosting an Open Day for interested High School students.
Staff and current students will give presentations about the department and the topics studied. 
All welcome!

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Sri Lankans still coming to terms with Boxing Day Tsunami: Otago research

Wednesday, 10 August 2011 9:19am

Six years after the Boxing Day tsunami that devastated coastal communities throughout South East Asia, survivors in southern Sri Lanka still struggle to make sense of the tragedy, according to new research by Dr Michael Bourk at the University of Otago.

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Internet access helping to arrest rural decline

Tuesday, 5 July 2011 8:57am

The Government’s rural broadband initiatives are likely to be very important for rural Otago communities, according to a recent survey conducted by Professor Geoff Kearsley from Otago University’s Department of Media, Film and Communication.