NISIS Workshop Day ‘Islam & the media’ in collaboration with the NISIS Junior Council

On Friday the 20th of May, Research School NISIS will organize a Workshop day about ‘Islam & the media’ for RMA and PhD students. After two plenary sessions, one with a keynote by dr. Martijn de Koning (Radboud University) and another Prof. Dr. Maurits Berger (Leiden University), you can attend two different workshops. The first focuses on writing a quality abstract and the other zooms in on the topic ‘Islam & the media'(parallel workshops offered in English and Dutch). Those who aim to brush up their writing skills even more can also attend the writing clinic in the morning.

The program is as follows:
• 09.00 – 09.15: welcome with coffee and tea
• 09.15 – 10.45: writing clinic (room 033)
• 10.45 – 11.00: short break with coffee and tea
• 11.00 – 12.00: keynote by Maurits Berger (room ‘Rood’)
• 12.00 – 13.30: lunch break and free time
• 13.30 – 14.30: keynote by Martijn de Koning (room ‘Rood’)
• 14.30 – 15.30: workshop ‘Islam and Media’ by Ewoud Butter (in Dutch) (room 115)
• 14.30 – 15.30: workshop ‘Muslims and Jews in the Media – a comparative study dating back to the 1900s’by Thijl Sunier and Aalt Smienk (in English) (room C(48))
• 15.30 – 15.45: short break with coffee and tea
• 15.45 – 16.45: workshop ‘how to write a good abstract’ by Mònica Colominas (room 138)
• Evening: drinks at Cafe Hofman, Janskerkhof 17A, Utrecht

Location: Marinus Ruppert building, Leuvenlaan 21, Utrecht.

Keynote lecture by prof. dr. Maurits Berger (Leiden University)
During this lecture, Maurits Berger will zoom in on how academics can go out of their peer-review bubble to actively shape and participate in the discourse on Islam going on in the media. After his talk, there will be plenty of time for discussion.

Keynote lecture by dr. Martijn de Koning (RU)
“How will people see me?” – Dutch Muslims responding to the imagination of risk and Islam in Dutch policies and media and the construction of a regime of surveillance
O’Malley (2016: 86): “If it can be imagined, it must be governed.”
In this lecture I explore the construction of the figure of The Muslim through policies and media and the responses by Dutch Muslims. After a brief discussion about representation and the racialization of Muslims, I will present three vignettes to highlight different ways in which Muslims are related to danger and being out of place. The first one highlights the normalization of seeing the Muslim male body as a representation of a concrete danger, the second pertains the Muslim female body as a representation of unwillingness to become and the third shows the erasure of particular representations. Together, I suggest, these vignettes show how Muslims are interpellated as on ontological risk for Dutch society. Based upon my informal conversations, interviews and observations I will then outline the different types of responses to these imaginations and argue that they construct a regime of surveillance among Muslims.

Workshops
How do I write a high-quality abstract? – EN
How do you write the perfect abstract for a conference? And how can you ensure that your paper is selected? In this workshop, led by dr. Mònica Colominas Aparicio (RUG), you will learn more about the qualities of a good abstract. Based on your own previously prepared abstract, the workshop will help you craft an improved version, while discussing common pitfalls and mistakes.
Islam and the media – NL
What do you encounter when you are an editor at a newspaper, a radio program or a TV station when it comes to reporting about the Islam or Muslims? In this practical, insightful and fun workshop, led by Ewoud Butter, you can gain experience first hand (for Dutch speakers only).
Muslims and Jews in the Media – a comparative study dating back to the 1900s – EN
This workshop will be led by Prof. Thijl Sunier (also Chairman of the NISIS board) and is inspired by a dissertation of Aalt Smienk, one of his PhD students, who compares the reporting about Jews in 1900 with the reporting about Muslims in 2000. This research has been conducted with a quantitative tool which made it possible to analyse large quantities of newspaper articles published around 1900 in precisely the same way as newspaper articles published around 2000. In this way the researcher was able to avoid the so-called ‘holocaust-bias’. Contemporary perceptions on the position of Jews in the late 19th century are strongly influenced by the murder on over 6 million Jews by the Nazi’s. In this way the emancipation process of the two communities could be juxtaposed to explore differences and similarities.
Writing clinic
Together with the other participants, you will discuss a chapter of your master thesis or dissertation, or another dissertation-related paper you have finished writing or are still working on. This writing clinic will give you the opportunity to receive in-depth feedback from senior researchers other than your PhD supervisor(s), as well as from master and PhD peers.

More information about the writing clinic can be found here.

Active participation of the Workshop day will be rewarded with I ECT. Participants of the writing clinic will also receive 1 ECT. The deadline for registration is 13 May. Please register for the Workshop day here or by sending an e-mail to nisis@uu.nl.

Limited travel funds are available for NISIS members. For details, please contact the NISIS front office via nisis@uu.nl.

The workshop will follow current COVID-19 regulations in higher education for students and will therefore take place with the 1.5 meter social distancing rule inside the classrooms, if possible.