Talks

A selection of past and future talks by John Postill. See also Publications.

Future talks

Date TBC. Invited paper to the “Technologies, Mobilities, and the Political” workshop, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, US.

23-24 Feb 2018. The mediated field of new atheism: a lurking ethnography of polemical speech. Invited paper to the Global Digital Media Cultures and “Extreme Speech” workshop, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich.

19-20 Feb 2018. The global crisis of liberal democracy and its nerd mediators. Invited paper to the Media and Crisis: Rethinking the ‘Turning Point’ in Contemporary Culture workshop. School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.

8-10 Sep 2017. The anthropology of media: a critical introduction. Keynote to the symposium “Anthropology of Media in Turkey: Theory, Methodology, and Future Orientations”. Kadir Has University, Istanbul with support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New York.

8-10 August 2017. Populism and social media in Asia: a global perspective. Keynote to the symposium “Digital Transactions in Asia”, co-hosted by the Digital Media Research Centre (Queensland University of Technology) and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (University of Queensland), Brisbane.

29 June 2017. ‘The media practices of social movements: a critical overview of the literature’. Invited lecture to the Summer School on Media in Political Participation and Mobilization,  Centre on Social Movement Studies, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence.

27-30 April 2017. ‘The hybrid media space of nerd politics’. Invited paper to the ECPR joint sessions workshop on Digital Media and the Spatial Transformation of Public Contention, Nottingham, UK.

26 April 2017. ‘Nerd politics in Indonesia’. Invited lecture to the Digital Asia conference, Lund University, Sweden.

25 April 2017. ‘An introduction to digital ethnography’. Invited lecture to Lund University, Sweden.

8 Feb 2017. ‘Democracia, medios híbridos y derechos digitales: una comparación antropológica de cuatro culturas tecnopolíticas’ (‘Democracy, hybrid media and digital rights: an anthropological comparison of four techno-political cultures’). Invited lecture to the Human and Social Sciences Faculty, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain.

6 Dec 2016. ‘Are digital innovations like new recipes? An anthropological theory of materials and practical rules’. Presentation to the Innovation & Digital Ethnography workshop, Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC), RMIT Melbourne.

4 Nov 2016. ‘The rise of nerd politics: an ethnohistory of technical mediation’. Invited paper to the Anthropology Unit, Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki.

3 Nov 2016. ‘Victims, volunteers and voices of the digital age: personifying digital rights in Indonesia and beyond’. Invited paper to the Media and Communication Studies Unit, University of Helsinki.

1 Nov 2016. ‘Academic controversies in a hybrid media world’. Second keynote to the Researching Religious Controversies conference, Sigtuna Foundation, Sigtuna, Sweden.

1 Nov 2016. ‘Theory and method in media anthropology: a practical introduction’. First keynote to the Researching Religious Controversies conference, Sigtuna Foundation, Sigtuna, Sweden.

29 Oct 2016. ‘Bloguear conocimiento etnográfico’ (‘Blogging ethnographic knowledge’). Seminario en medios interactivos para la investigacion social. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), Lima, Peru (via Skype).

28 Oct 2016. ‘¿Es posible pensar una etnografía a distancia?‘ (‘Is remote ethnography possible?’). Círculo de Estudios sobre Antropología de lo Digital, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina (via Skype).

12 Oct 2016. ‘Spain’s current political impasse’.  Presentation to the Resolving Spain’s political deadlock seminar, RMIT University, Melbourne.

19 Sep 2016. ‘Digital Indonesia in comparison’. Invited paper to the Digital Indonesia mini-conference, Indonesia Update 2016, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia.

16 Sep 2016. ‘Digital Indonesia in comparison’. Invited paper to the Digital Indonesia conference, Indonesia Update 2016, Australian National University (ANU), Canberra.

27 July 2016. Writing from research online. Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC) PhD Lab. RMIT city campus, Building 9, level 2, room 9, 3.30pm – 5.30pm.

11 May 2016. Presentation on public scholarship and social media to the seminar “Engaging with the media – what’s in it for you?”, RMIT University, City Campus, Melbourne.

10 May 2016. Doing social media ethnography. Guest lecture and seminar to the Masters of Communication course, School of Media and Communication, RMIT, 5.30-7.00 pm.

21-22 April 2016. Invited paper (via Skype, with Kurniawan Saputro) to the fourth seminar of the Social Movements and Media Technologies (SoME) Seminar Series, “The Missing Actor: The Meaning of Political Cultures for Media/Movements Interactions”, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence.

14-15 April 2016. Online religion and digital democracy in Indonesia: a field theoretical exploration of Internet Sehat as a site of political struggle. Invited paper (with Leonard Chrysostomos Epafras) to the workshop “Social Media and Islamic Practice in Southeast Asia”, Vienna.  Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences.

14 March 2016. Invited lecture, “El uso colectivo de recursos visuales en la web: análisis desde la etnografía digital”, Auditorio Campus, Universidad de Las Américas Ecuador (UDLA), Quito, Ecuador (in Spanish).

2-20 March 2016. A series of lectures and master classes on media/digital anthropology at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima (in Spanish).

3-4 Dec 2015. Internet struggles in Southeast Asia: an ethnographic account of RightsCon 2015, Manila. Keynote to the first Internet in Southeast Asia conference, Monash University, Malaysia.

16-17 Nov 2015. Freedom technologists vs. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): a field-theoretical analysis. Keynote to the international conference “Media, culture and change across the Pacific: perspectives from Asia, Oceania and the Americas“, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima.

5 Oct 2015. ‘Internet policy vs. protest practice: surveillance, counter-surveillance and Hong Kong’s Occupy Central’. Paper (with Victor Lasa and Dino Zhang) to the Internet Policy Workshop, Swinburne University, Melbourne.

24-26 Sep 2015. Keynote to the 5th International Postgraduate Conference, “Whose Voice?”, Department of Applied Social Sciences (APSS) of the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong with the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC), Hong Kong (delivered via skype).

14 Sep 2015. ‘Electoral monitoring and social media in Indonesia’s 2014 presidential campaigns’. Invited presentation at Roskilde University, Denmark (delivered via skype).

11 Sep 2015. Invited lecture to the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden (unable to travel). 

9 Sep 2015, 14.15 to 16.00. ‘Freedom technologists and political change in the early 21st century: a comparative approach’. Invited talk at the Department of Social Anthropology jointly with the Overheating project, University of Oslo, Norway (unable to travel).

10 July 2015. Presentation (with Jolynna Sinanan) on Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement to the 2nd Digital Politics Network meeting, RMIT University, Melbourne.

26 May 2015. Presentation on social media ethnography to the Social Media Research Masterclass, RMIT University, Melbourne.

15 May 2015. Digital politics and civic engagement in Spain and Indonesia. Invited presentation (via Skype) to the Social Movements and Media Technologies Seminar Series, Goldsmiths College, London.

20 March 2015. Monitory democracy and Spain’s indignados movement (in Indonesian). Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), Jl Kalibata Timur IV/D No. 6, Jakarta.

20 February 2015. Opening remarks to the Digital media and socio-political change workshop, RMIT Digital Ethnography Research Centre, Melbourne.

30-31 October 2014. The concept of freedom technologists. Presentation to the RMIT Digital Ethnography Research Centre and RMIT Europe media and communication conceptual hackathon, Barcelona.

22 October 2014. Digital ethnography and Spain’s indignados movement: research challenges and opportunities (with Angel Barbas). School of Media and Communication, RMIT, Melbourne. 

25-27 August 2014. Talks on media/digital anthropology and social movements at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima (in Spanish).

16 April 2014. New protest movements and the mainstreaming of internet politics: a ground-up comparison of Malaysia, Iceland, Tunisia and Spain. Anthropology Department seminar, University of Melbourne, 4.30- 6.00 pm.

21 Jan 2014. Hacker, lawyer, journalist, spy: the field dynamics of techno-political expertise in Spain’s new protest movement, 2010-2014. Launch of media ethnography group, Goldsmiths College, London. 5 pm. More information here.

23 Jan 2014. Digital ethnography and the global information crisis: theories, methods and publics. Oxford Digital Ethnography Group (OxDEG), University of Oxford, 4.30 pm. More information here.

25 Nov 2013. Ethnography for theorising media and change. Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona.

11 Sep 2013. A short history of digital activism in post-Suharto Indonesia. Asia@RMIT Seminar Series, RMIT University, Melbourne, City Campus 80.5.1, 11 September 2013 from 12.15 to 1.30 pm.

26 July 2013. Spain’s post-Franco culture and the indignados movement: change or continuity? (La cultura de la transición española y el movimiento 15M: ¿cambio o continuidad?), Spanish and Latin American Studies Research Seminar Series, RMIT University, Melbourne.

24 May 2013. Mobile phones and actual changes (big and small) in the global South: a preliminary exploration. Keynote address to the Mobile Telephony in the Developing World Conference, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, May 24-25, 2013. [PDF]

14 March 2013. New protest fields and the technological mediation of (non)violence: a diachronic analysis of Spain’s #15M movement. Invited paper to the workshop ‘Beyond The Arab Spring: The Aesthetics And Poetics Of Popular Revolt And Protest’, Aga Kahn University, London.

12 July 2012. Media and social changing since 1979: Towards a diachronic ethnography of media and actual social changes. Paper to the EASA 2012 biennial conference, Nanterre, Paris. See e-seminar discussion of revised version (E-seminar 42, Media Anthropology Network).

7 March 2012. The changing mediascape of Spain’s 15-M movement: a processual analysis. Anthropology Department seminar, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

29 February 2012. An anthropological analysis of the use of media for political mobilisation. Invited paper to the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), University of Oxford.

26 Jan 2012. Researching digital media and social change: a theory of practice approach. Invited lecture, IULM University, Milan.

30 November 2011. Theorising media and social change, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne.

7-8 October 2011. Two concepts of field, one Spanish Revolution. Invited paper to the advanced seminar Reconceptualizing Sociality convened by Vered Amit, University of Concordia, Montreal. Funded by Canada’s SSHRC.

13 Sep 2011. Invited paper ‘Social media, activism and the #SpanishRevolution’, first Ørecomm Festival, Agency in the Mediatized World, Copenhagen, 9–13 September 2011.

17 January 2011. ‘Socio-technical barriers to the spread of digital virals: the case of internet activists in Malaysia and Spain’, Invited paper to the higher seminar series, Karlstad University.

23 Nov 2010. Invited paper ‘Medios sociales y activismo en Barcelona’ to the Mediaccciones seminar series, Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona, 23 November 2010.

24-27 August 2010. Mobile rewards: a critical review of the Mobiles for Development (M4D) literature. Paper (with Francisco Osorio) to the Media Anthropology Network workshop: The Rewards of Media, EASA2010: Crisis and imagination, Maynooth (Ireland).

25-27 June 2010. Social media activism: three working assumptions. Paper to the symposium Networking Democracy? New Media Innovations in Participatory Politics Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania.

24 Oct 2009. Invited paper ‘Thinking outside community: a Malaysian field of residential affairs and its multiple socialities’ to the advanced seminar Reconceptualizing Sociality, University of Buffalo, New York. Funded by the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, SUNY.

5 May 2009. The weakness of weak ties: personal media and social leadership in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. Paper to the Anthropology Department, University of Vienna, 5 May 2009  abstract; full draft

26 March 2009. Two modes of governance, one social field: digital media and residential affairs in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. Presentation to the workshop Modes of Governance in Digitally Networked Environments, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University.

20 February 2009. Invited lecture ‘Tecnologías personales y liderazgo social en zonas residenciales: los casos de Kuala Lumpur, Toronto, Melbourne y Tel Aviv”, Department of Sociology II, University of the Basque Country, Bilbao.

28 January 2009. Local leadership, personal media: a practice-theoretical approach. Invited lecture to the Department for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Passau.

10 May 2008. Keynote to Mending the Gaps: Re-Thinking Media Theory and Practice symposium, Centre for Media and Film Studies,  School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

2 April 2008. From action groups to smart mobs: a review of old and new conceptualisations of ad-hoc political action. Paper to the 58th Political Studies Association Annual, Swansea University, Wales, 1-3 April 2008.

11 March 2008. New media audiences: recent anthropological research. Invited public lecture, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge University.

4 Oct 2007. The elements of media: a field theoretical exploration. Invited presentation to the German Anthropological Association (DGV) conference, Martin Lüther University, Wittenberg-Halle.

3 Oct 2007. Malaysian etopias. Invited presentation to the international expert meeting “Computer technology and the transformation of the secular” at the Hague, organized by Prof Peter Pels, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

25 June 2007. The study of media and literacy beyond the ideological paradigm. Invited presentation to the symposium ‘Ecriture and Literacy: the constitution of a field of research in Great Britain and France’ École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) Paris.

8-12 May 2007. From action-sets to smart mobs: a review of old and new conceptualisations of sociality in action. Paper to the workshop ‘Old And New Reconceptualizations of Sociality’ Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) Annual Conference, Toronto University.

15 March 2007. Internet activism and local government in Malaysia. Invited paper to the Anthropology Department seminar, University of East London, 15 March 2007.

19 Nov 2006. New mediators and e-governance in a Kuala Lumpur suburb, 1999-2005. Paper to the EASA conference, Bristol, 18-21 September.

1 Nov 2006. Internet activism and local government in Malaysia. Invited seminar presentation, Anthropology Department, Durham University.

6 Sep 2006. Media change and the limits of field theory. Paper to the conference ‘Media Change and Social Theory’, 6-8 September 2006, St Hughs College, University of Oxford.

10 May 2006. Dramas, fields, and threads: exploring sociality in a Malaysian cyberdistrict. Paper to the workshop ‘Complementing Community: Expanding the Conceptual Repertoire of Sociation’ Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) Annual Conference, Concordia University, Montreal, May 9-15 2006.

12 April 2006. The proliferation of social technologies and its challenge to anthropological theories of urban sociation, Paper to the ASA Diamond Jubilee Conference Keele, 10-13 April 2006.

9 Dec 2005 A few comments on media and sociation. Paper to the EASA Media Anthropology Workshop ‘Using anthropological theory to understand media forms and practices’, Loughborough University, 9 December 2005.

Sep 2005. Internet y epidemiología cultural en Malasia: reflexiones desde la antropología cognitiva. Paper to the Spanish Anthropology Conference, Seville, September 2005.

14 Oct 2004 New Media and local governance in a multiethnic suburb of Kuala Lumpur. Paper to Culture and Media Analysis Research Group (CaMarg), University of Loughborough, UK, 14 October 2004.

3 Aug 2004. Running suburbia: new media and local governance in Subang Jaya. Paper to the 4th International Malaysian Studies Conferences, UKM, Bangi, Malaysia, 3-5 August 2004.

28 Feb 2004. E-governance in Subang Jaya: some anthropological findings, ATMA, National University of Malaysia (UKM), 28 February 2004.

12 Sep 2003. The development of sustainable propaganda. Paper to the conference Cabaran Pembangunan, Dilema Persekitaran (Development Challenges, Environmental Dilemmas) UKM, Bangi, Malaysia 12-13 September 2003.

10 July 2003. Local e-governance in Subang Jaya, Malaysia: a preliminary report. Netcultures research meeting, Anthropology Department, University of Manchester, 10 July 2003.

30 May 2003. Anthropology as a historical science. Public lecture at the Chinese State Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur, 30 May 2003.

9 Oct 2002. The social life and afterlife of Iban TV sets. Anthropology Department Research Seminar, University College London, 9 October 2002.

14 Sep 2002. Nation-states as culture areas: a comparison of popular media in Bali and Sarawak. Paper to the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Workshop “Globalizing Media and Local Society in Indonesia ”, Leiden, 13–14 September 2002.

5 June 2002. Images, bodies and media: an anthropological introduction. Keynote address to the Anthropological Meeting, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, 5 June 2002.

7 Dec 2001. The visual anthropology of non-visual anthropologists. Paper to the Research Group (Graduiertenkolleg) on “Image, Body, Media”, Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, 7 December 2001.

22 Sep 2001. Using maps and diagrams to teach ethnology. Paper to the panel ‘Iconography in anthropological teaching, research and representation’, part of ‘Working Images’, a joint meeting of the Visual Anthropology Network and Teaching Anthropology Network of the EASA, Museu Nacional de Etnologia, Lisbon, 20th-23rd September 2001.

28 July 2000. Borneo again? Media and the nationalisation of East Malaysia. Paper to the workshop ‘Deterritorialising and Territorialising the Nation’ of the 6th EASA Conference, Krakow, 26-29 July 2000.

11 July 2000. Of popular images and anthropological method. Lecture to the Anthropology Department, University of Heidelberg, 11 July 2000.

24 Feb 2000. Social anthropology, media and development. Paper to the conference ‘Anthropology, Mass Media and Local Development’. UTAD, Miranda do Douro, Portugal, 24-26 February 2000.

13 Dec 1999. Ritual, media and sound among the Iban of Malaysian Borneo. Paper to the Symposium ‘Turn on and Tune in: Media and Sound in Anthropology’. University of Frankfurt (Main), 13 December 1999.

26 April 1999. The uneven distribution of visual representations across human regions: a comparative exploration. Lecture to the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, 26 April 1999.

6 March 1999. Ritual, performance and media: the Iban case. Invited presentation to the Media and Religion Workshop, School of Oriental and African Studies. London, 6 March 1999.

4 April 1998. The Iban Section of Radio Televisyen Malaysia. Paper (in Iban) to the workshop on the current situation and futures of Iban-language broadcasting. Kuching, 4 April 1998.

10 April 1998. Media and social change among the Iban of Sarawak: some preliminary reflections. Invited lecture to the Museum of Sarawak in collaboration with the Council for Customary Law. Kuching, 10 April 1998.

2 May 1995. A Sandinist counterattack in Borneo: a late reply to Derek Freeman (in Spanish). Special lecture at the National Museum of Anthropology. Madrid, 2 May 1995.

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