Media and Performance Studies

"Nationally and internationally the Research Group has consolidated and enhanced its strong positions in its fields of excellence such as contemporary theatre and dance, community performance, early cinema, the history of cinema going, early television, and computer games. It is firmly embedded in several important international networks [...]"
Evaluation report, 2008 

Utrecht research on Media and Performance is historically oriented and comparative in design, approaching its objects as dynamic constellations of discourses, technologies, economic strategies, socio-cultural practices, aesthetic values, and ways audiences are addressed.  

This group focuses on aspects of historical and contemporary media and performance cultures, from post-dramatic theatre to early cinema, from European television culture to interactive media, from multi-media dance performances to computer games. Issues of media and performance are studied in particular as means by and through which identity, culture, meaning and memory are constructed. 

The members of this interdisciplinary group participate in Utrecht University's research focus area Cultures and Identities.