Visiting Scholar at Research Center for Media History

I encountered the Trilateral Network, when I was a visiting scholar at the Research Centre for Media History at Universität Hamburg during 2018 and 2019. Encouraged by Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wagner, I was invited to join an ongoing collaboration on “Transnational Media History”, and specifically media histories of the port cities Hamburg, Shanghai and Sydney. As part of this exchange, I participated in two workshop meetings, first in Hamburg in September 2018, and next in Shanghai in September 2019.

The project has offered me valuable opportunities to exchange ideas and knowledge about my own PhD project on media in refugee camps, as well as to get to know the other participant’s research. I could both rediscover my topic from the perspective of port cities and urban media history, as well as receive feedback and support from media historians across the globe. At the moment, we are working on a joint collection of essays on mediated spaces in the three port cities. Activities like these show how the network offers a great opportunity to connect scholars from East and West and gain insights into the research perspectives and traditions of each other.

Some personal highlights of the exchange were definitely the production of a video about “Transnational Media History” during the Hamburg workshop, but also a conversation with local activists trying to preserve the heritage of one of Shanghai’s historical harbor districts.

Philipp Seuferling

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