Events

Uncorking an old bottle found in the Atlantic Sea: What does "Critical Theory" want from film?

with Gertrud Koch

When:
Friday, November 6, 2015, 5:00pm - 5:00pm
Description:

'Critical Theory' might be understood as the Frankfurt School’s conceptual answer to the crisis of philosophy in the frame of the sciences. 'Critical Theory' was meant to readjust the relation between different epistemic orders in the humanities, the sciences, philosophy and aesthetics. Koch's lecture focuses on the philosophical undercurrents that shape the thoughts on film and mass audiences in the work of Adorno, Benjamin and Marcuse.

The Miriam Hansen Memorial Lecture honors the academic program founder's scholarship and contributions in the field of cinema studies.  We are pleased to welcome Gertrud Koch, Professor in Film Studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin, as the first speaker in this annual event.

Gertrud Koch teaches cinema studies at the Free University in Berlin where she is also the director of a research center on aesthetic experience  www.sfb626.de. She has taught at many international universities like Columbia, NYU, UPenn, Berkeley, Brown and others and was a research fellow at the Getty Center, at Brown University’s Cogut Center for Humanities and the Pembroke Center 2015.

Koch has written books on Herbert Marcuse and Siegfried Kracauer, feminist film theory, and on the representation of Jewish history. She has edited numerous volumes on aesthetics, perception and film theory. She  is also a co-editor and board member of the journals Babylon, Frauen und  Film, October, Constellations, and Philosophy & Social Criticism.

Sponsored by the Department of Cinema & Media Studies.