WTMC Summer School ‘Ethnography, Digital Objects and STS, with anchor Dr. Christine Hine

Dates and location: 4-8 September 2017, Soeterbeeck, Ravenstein (NL)

Important parts of everyday life are today somehow mediated by digital media. Relationships use electronic communication. We produce and at the same time consume knowledge, information and data in all that we do, and much of this passes through digital channels. Practically all infrastructures (including transport, finance, electricity) depend upon the flows of information and communication. If we shift our research focus to digital phenomena, what difference does this make for our research methods? How can we, as scholars, generate knowledge from digital content? Research always requires some work to be done to make the research object available for scrutiny, but is this work different for digital research objects? During this week we will explore methodological specificities related to ‘the digital’, study examples of research where either the research object or the methodology has a substantial digital component, and engage in exercises and activities to enhance your research skills.

The WTMC Summer School is aimed at PhD candidates who are in the first phase of preparing their doctoral dissertations. The Summer School will offer many interesting insights at both the methodological and content levels, with relevance stretching far beyond internet research. Also for those not focusing on ‘the internet’ as such, the Summer School will contain many other points of connection.

We’re delighted that Christine Hine will act as this year’s anchor teacher. Hine is a Reader at the Department of Sociology, University of Surrey. Her work in STS has included ethnographic studies of scientific culture, information technology and the Internet. She has made important contributions to methods of virtual ethnography. Her recent book, Ethnography for the Internet. Embedded, Embodied and Everyday, deals with the hybridity of the object of analysis of contemporary social research: both online and offline affairs matter, and how does one go about studying them meaningfully together? What is ‘place’ in this hybrid perspective and how does it matter? And how does embodied experience change?

Confirmed guest lecturers include Vlad Niculescu (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Nishant Shah (ArtEZ School of the Arts), Justus Uitermark (University of Amsterdam), Karin Wenz (Maastricht University), and Sally Wyatt (Maastricht University / Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences).

Preparation for the Summer School is estimated at 80 hours in total. The Summer School is credited with 5 ECTS. The Summer School is residential as the programme continues into the evening (not on Friday). Full participation in all parts of the programme is required.

PhD candidates who are enrolled in the WTMC educational programme are only charged €10 per day for meals. For external PhD candidates, a participation fee of €1130 (€1060 for members of EASST) is charged. Accommodation and meals are provided and included in the fee.

The Summer School takes place in the convent Soeterbeeck, Ravenstein (near Nijmegen) in The Netherlands.

The registration form for this summer school is available here. Please register by 31 May 2017.

If you have any practical questions related to the summer school, please contact Elize Schiweck ([email protected]) For content-related questions, contact the coordinators Govert Valkenburg: [email protected] or Bernike Pasveer; [email protected] .