CfP: A Media History in n+1 Sources — Reloaded

21 November 2024, ENTER Museum Solothurn 

For the fourth meeting of Media History | CH, the research network for media historians and media scholars, curators, and archivists in Switzerland, we call again for contributions that exemplify the variety of historical sources used for doing media history.  

Written sources, photographs, and other still images, as well as audiovisual materials are at the core of historical media research. This one-day workshop aims to gather and discuss sources used in research projects in Swiss universities or dealing with Swiss media to share methodological insights, provide practical tools, and discuss difficulties related to archival access and preservation. More specifically, each participant is invited to: 

  1. “Bring” her/his source, if possible, in its original material dimension
  2. Explain and discuss the source in elevator pitch style (max. 5’) 
  3. Make clear which are the stories that can be told thanks to the source

We invite scholars, archivists, and curators to submit a 100-word abstract with the source they want to discuss and addressing the 3 points mentioned above. The abstracts should be sent to gabriele.balbi@usi.ch by 6 September 2024 and notifications of acceptance will be sent out by 27 September 2024. 

The one-day workshop will be structured as follows:  

11.30 am: Get together and lunch (not included) 

12.30 pm – 2pm: ENTER Museum Visit 

2.00 – 2.30 pm: Coffee Break  

2.30 – 4.00 pm: Presentations and discussions of sources  

4.00 – 4.30 pm: Business meeting of Mediahistory.ch  

4.30 – 5.00 pm: Coffee Break  

5.00 – 7.00 pm: Media Biographies

From 7.00 pm: Aperitif 

This is a free-fee events and two coffee breaks and the aperitif will be offered by us (lunch is excluded) 

The workshop is the annual meeting of Media History | CH, a research network for media historians in Switzerland which brings together scholars from different fields with research interests in media history, archivists, and curators from museums to advance the study of media history in Switzerland (for more information: https://mediahistory.ch/ 

Our claim (again for 2024): Bring your own source – We provide food, drinks and networking! 

For the network: Gabriele Balbi, Markus Krajewski and Anne-Katrin Weber