Cinema / Activism / Education

Over the past few decades, the field of film studies has undergone a significant reorientation toward social and political issues once marginalized within academic discourse, partly prompted by the encroachment of neoliberal rationalities that recast academic research as impact-driven and market-oriented. Topics and perspectives previously considered peripheral have gradually entered the mainstream, determining not only the questions we pose but the frameworks and methods we employ. Although shaped by present conditions, this shift also bears the influence of earlier generations of politically engaged scholars. As a result, our histories are now more diverse, our analyses more situated, our theories more interventionist. While film studies may appear to be expanding its political horizons, this engagement often takes place within the constraints of institutional pressures, funding demands, and neoliberal logics. These constraints command attention to how politically meaningful work can be pursued from within the academy. In this light, we are to question what forms of engagement emerge and what kinds of practices become possible at the intersection of scholarship, education, and activism. The challenge lies not only in how cinema is analyzed, but in how it is activated and mobilized—as a mode of teaching, a site of organizing, and a tool for collective action. Amid the ongoing decline of public life and the erosion of civic institutions, cinema may in fact represent one of the few remaining spaces where political imagination can be cultivated and sustained. By bringing together scholars, filmmakers, educators, and activists, the two-day conference will explore the intersections of cinema, education, and activism. In order to do so, it will address how film pedagogy can result in political consciousness and impact, while also expanding the possibilities for public engagement through cinema.

Please find the programme here.