 | Trance Mediums and New Media: Spirit Possession in the Age of Technical Reproduction Subjects: Channeling (Spiritualism) -- Congresses; Mass media and anthropology -- Congresses; Technology -- Congresses; Globalization -- Congresses; This volume explores the interferences of trance mediums and new technical media to add a new perspective to current debates on the "renaissance of the religious". Situated in the field of media anthropology it follows the question of how spirit possession is transformed by processes of globalization and mass mediation. Behrend Heike : Heike Behrend, previously a Professor of Anthropology and Media Studies at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Cologne, Germany, is now retired and lives in Berlin. She has conducted intensive research in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria. Since the early 1990s, she has been studying media in Africa, in particular photography and video, and has continued to investigate the relationship between religious change, violence, and war in Uganda. She has been teaching as a Visiting Professor at the E´cole des hautes e´tudes en sciences sociales in Paris; in the African Studies Program of Northwestern University; and at the University of Florida. In 2007, she was Senior Research Fellow at the IFK in Vienna. She has published extensively on photographic practices in eastern Africa and on religion, violence, and war. The most recent of her books are Resurrecting Cannibals: The Catholic Church, Witch-hunts, and the Production of Pagans in Western Uganda (James Currey, 2011) and Contesting Visibility: Photographic Practices on the East African Coast (Transcript-Verlag, 2013).Dreschke Anja : Anja Dreschke, an anthropologist and filmmaker from Cologne, received a degree in cultural anthropology, history of arts and theatre, and film and television studies from the University of Cologne. From 2007 to 2012 she worked as a researcher on the project ''Trance Mediums and New Media'' at the University of Siegen. Currently she is Research Fellow at the graduate school Locating Media at the University of Siegen and Lecturer for Visual and Media Anthropology at the University of Cologne. Recently she released the documentary film Tribes of Cologne, which is concurrently part of her Ph D. dissertation intended as a three-fold project combining text, video, and photography.Zillinger Martin : Martin Zillinger is Assistant Professor at the Research Lab ''Transformations of Life'' at the University of Cologne. A former graduate student of the University of Constance, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Tubingen and was a postdoctoral research fellow in the research project ''Trance Mediums and New Media 1900/2000'' and a Lecturer at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Siegen. He conducted extensive fieldwork in North Africa, especially in Morocco, and in Europe, particularly in Belgium. His research interests include media anthropology, anthropology of religion, and migration, with a special focus on the Mediterranean. He has published several articles and edited volumes. His dissertation, ''Die Trance, das Blut, die Kamera. Trance-Medien und Neue Medien im marokkanischen Sufismus,'' received the Frobenius Research Award of the Frobenius Society. |
