Dr Niels Niessen
Assistant Professor of Culture Studies
TSHD: Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences
TSHD: Department of Culture Studies
Bio
My areas of interest are everyday life, cinema and streaming media studies, feminism and queer theory, and literacy in all its analogue and digital forms. I did my Ph.D. (2013) in Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, after which I was a researcher at the University of Toronto's Cinema Studies Institute. From 2019 tot 2023 I worked at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Since 2019, I work on the European Research Council-funded project "Platform Discourses: A Critical Humanities Approach to Big Tech Companies." Currently, I work on a book on how Big Tech colonizes everyday life--and how we should resist. My book Miraculous Realism: The French-Walloon Cinéma du Nord was published with SUNY Press (2020). I also published essays on Apple, Black Panther and Kendrick Lamar, David Lynch, and The Matrix . I am a member of WOinActie.
Teaching
"Minor Movements: How to Create Space for Personal and Political Change" (PhD and MA seminar, together with Jeroen Boom), Research School for Gender Studies (NOG) and Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (Utrecht, 2022-2023)
Courses
Highlights
Book
Miraculous Realism: The French-Walloon Cinéma du Nord (New York: SUNY Press, 2020), link
Essays (selection)
"Lithium for the Metaverse: Myths of Nuclear and Digital Fusion," in: Liedeke Plate et al eds., Materials of Culture: Approaches to Materials in Cultural Studies (Transcript Publishing, 2023).
"Forget the Red Pill: Queer Politics but also Transhumanist Ideology in The Matrix ," Film Criticism (2022), link
"Claim het Dagelijks Leven Terug (en Word als Links weer een Emancipatiebeweging)," Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks (2022), link
"Shot on iPhone: Apple’s World Picture," Advertising and Society Quarterly (2021), link
"Black Panther Transmedia (The Revolution Will Not Be Streamed)," Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (2021), link
"Mad Men and Mindfulness," Discourse (2019)
"American Dreams featuring David Lynch," Cultural Critique (2019)
"Hunting for Easter Eggs in the Dardennes’ Rosetta," Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies (2018), pdf
"access denied: Godard Palestine Representation," Cinema Journal (2013), pdf
"Lives of Cinema: Against its 'Death',” Screen (2011), pdf
Presentations
"Klinkt als Billie Eilish: Het Geluid van Spotify" ("Sounds as Billie Eilish: A Critical Note on Spotify"), Radboud Sounds (2023), link
"Squid Game: Pervers, Medemenselijk, Conventioneel," presentatie Radboud Reflects (2021), link en video
Opinie
"Universiteiten, stop met bespieden eigen studenten," Volkskrant (2021), link
"Amsterdam, verbied reclame voor ontwrichtende flitsbezorgers," Het Parool (2021 ), link
"Onderwijsinstellingen, kies voor open source (met Candida Leone en Bob van Vliet)," Science Guide (2020), link
"Waarde van onderwijs is meer dan alleen economische groei (met 5 mede-auteurs)," NRC Onderwijsblog (2021), link
"Geldtekort voor wetenschappelijk onderwijs wordt eindelijk erkend" (met Rens Bod, Remco Breuker en Ingrid Robeyns), NRC (2019), link
"Alleen nog geld voor een kwart vaste aanstelling als docent (met Geertje Hulzebos)," NRC Onderwijsblog (2019), link
"Turnitin violates the academic integrity it claims to protect," Folia (2018), link