Kevin Smets
@kevinsmets.bsky.social
Professor media & culture at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Teaches film history. ERC project www.reelborders.eu. Film, migration, Turkey, borders, media. Research group ECHO: Media, Culture & Politics
Pinned
Kevin Smets
@kevinsmets.bsky.social
· Feb 6
How participatory filmmaking can deepen our understanding of life on the border
As part of the ERC-funded project Reel Borders, researchers and participants joined forces to create a series of films addressing questions of border experiences, citizenship and belonging, trauma,…
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Following my research stay at the LSE, I wrote this blogpost for Media@LSE about the "afterlife" of participatory filmmaking. Thank you to @myriageorgiou.bsky.social for this opportunity & to @irenegutierrez.bsky.social for your amazing work on the films. Full text: blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/202...
⚡ Out now: Javnost-The Public special issue "The far-right and the politics of films, series and videogames", co-edited w @benjamindecleen.bsky.social, Omran Shroufi, Joke Bauwens & me. Full issue here www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjav20/3...
October 24, 2025 at 6:50 AM
⚡ Out now: Javnost-The Public special issue "The far-right and the politics of films, series and videogames", co-edited w @benjamindecleen.bsky.social, Omran Shroufi, Joke Bauwens & me. Full issue here www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjav20/3...
Reposted by Kevin Smets
De academie die brandhout maakte van de Vlaamse canon, de KVAB, krijgt nu de rekening gepresenteerd. Ze verliest al (!) haar subsidies in 2026.
Minister-president noemt de academie (die nochtans de Vlaamse kandidaat Nobelprijswinnaars voordraagt) geen kerntaak meer.
apache.be/2025/10/16/d...
Minister-president noemt de academie (die nochtans de Vlaamse kandidaat Nobelprijswinnaars voordraagt) geen kerntaak meer.
apache.be/2025/10/16/d...
Diependaele keldert Vlaamse academie die brandhout maakte van Vlaamse canon
De Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten verliest in 2026 al haar subsidies.
apache.be
October 16, 2025 at 1:53 PM
De academie die brandhout maakte van de Vlaamse canon, de KVAB, krijgt nu de rekening gepresenteerd. Ze verliest al (!) haar subsidies in 2026.
Minister-president noemt de academie (die nochtans de Vlaamse kandidaat Nobelprijswinnaars voordraagt) geen kerntaak meer.
apache.be/2025/10/16/d...
Minister-president noemt de academie (die nochtans de Vlaamse kandidaat Nobelprijswinnaars voordraagt) geen kerntaak meer.
apache.be/2025/10/16/d...
New papers from the @erc.europa.eu Reel Borders project: on "Borderwork as artistic practice" in Geopolitics + on participatory filmmaking in Sensate.
▶️ doi.org/10.1080/1465...
▶️ sensatejournal.com/rethinking-a...
By stellar team Lennart Soberon @silviamaresia.bsky.social & Irene Gutiérrez-Torres
▶️ doi.org/10.1080/1465...
▶️ sensatejournal.com/rethinking-a...
By stellar team Lennart Soberon @silviamaresia.bsky.social & Irene Gutiérrez-Torres
September 3, 2025 at 6:55 AM
New papers from the @erc.europa.eu Reel Borders project: on "Borderwork as artistic practice" in Geopolitics + on participatory filmmaking in Sensate.
▶️ doi.org/10.1080/1465...
▶️ sensatejournal.com/rethinking-a...
By stellar team Lennart Soberon @silviamaresia.bsky.social & Irene Gutiérrez-Torres
▶️ doi.org/10.1080/1465...
▶️ sensatejournal.com/rethinking-a...
By stellar team Lennart Soberon @silviamaresia.bsky.social & Irene Gutiérrez-Torres
Sending this manuscript off to @edinburghup.bsky.social today! In a few months we'll hopefully be able to share the whole thing. Great team work with Lennart Soberon, Irene Gutiérrez-Torres and @silviamaresia.bsky.social #ReelBorders #kinotopias @erc.europa.eu
July 16, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Sending this manuscript off to @edinburghup.bsky.social today! In a few months we'll hopefully be able to share the whole thing. Great team work with Lennart Soberon, Irene Gutiérrez-Torres and @silviamaresia.bsky.social #ReelBorders #kinotopias @erc.europa.eu
Reposted by Kevin Smets
(1/1) New! Film Atlas (filmatlas.com) is an online encyclopedia of film as a physical medium, featuring essays + images contributed by 200+ authors from 25+ countries.
June 3, 2025 at 4:31 PM
(1/1) New! Film Atlas (filmatlas.com) is an online encyclopedia of film as a physical medium, featuring essays + images contributed by 200+ authors from 25+ countries.
Reposted by Kevin Smets
Academic freedom in the Netherlands under pressure.
New report from Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences @knaw-nl.bsky.social
What is needed:
🚩 stronger freedom of research
🚩 less substantive government influence
🚩 support against intimidation and attacks
www.knaw.nl/nieuws/knaw-...
New report from Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences @knaw-nl.bsky.social
What is needed:
🚩 stronger freedom of research
🚩 less substantive government influence
🚩 support against intimidation and attacks
www.knaw.nl/nieuws/knaw-...
Academische vrijheid in Nederland onder druk - KNAW
Academische vrijheid in Nederland onder druk
www.knaw.nl
May 15, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Academic freedom in the Netherlands under pressure.
New report from Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences @knaw-nl.bsky.social
What is needed:
🚩 stronger freedom of research
🚩 less substantive government influence
🚩 support against intimidation and attacks
www.knaw.nl/nieuws/knaw-...
New report from Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences @knaw-nl.bsky.social
What is needed:
🚩 stronger freedom of research
🚩 less substantive government influence
🚩 support against intimidation and attacks
www.knaw.nl/nieuws/knaw-...
Reposted by Kevin Smets
De democratie wordt van alle kanten aangevallen en haar belangrijkste bewaker, de #onderzoeksjournalist, is een bedreigde soort. Daarom lanceert Apache het Fellowship Georges Timmerman. Help jij ons aan €50.000 om de opleiding van twee jonge waakhonden te financieren? Meer info op apache.be/FGT
March 8, 2025 at 9:00 AM
De democratie wordt van alle kanten aangevallen en haar belangrijkste bewaker, de #onderzoeksjournalist, is een bedreigde soort. Daarom lanceert Apache het Fellowship Georges Timmerman. Help jij ons aan €50.000 om de opleiding van twee jonge waakhonden te financieren? Meer info op apache.be/FGT
A new article from the Reel Borders @erc.europa.eu team, published in @culturalstudies.bsky.social. Lennart Soberon reports on extensive ethnographic work and 50+ interviews, discussing post-conflict memory work in film and television. Read it here: doi.org/10.1080/0950...
Navigating the troubles’ tidelands: the push and pull of memory in post-conflict northern Ireland’s film & television industry
The screen representation of Northern Ireland has since long been a hotbed for issues of remembering and reimagining. Loaded with symbolic questions on authorship and authenticity, the treatment of...
doi.org
February 27, 2025 at 3:16 PM
A new article from the Reel Borders @erc.europa.eu team, published in @culturalstudies.bsky.social. Lennart Soberon reports on extensive ethnographic work and 50+ interviews, discussing post-conflict memory work in film and television. Read it here: doi.org/10.1080/0950...
Two vacancies in a new research project, "Home Frames", on migration history & amateur film in Belgium, funded by @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social. Come work with Gertjan Willems (UAntwerpen) and myself (VUBrussel) on this exciting topic:
🎞️ www.uantwerpen.be/nl/jobs/vaca...
🎞️ jobs.vub.be/job/Elsene-R...
🎞️ www.uantwerpen.be/nl/jobs/vaca...
🎞️ jobs.vub.be/job/Elsene-R...
Doctoraatsbursaal binnen het domein filmstudies | Universiteit Antwerpen
YUFE vacature
www.uantwerpen.be
February 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Two vacancies in a new research project, "Home Frames", on migration history & amateur film in Belgium, funded by @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social. Come work with Gertjan Willems (UAntwerpen) and myself (VUBrussel) on this exciting topic:
🎞️ www.uantwerpen.be/nl/jobs/vaca...
🎞️ jobs.vub.be/job/Elsene-R...
🎞️ www.uantwerpen.be/nl/jobs/vaca...
🎞️ jobs.vub.be/job/Elsene-R...
Following my research stay at the LSE, I wrote this blogpost for Media@LSE about the "afterlife" of participatory filmmaking. Thank you to @myriageorgiou.bsky.social for this opportunity & to @irenegutierrez.bsky.social for your amazing work on the films. Full text: blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/202...
How participatory filmmaking can deepen our understanding of life on the border
As part of the ERC-funded project Reel Borders, researchers and participants joined forces to create a series of films addressing questions of border experiences, citizenship and belonging, trauma,…
blogs.lse.ac.uk
February 6, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Following my research stay at the LSE, I wrote this blogpost for Media@LSE about the "afterlife" of participatory filmmaking. Thank you to @myriageorgiou.bsky.social for this opportunity & to @irenegutierrez.bsky.social for your amazing work on the films. Full text: blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/202...
Vacancy posted by great colleagues @soasuni.bsky.social. A part-time postdoc position in the project "Archives of solidarity", for visual anthropologists or media scholars: vacancies.soas.ac.uk/job/643848
Postdoctoral Researcher at SOAS
Apply now for Postdoctoral Researcher, Bloomsbury, Camden, Greater London, United Kingdom at SOAS
vacancies.soas.ac.uk
December 10, 2024 at 12:31 PM
Vacancy posted by great colleagues @soasuni.bsky.social. A part-time postdoc position in the project "Archives of solidarity", for visual anthropologists or media scholars: vacancies.soas.ac.uk/job/643848
Reposted by Kevin Smets
I wrote a book on how justice-driven documentaries teach us to listen—and how those listening habits can perpetuate injustice or bring about transformative change. Coming soon from Columbia UP, read more about it here: cup.columbia.edu/book/the-doc...
December 3, 2024 at 6:17 PM
I wrote a book on how justice-driven documentaries teach us to listen—and how those listening habits can perpetuate injustice or bring about transformative change. Coming soon from Columbia UP, read more about it here: cup.columbia.edu/book/the-doc...
Thank you Hannah & @sociowarwick.bsky.social for the invitation & great discussion afterwards!
Enjoyed finally meeting @kevinsmets.bsky.social in person and hearing his
@sociowarwick.bsky.social Research Seminar paper today, including getting to see one of the many brilliant short films about borders to come out of his ERC Reel Borders project: vimeo.com/783186118
@sociowarwick.bsky.social Research Seminar paper today, including getting to see one of the many brilliant short films about borders to come out of his ERC Reel Borders project: vimeo.com/783186118
Hija/Daughter- Khadija
This is "Hija/Daughter- Khadija" by Irene Gutierrez on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
vimeo.com
November 29, 2024 at 8:15 AM
Thank you Hannah & @sociowarwick.bsky.social for the invitation & great discussion afterwards!
More than 10 years after my first @scmstudies.bsky.social conference in Boston, I'm so glad to be going to the next conference in Chicago. Looking forward to presenting Reel Borders research & reconnecting with the SCMS community 🎬
November 28, 2024 at 6:36 PM
More than 10 years after my first @scmstudies.bsky.social conference in Boston, I'm so glad to be going to the next conference in Chicago. Looking forward to presenting Reel Borders research & reconnecting with the SCMS community 🎬
Reposted by Kevin Smets
The first episode of our podcast is out! Tune in to listen to Diogo Cabral on MTH history, leafcutting ants in the Amazon, the activist nature of #envhist and on the edited volume MTH histories of Latin America and the Carribbean
ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...
ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...
Episode 1.01. Diogo De Carvhalo Cabral on history beyond the human
For the first episode of Foraging, we hosted Prof. Diogo de Carvhalo Cabral, of Trinity College Dublin. Diogo is a fascinating voice in more-than-human history. His groundbreaking research on the...
ercforagency-podcasts.castos.com
November 25, 2024 at 6:40 PM
The first episode of our podcast is out! Tune in to listen to Diogo Cabral on MTH history, leafcutting ants in the Amazon, the activist nature of #envhist and on the edited volume MTH histories of Latin America and the Carribbean
ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...
ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...
Reposted by Kevin Smets
We are thrilled to announce the publication of the first season of "Foraging. A podcast in Environmental Humanities" 🌱: 4 in-depth interviews with historians and anthropologists on their work, methods, inspirations
ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...
ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...
Introducing Foraging: a podcast in environmental humanities – FORAGENCY
ercforagency.eu
November 19, 2024 at 9:36 AM
We are thrilled to announce the publication of the first season of "Foraging. A podcast in Environmental Humanities" 🌱: 4 in-depth interviews with historians and anthropologists on their work, methods, inspirations
ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...
ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...
Reposted by Kevin Smets
Oh yeah and our latest contribution is a starter pack of critical border studies related people. We haven't met too many people on here yet so the list is just a beginning. To be added contact @arijerrems.bsky.social go.bsky.app/TxsUGAN 7/6
November 18, 2024 at 12:23 PM
Oh yeah and our latest contribution is a starter pack of critical border studies related people. We haven't met too many people on here yet so the list is just a beginning. To be added contact @arijerrems.bsky.social go.bsky.app/TxsUGAN 7/6
Reposted by Kevin Smets
As our community here slowly grows, here is a starting list of people working on critical border studies, #migration journalists, #refugee storytellers, and border abolitionists like @hebagowayed.bsky.social @vwlegal.bsky.social @vanessid.bsky.social @nsharma101.bsky.social @nandosigona.bsky.social
November 11, 2024 at 6:27 PM
As our community here slowly grows, here is a starting list of people working on critical border studies, #migration journalists, #refugee storytellers, and border abolitionists like @hebagowayed.bsky.social @vwlegal.bsky.social @vanessid.bsky.social @nsharma101.bsky.social @nandosigona.bsky.social
Love it when film scholars are invited to contribute to social science conferences. I just had the pleasure to deliver a keynote address at the conference "Mediterranean Crossings: Rotating Politics of Migration in the Mediterranean Space" reelborders.eu/AgadirConfer...
AgadirConference — Reel_Borders
Keynote presentation On 9 November, Kevin Smets gave a keynote lecture on the Reel Borders project at the international conference “Mediterranean Crossings:...
reelborders.eu
November 12, 2024 at 7:35 AM
Love it when film scholars are invited to contribute to social science conferences. I just had the pleasure to deliver a keynote address at the conference "Mediterranean Crossings: Rotating Politics of Migration in the Mediterranean Space" reelborders.eu/AgadirConfer...
Reposted by Kevin Smets
In "Remixing Wong Kar-Wai," Giorgio Biancorosso analyzes filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s use of pre-existing music to create the soundtracks for his films. Read the introduction for free now.
ow.ly/nw7e50TPNTu
ow.ly/nw7e50TPNTu
October 21, 2024 at 2:22 PM
In "Remixing Wong Kar-Wai," Giorgio Biancorosso analyzes filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s use of pre-existing music to create the soundtracks for his films. Read the introduction for free now.
ow.ly/nw7e50TPNTu
ow.ly/nw7e50TPNTu
Reposted by Kevin Smets
November 7, 2024 at 1:15 AM
Reposted by Kevin Smets
As promised, the Popular Culture and Media Studies starter pack! If you work in this realm and would like to be added, just let me know. :) I wanted us all to be able to find each other here.
go.bsky.app/JtBHuwU
go.bsky.app/JtBHuwU
November 7, 2024 at 1:09 PM
As promised, the Popular Culture and Media Studies starter pack! If you work in this realm and would like to be added, just let me know. :) I wanted us all to be able to find each other here.
go.bsky.app/JtBHuwU
go.bsky.app/JtBHuwU
Studying migration? This new Handbook of Research Methods in Migration offers a range of hands-on approaches for the field. I contributed a chapter on visual methods. Find out more here: www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap-o... (the chapter is #openaccess).
October 17, 2024 at 7:02 AM
Studying migration? This new Handbook of Research Methods in Migration offers a range of hands-on approaches for the field. I contributed a chapter on visual methods. Find out more here: www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap-o... (the chapter is #openaccess).