Media Studies

Thursday, February 23, from 12 – 1:30pm, via Zoom Organized and Moderated by Professor Minoo Moallem Why was Columbo such a good detective? Because he paid attention – to his work – 24/7. The real question, though, is why was Columbo – a show ostensibly about a shabby workaholic – so popular over so many decades (69 episodes from 1968 to 2003)? This paper will explore the latter question, focusing in particular on the memorable performance of Peter Falk as the absentminded but incisive sleuth. Falk’s distinctive performance of the

Visual Documentation and the State by Professor Feng-Mei Heberer Thursday, March 9th, 12 – 1:30pm via Zoom This talk revisits visual documentation and the documentary form in its intimate connection with state surveillance and the U.S. immigration and border police state specifically. Building on the work of self-ascribed “undocumented documentary filmmaker” Miko Revereza, I discuss the ways that visual documents such as the photograph have been wielded on behalf of U.S. immigration law and policy to control border crossings, and continue to serve as identificatory evidence in the age of

Digitizing Arabic: A Story of Script Technologies with Professor J.R. Osborn Co-sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Center for New Media Thursday, April 13, 12 – 1:30pm, Via Zoom The Latin alphabet and Arabic script followed very different trajectories from the handwritten page to the digital screen. Drawing upon my book, Letters of Light: Arabic Script in Calligraphy, Print, and Digital Design (2017, Harvard University Press), this talk examines Arabic script in relation to three moments of technological transformation: the formalization of calligraphic tradition (al-khatt al-mansub) in

From Baby Jane to Bush Mama? The Rebellious Programming of Albert Johnson by Professor Josslyn Luckett Thursday, April 20, 4pm PT/7 pm ET, Via Zoom While the legendary UC Berkeley professor and long-time SF International Film Festival programmer is remembered for breaking out into songs from Hollywood musicals, a deeper look at his archives and writing reveal he was a significant (if overlooked) champion of the Black independent filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. This talk will take up the wide-reaching scope of Johnson’s criticism and suggest that well before