Prof. Feng-Mei Heberer

Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies, New York University, New York, NY

In cooperation with Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger

Duration of stay: December 2022

Feng-Mei Heberer is Assistant Professor in Cinema Studies at New York University. Her research spans transnational media, ethnic studies, feminist and queer studies, with particular focus on Asian diasporic media cultures. Her work has appeared, among others, in Camera Obscura, Sexualities, and the edited volume Asian Video Cultures. Her book, Asians On Demand: Mediating Race in Video Art and Activism, is forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press. Complementing her academic work, she has been a programmer for several film festivals, including the Asian Film Festival Berlin.

Research Project Title
Asian German Media Activisms

Research abstract
This project proceeds from the question, what can we learn about conflict and trust-building from the activist media practices of marginalized groups, in particular when conceived through an intersectional grassroots perspective? With a focus on the Asian Film Festival Berlin as a nodal point of different generations of Asian German activism, it seeks to explore overarching questions of representational practices, collective organizing, and the particular role of distinct media formats in articulating minority politics and advancing a social justice agenda, including film, podcasts, and social media.

Publications:
2023. Asians On Demand: Mediating Race in Video Art and Activism (University of Minnesota Press).
2020. “Scaling Down Workload, Upping Co-Presence. Reflecting on Teaching in the Time of Corona.” Open Media Studies Blog.
2019. “Sentimental Activism as Queer-Feminist Documentary Practice, or How To Make Love in a Room Full of People,” Camera Obscura (Best Publication Award Gender and Media 2020,Gender-/Queer and Media Studies Interest Group, Society for Media Studies).
2017. “The Asianization of Heimat – Ming Wong’s Asian German Video Works,” in Asian Video Cultures: In the Penumbra of the Global (Duke University Press), ed. Bhaskar Sarkar and Joshua Neves (Society for Cinema and Media Studies Award for Best Edited Collection, 2019).

Events:
16 December 2022 Workshop: Asiatisch Deutscher Kulturaktivismus: Medien, Repräsentation, Generationen