Dr. C.J. (Carolyn) Birdsall
- Turfdraagsterpad 9
- Room number: 2.11B
- Postbus 94550
1090 GN Amsterdam
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Profile
Carolyn Birdsall is Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, where she is affiliated with the Television and Cross-media team. Birdsall studied at the University of New South Wales (History and Media/Communications), before completing a doctorate at the University of Amsterdam. Her monograph, Nazi Soundscapes (AUP, 2012) was the recipient of the ASCA Book Award 2013. Birdsall is director of the ASCA Cities Project, and she currently leads the NWO-funded project TRACE (Tracking Radio Archival Collections in Europe, 1930-1960), which examines how European radio recordings were archived, circulated and re-used under conditions of war, occupation and reconstruction. A new book, entitled Radiophilia, will be released with Bloomsbury in 2023 (link).
Recent news / upcoming events
- Upcoming: book release Radiophilia (Bloomsbury, 2023)
- Upcoming: talk at Radio Preservation Task Force conference (27-30 April 2023)
- New: Special issue on archival histories of radio (edited with Erica Harrison)
- "Von der Kardex-Kartei zur Einführung der Datenverarbeitungsmaschine" (with Corinna Kaiser)
- "Feminist avenues for listening in" (with Elinor Carmi)
- "Curating the urban music festival" (with Paulo Nunes)
- "Sensing urban values" (ed. with Anastasiya Halauniova and Linda van de Kamp) -
Research
Publications
> Monographs / Edited Volumes
Nazi Soundscapes: Sound, Technology and Urban Space in Germany, 1933-1945. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012. Recipient of the ASCA Book Award 2013. (open access)Historical Traces of European Radio Archives, 1930-1960. Special Issue of TMG Journal for Media History 25.2 (2022) [co-edited with Erica Harrison] (online from 4 October 2022).
Sensing Urban Values. Special Issue of Space and Culture 24.3 (2021) [co-edited with Anastasiya Halauniova and Linda van de Kamp].
Listening to the Archive: Sound Data in the Humanities and Sciences. Special Issue of Technology and Culture 60.2 (2019) [co-edited with Viktoria Tkaczyk].
Doing Memory Research: New Methods and Approaches. Palgrave, 2018 [co-edited with Danielle Drozdzewski].
Making Worlds in Urban Cultural Studies. Special Issue of Journal of Urban Cultural Studies 5.2 (2018) [co-edited with Simone Kalkman].
Rethinking Theories of Television Sound. Special Issue of Journal of Sonic Studies 3 (2012) [co-edited with Anthony Enns].
Inside Knowledge: (Un)doing Ways of Knowing in the Humanities. Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009 [co-edited with Maria Boletsi, Pieter Verstraete and Itay Sapir].
Sonic Mediations: Body, Sound, Technology. Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008 [co-edited with Anthony Enns].> Chapters / Articles (selection since 2018)
"Geschichte der Audiobestände der Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG) und ihrer Archivierung" (with Friedrich Dethlefs), Rundfunk und Geschichte 47.3-4 (2021): 9-31
"Von der Kardex-Kartei zur Einführung der Datenverarbeitungsmaschine: Die archivarische Praxis der ersten 20 Jahre des Deutschen Rundfunkarchivs" (with Corinna Kaiser), Rundfunk und Geschichte, 46.1-2 (2020): 11-25
"Reconstructing Media Culture: Transnational Perspectives on Radio in Silesia, 1924–1948" (with Joanna Walewska-Choptiany), Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 39.3 (2019): 439-478 (open access)
"Radio Documents: Broadcasting, Sound Archiving, and the Rise of Radio Studies in Interwar Germany"Technology and Culture 60.2 (2019): 96-128
"Listening to the Archive: Sound Data in the Humanities and Sciences" (with Viktoria Tkaczyk). Technology and Culture 60.2 (2019): 1-13
"Divisions of Labour: Radio Archiving as Gendered Work in Wartime Britain and Germany" International Yearbook of Women's History 37 (2018): 107-133> Invited Talks and Presentations (selection since 2018)
“Architectures of the Air: New Broadcasting Buildings and Creative Practices with Sound Recording, 1930-1945”, Media buildings: Architecture, Communications & the Built Environment online conference (7 Jul. 2021)
“Why Film and Media Historians Should Care about Sound Archiving?”, Retuning the Screen conference, Gorizia (2 November 2020)
"International Perspectives on Radiophilia: Knowledge, Affect and Materiality", International Perspectives on a Radio Century symposium, Hilversum (8 Nov. 2019)
Archivist roundtable "Managing Radio Collections Related to the Second World War", IASA annual conference, Hilversum (1 Oct. 2019)
"Tracking Radio Collections in Europe, 1930-1960", Digital Humanities Benelux, Liege (13 Sep. 2019)
"Radio Collections in Europe, 1930-1960", AVA_Net annual conference, Hilversum (20 Jun. 2019)
"Creative Agency in the Margins: Gendered Sound Work and Radio Aesthetics in European Comparison, 1930–1950", SCMS annual conference, Seattle (14 Mar. 2019)
"Materialising Radio Ephemera: From Sound Documents to Acoustic Documentation", Akustische Dokumente/Sonic Documents conference, Bochum (18 Jan. 2019)
"Radiophonic Experiments, Recording and the Invention of Radio Studies, 1924-1945", Radiophonics series - Museum Tinguely, Basel (25 Oct. 2018)> Conference / Workshop Organisation (selection)
Co-organiser, Historical Traces of European Radio Archives, 1930-1960, 28-29 Oct. 2021, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Co-organiser, Entanglements of Race, Sound and the Archive: Coloniality and the Globalised Present, 9 Dec. 2018, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam [see review here]
Co-organiser, Urban Valorisation - Urban Cultures, Local Histories, and Redevelopment Agendas, 18 May 2018, University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam
Co-organiser, Urban World-Making, 1-2 Jun. 2017, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Co-organiser, Listening to the Archive: Histories of Sound Data in the Humanities and Sciences, 11-13 Feb. 2016, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Co-organiser, Music, Voice and Orality in Performance History, 12 Jun. 2015, Amsterdam Centre for Heritage and Identity, Amsterdam
Co-organiser, Sound Signatures - Summer and Winter Schools Part I: “Space, Objects and Embodied Practices,” 13-17 Jan. 2014, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam; Part II: “Epistemologies and the Order of Sound,” 18-22 Aug. 2014, NYU Center / Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin [see review here and here] -
Teaching
Department of Media Studies, UvA
For the academic year 2022-23, I will run the MA tutorial More-than-human Cities (6 or 12 EC).
MA
RMA tutorial (Post)Pandemic Urbanism, 2020-21, 2021-22.
Core course Collection and Collection Management, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20
Elective course Visualising the Street, 2016-17
Core course Research Practices in Media Studies, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19
Elective course Amsterdam& Creative Urbanism, 2015-16
Core course Access & Reuse (MA Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image), 2015-16
Elective course Curating the Moving Image, 2014-15
RMA tutorial Sound Media, Sound Aesthetics: 2010-11, 2012-13
Research seminar Tuning In: Sound in Contemporary Television Practice: 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-12
BA
Elective course Postcolonial Media Studies, 2017-18, 2018-19
Core Module Media Culture in Transformation, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19
Elective course Sound Cultures: 2016-17
Core module Methoden voor Media-analyse (coordination, lectures): 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16
Core module Televisieanalyse (coordination, lectures and tutorials): 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15
Elective course Visual Culture, History and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Germany (German minor program, with Natalie Scholz): 2012-13
Elective course Sound Cultures: 2012-13, 2013-14, 2015-16, 2016-17
Core module Media, Culture and Identity (coordination, lectures and tutorials): 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012
Core module Analyse en Methode TV en Populaire Cultuur (coordination,lectures and tutorials): 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012
Core module Hedendaagse Mediacultuur: werkgroep televisie (tutorials): 2009-10
BA-Thesis module Sound in Non-Fiction Film and Television: 2006-2007Guest lectures & masterclasses (selection)
Block seminar, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Dec. 2018- Jan. 2019: “Media Archives: Politics, Aesthetics, Materiality” [intensive seminar - six sessions]
Max Planck Institute for Religious and Cultural Diversity, Göttingen, 20 Feb. 2018: “Explorations in Sound: Theory and Methods” [one-day skills workshop]
Masterclass, University of Wrocław, 16-17 Oct. 2017: “How to Study Past and Present Soundscapes?” [two sessions]
Guest lecture BA Art Science / Sonology, Royal Conservatorium of Music, The Hague, 22 Mar. 2017: “Sound Studies meets Media Studies”
Masterclass, PhD summer institute [sic!], Northwestern University/University of Cologne, 30. Aug. 2016, "Signature Sounds"
Masterclass, Goethe University Frankfurt, 2 Nov. 2015, "Sonic Heritage and the Politics of Archiving"
MA elective "Music and Film," MA Musicology, University of Amsterdam, 26. Nov 2013, "Sound and Music in the New German Cinema"
MA Artistic Research, Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, 1-22 Nov. 2011. Four lectures / workshops
MA Interior Architecture, Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam, 30 May 2011, "Aural Architecture"
MA Artistic Research, Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, 16 May 2011, "Sound, Technology and Urban Space" -
Publications
- refereed (26)
- academic (19)
- professional (6)
- popular scientific (1)
- recognitions (1)
- supervised theses (1)
2022
Birdsall, C. (2022). Tracing the Archival Lives of Radio: Recorded Sound Collections in Belgian and Dutch Radio (1930s-1950s). TMG – Journal for Media History, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.18146/tmg.819 [details]- Birdsall, C., & Carmi, E. (2022). Feminist avenues for listening in: amplifying silenced histories of media and communication. Women's History Review, 31(4), 542-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2021.1944345 [details]
- Nunes, P., & Birdsall, C. (2022). Curating the urban music festival: Festivalisation, the ‘shuffle’ logic, and digitally-shaped music consumption. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 25(2), 679-702. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494211008646 [details]
2021
- Birdsall, C., Halauniova, A., & van de Kamp, L. (2021). Sensing Urban Values: Reassessing Urban Cultures and Histories Amidst Redevelopment Agendas. Space and Culture, 24(3), 348-358. https://doi.org/10.1177/12063312211000654 [details]
2020
2019
- Birdsall, C. (2019). Radio Documents: Broadcasting, Sound Archiving, and the Rise of Radio Studies in Interwar Germany. Technology and Culture, 60(2, Supplement), S96-S128. https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2019.0065 [details]
- Birdsall, C., & Tkaczyk, V. (2019). Listening to the Archive: Sound Data in the Humanities and Sciences. Technology and Culture, 60(2, Supplement), S1-S13. https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2019.0061 [details]
- Birdsall, C., & Walewska-Choptiany, J. (2019). Reconstructing Media Culture: Transnational Perspectives on Radio in Silesia, 1924–1948. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 39(3), 439-478. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2019.1643096 [details]
2018
- Birdsall, C. (Guest ed.), & Kalkman, S. (Guest ed.) (2018). “Urban World-Making” [Special Issue]. Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, 5(2), 113-273.
- Birdsall, C., & Drozdzewski, D. (2018). Capturing commemoration: Using mobile recordings within memory research . Mobile Media & Communication, 6(2), 266-284. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157917730587 [details]
- Birdsall, C., & Kalkman, S. (2018). Making worlds in urban cultural studies. Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, 5(2), 113-123. https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs.5.2.113_2 [details]
2017
- Birdsall, C. (2017). Divisions of Labour: Radio Archiving as Gendered Work in Wartime Britain and Germany. In N. Willems, S. Holla, E. Buchheim, S. Bultman, M. Groot, E. Walhout, & I. de Zwarte (Eds.), Gender and archiving: past, present, future (pp. 107-133). (Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis; Vol. 37). Verloren. [details]
2016
- Birdsall, C. (2016). Sound and Media Studies: Archiving and the Construction of Sonic Heritage. In J. G. Papenburg, & H. Schulze (Eds.), Sound as Popular Culture: A Research Companion (pp. 133-148). The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9975.003.0018 [details]
- Birdsall, C. J. (2016). Sound Memory: A Critical Concept for Researching Memories of Conflict and War. In D. Drozdzewski, S. De Nardi, & E. Waterton (Eds.), Memory, Place and Identity: Commemoration and Remembrance of War and Conflict (pp. 111-129). Routledge. [details]
2015
- Birdsall, C. (2015). Resounding city films: Vertov, Ruttmann and early experiments with documentary sound aesthetics. In H. Rogers (Ed.), Music and sound in documentary film (pp. 20-40). (Routledge Music and screen media series). Routledge. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415728669/ [details]
- Birdsall, C., Parry, M., & Tkaczyk, V. (2015). Listening to the Mind: Tracing the Auditory History of Mental Illness in Archives and Exhibitions. The Public Historian, 37(4), 47-72. https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2015.37.4.47 [details]
2014
- Birdsall, C. (2014). Sound Aesthetics and the Global Imagination in German Media Culture around 1930. In D. Morat (Ed.), Sounds of modern history: auditory cultures in 19th- and 20th-century Europe (pp. 256-277). New York: Berghahn. [details]
- Birdsall, C. (2014). Sound. In M. Kelly (Ed.), Encyclopedia of aesthetics. - 2nd ed. - Vol. 6 (pp. 23-27). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. [details]
2013
- Birdsall, C. (2013). (In)audible frequencies: sounding out the contemporary branded city. In C. Lindner, & A. Hussey (Eds.), Paris-Amsterdam underground: essays on cultural resistance, subversion, and diversion (pp. 115-131). (Cities and cultures). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. [details]
- Birdsall, C. (2013). Sonic artefacts: reality codes of urbanity in early German radio documentary. In K. Bijsterveld (Ed.), Soundscapes of the urban past: staged sound as mediated cultural heritage (pp. 129-168). (Sound studies). Transcript . [details]
- Birdsall, C., & Siewert, S. (2013). Of Sound Mind: Mental Distress and Sound in Twentieth-Century Media Culture. Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, 16(1), 27-45. [details]
2012
2011
- Birdsall, C. (2011). Klanglandschaften und Ratinger Alltagsgeschichte: Zuhören, Erinnern und städtischer Raum. Ratinger Forum : Beiträge zur Stadt- und Regionalgeschichte, 12, 117-141. [details]
2009
2007
- Birdsall, C. (2007). 'Affirmative resonances' in the city? Sound, imagination and urban space in early 1930s Germany. In S. Mieszkowski, J. Smith, & M. de Valck (Eds.), Sonic interventions (pp. 57-86). (Thamyris intersecting: place, sex, and race; No. 18). Amsterdam [etc.]: Rodopi. [details]
2023
- Birdsall, C. J. (2023). Gender und kreative Handlungsmacht: Technische und archivarische Arbeit im deutschen Rundfunk zwischen 1930 und 1950. In F. Oberkrome, & L. Schüssler (Eds.), Arbeiten zwischen Medien und Künsten: Feministische Perspektiven auf die erste Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts (pp. 183-205). Neofelis.
2022
- Birdsall, C., & Harrison, E. (2022). Researching Archival Histories of Radio. TMG – Journal for Media History, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.18146/tmg.841 [details]
2021
- Dethlefs, F., & Birdsall, C. (2021). Geschichte der Audiobestände der Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG) und ihrer Archivierung. Rundfunk und Geschichte, 47(3-4), 9-31. [details]
2019
- Birdsall, C. (2019). Found in Translation: Recording, Storing and Writing of Sounds. In M. Bull (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Sound Studies (pp. 210-221). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315722191-24 [details]
- Drozdzewski, D., & Birdsall, C. (2019). Advancing Memory Methods. In D. Drozdzewski, & C. Birdsall (Eds.), Doing Memory Research: New Methods and Approaches (pp. 1-20). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1411-7_1 [details]
- Drozdzewski, D., & Birdsall, C. (2019). Using Emplaced Ethnography, Mobility, and Listening to Research Memory. In D. Drozdzewski, & C. Birdsall (Eds.), Doing Memory Research: New Methods and Approaches (pp. 39-61). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1411-7_3 [details]
- Drozdzewski, D., & Birdsall, C. (Eds.) (2019). Doing Memory Research: New Methods and Approaches. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1411-7 [details]
2018
- Birdsall, C. (2018). Radio. In D. Morat, & H. Ziemer (Eds.), Handbuch Sound: Geschichte – Begriffe – Ansätze (pp. 353-359). J.B. Metzler Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-05421-0_65 [details]
- Birdsall, C. (2018). Worlding the Archive: Radio Collections, Heritage Frameworks, and Selection Principles. In G. Föllmer, & A. Badenoch (Eds.), Transnationalizing Radio Research: New Approaches to an Old Medium (pp. 197-208). (Media Studies; Vol. 42). Transcript . [details]
- Birdsall, C. (Author), & Walewska, J. (Author). (2018). Beyond the ‘1945 divide’: Reassembling radio histories in Wrocław, formerly Breslau. Web publication/site, IAMHIST Blog. Retrieved from http://iamhist.net/2018/05/beyond-the-1945-divide/ [details]
2015
- Birdsall, C. (2015). Can We Invent a Field Called "Radio Preservation Studies"? FlowTV, 21. http://flowtv.org/2015/05/can-we-invent-a-field-called-radio-preservation-studies/ [details]
- Birdsall, C. (2015). Die urbanen Soundscapes des Luftkriegs: Forschungsperspektiven aus Sound Studies, Geschichts- und Medienwissenschaft. Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, 66(11/12), 681-702. [details]
2014
- Birdsall, C., Missfelder, J-F., Morat, D., & Schleif, C. (2014). Forum: The Senses. German History, 32(2), 256-273. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghu034 [details]
2013
2009
2008
- Birdsall, C. (2008). Sound bites! Dissonant audiovisions as historiophony in Hitler's Hit Parade. In C. Birdsall, & A. Enns (Eds.), Sonic mediations: body, sound, technology (pp. 259-275). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. [details]
- Birdsall, C., & Enns, A. (2008). Sonic mediations: body, sound, technology. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. [details]
- Birdsall, C., & Enns, A. (2008). Introduction. In C. Birdsall, & A. Enns (Eds.), Sonic mediations: body, sound, technology (pp. 1-9). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. [details]
2007
- Birdsall, C. (2007). All of Germany listens to the Führer: radio's acoustic space and 'imagined listening community' in Nazi Germany. In R. Bandt, M. Duffy, & D. MacKinnon (Eds.), Hearing places: sound, place, time and culture (pp. 192-201 + cd-tracks 17, 18). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishers. [details]
2021
- Birdsall, C. (2021). Early US Radio and the Modern Culture of Sound: [Review of: S. VanCour (2018) Making radio: early radio production and the rise of modern sound culture]. Sound Studies, 7(2), 249-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/20551940.2020.1742055 [details]
- Kaiser, C. R., & Birdsall, C. (2021). Der Kardex als archivarisches Hilfsmittel im Lautarchiv des Deutschen Rundfunks. Info7, 36(2), 50-54. [details]
2018
- Birdsall, C. J. (2018). 都市空間における「肯定的共鳴」. 10plus1, (4).
2017
- Birdsall, C. J. (2017). Interwar France and the Politics of Auditory Culture: [Review R. Scales (2016) Radio and the Politics of Sound in Interwar France, 1921-1939]. The Senses and Society, 12(2), 222-224. https://doi.org/10.1080/17458927.2017.1319156 [details]
2013
- Birdsall, C. (2013). [Review of: M. Forman (2012) One night on TV is worth weeks at the Paramount: popular music on early television]. Screen, 54(3), 417-420. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjt028 [details]
2012
- Birdsall, C. (2012). Soundscapes und Klangmaschinen: neue Literatur zu Klang, Medien und Tontechnologie [Review of: Gethmann (2010) Klangmaschinen zwischen Experiment und Medientechnik; D. Helms, T. Phleps (2007) Sound and the City: populäre Musik im urbanen Kontext; M. Maeder (2007) Milieux sonores = Klangliche Milieus: Klang, Raum und Virtualität]. Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, 4(6), 252-256. https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/2709 [details]
2014
- Birdsall, C. (Author). (2014). Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD Corporation). Web publication/site, Retrieved from http://designandviolence.moma.org/long-range-acoustic-device-lrad-corporation/ [details]
Prize / grant
- van de Kamp, L., Birdsall, C. J. & Halauniova, A. (2017). Seed Grant Centre for Urban Studies for project Urban Heritage-Making: Cultural Forms, Local Histories and Redevelopment.
This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list. -
Ancillary activities
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Mediafonds ( Dutch Cultural Media Fund)
Advisor
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Mediafonds ( Dutch Cultural Media Fund)
Birdsall, C. (2022). Tracing the Archival Lives of Radio: Recorded Sound Collections in Belgian and Dutch Radio (1930s-1950s). TMG – Journal for Media History, 25(2).