Castor Brouwer works as an English teacher at a Montessori high school in Amsterdam and is a PhD candidate at the ASCA. Involving both, his project explores critical media pedagogy in high school education, particularly in the area of audiovisual representations. His PhD research operationalizes relational practices of 'critical spectatorship' through a set of case studies centered around different themes (gender and intimacy; consumerism and ecological oppression) and media objects (film, social media, artificial intelligence). How can we help students become critically aware of representational politics that shape their and others' realities? How do we do so in a way that considers and values difference among classrooms/ audiences? And how can we consciously include media in this process?

Castor holds a bachelor degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences (double major in Communcation Science and English Language and Culture) and a master degree in English Language and Culture: Education and Communication at Utrecht University, and a cum laude master degree in Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam.