Short biography

Dr. Leonie Schmidt is an Assistant Professor in the Media Studies department of the University of Amsterdam. Leonie received a PhD in Media Studies from the University of Amsterdam. In her PhD project she analysed how through practices of Indonesian visual culture (e.g. Islamic rock music, cinema, art, tv), Islamic modernities are imagined, negotiated and contested. Currently, Leonie is working on a postdoc at SOAS, University of London.

Education

2009-2014: University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam - PhD in Media Sudies (Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis)
2007-2009: University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam - Master's degree - Researchmaster Media Studies (cum laude)
2004-2007: University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam - Bachelor's degree - Media and Culture (cum laude)

Grants

NWO Rubicon 2016 (individual grant)
NWO Veni 2016 (individual grant)
NWO Promoties in de Geesteswetenschappen 2016 (co-applicant)
 

Research

Post-doctoral research project (2016-2019): Pop preachers and counter-terror culture: contesting terrorism through social media and popular culture in Indonesia

In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country and a key front in the global ‘war on terror’, an Islamic ‘counter-terror culture’ has emerged that negotiates, contests and potentially limits Islamic radicalisation and terrorism. In response to the threat of domestic, regional and global terrorism, Indonesian pop prophets, Islamic self-help gurus, blockbuster movies and catchy pop tunes preach religious moderation. They complement the counter-terror media campaigns of Indonesian Twitter-savvy moderate Islamic organisations and other civil society actors. This project aims to analyse how in Indonesia social media and popular culture function as tools of governmentality that can help to contest and counter Islamic radicalisation and terrorism. Through analysing the institutional, textual, and consumption practices of Indonesian ‘counter-terror culture’ with a multi-method approach, this project
investigates the potential and position of popular culture and social media in the on-going struggle against militant Islam and its virulent offshoot – terrorism. Through scrutinising the tactics and workings of Indonesian counter-terror culture, this project will formulate a model of cultural counter-terrorism strategies
that will be highly relevant to Indonesia, but also to other cultural contexts.

PhD project (2009-2014): Visions of the future: imagining Islamic modernities in post-Suharto visual culture

Description: Indonesia is home to the world's largest Muslim population and in the midst of modernization and Islamization. Indonesian Islamic visual culture both displays and constructs Islamic modern futures. This is relatively recent, as expressions of religion in popular culture were banned during the Suharto regime (1965-1998). Now, in the post-Suharto era (1998-), Indonesia's large Muslim community takes advantage of the newly liberated public sphere to participate in public discourses related to the alleged path of modernity. Simultaneously, entrepreneurs instill cultural products with spiritual and economic value. The dialectics between a public Islamic revival and a commodification of Islam results in a booming Indonesian cultural sphere, that is a key site to experiment with Islamic modernities, with Islamic futures. This PhD project analyses how through practices of Indonesian visual and popular culture, Islamic modernities are imagined, negotiated and contested, while global modern urban Islamic futures in a post 9/11 world are projected. Case studies include Islamic rock music (videos), art, cinema, self-help books, urban space and shopping malls.

Supervisors: Prof. dr. Pamela Pattynama, Prof. dr. ir. Jeroen de Kloet

Publications

• Schmidt, Leonie (forthcoming) Islamic modernities in Southeast Asia: Exploring Indonesian Popular and Visual Culture. Washington DC: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Schmidt, Leonie, Jeroen de Kloet (forthcoming) ‘Bricolage: the Role of Media – a Case Study of LuckyTV    and the Song of the Grass-mud Horse’ in: Roessler, Patrick, Cynthia Hoffner, Liesbet van Zoonen. The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Schmidt, Leonie (forthcoming) ‘Unearthing the Past and Re-imagining the Present: Muslim Politics and   Aesthetics in a Post-9/11 world’, in: Hudson, Chris, Bart Barendregt. Performative Publics and Global Modernities in Asia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
• Schmidt, Leonie (forthcoming) ‘Modern manuals and Islamic inspiration: negotiating modernity in Malyasian Islamic-themed cinema’, in: Black, Daniel, Koichi Iwabuchi, Olivia Khoo. Asian Media and Cultural Studies: Innovative Approaches. Washington DC: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Schmidt, Leonie (2014) 'Wild girls and working women Biopolitics and the imagination of modernities in Indonesian post-New Order cinema', LEWI Working Paper Series, June 2014, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China: David C. Lam Institute of East West Study.
• Schmidt, Leonie (2012) 'Urban Islamic spectacles: transforming the space of the shopping mall during Ramadan in Indonesia', Inter-Asia Cultural Studies , 13(3): 384-407.
• Schmidt, Leonie (2012) 'Post-Suharto screens: gender politics, Islam and discourses of modernity', Amsterdam Social Science, 4(1): 29-48.

PhD supervision

• Arnoud Arps, 'Remembering Violence: Cultural memory, popular culture and the Indonesian War of Independence' (ASCA/NWO)

Teaching

Bachelor's level

• Contemporary Media Culture seminar (2009-2010; 2010-2011; 2011-2012; 2012-2013 - coordinator)
• Television Analysis (2014-2015; 2015-2016 - coordinator)
• Introduction to Analysis II - television and new media seminars (2013-2014; 2014-2015)
• Analysis and Methods Televison and Popular Culture (2010- 2011; 2011-2012; 2012-2013)
• Media history and Research Skills (2014-2015)
• BA thesis reseach seminar: (Counter)-Terrorism, Television & Popular Culture and supervision BA theses (2015-2016)
• BA thesis research seminar Religion and Media and supervision BA theses (2010-2011)
• BA thesis research seminar Television genres and supervision BA theses (2009-2010)

Master's level

• Going Global: Globalisation and the Cultural Imaginary (2015-2016)
• Society & Infrastructure (2015-2016)
• Beyond Europe: Asia, Aesthetics and Politics - (2011-2012; 2012-2013; 2013-2014; 2014-2015; 2015-2016)
• MA thesis supervision (2014-2015; 2015-2016)