Transmission in Motion Seminar (2023-2024):
“Matters of Concern”

When Latour proposed ‘matters of concern’ in 2004 he was thinking about all things head, hand, and heart, but prioritizing head, perhaps, as an anthropologist of science. The cognitive domain was at risk of being captivated by those who were not genuinely sympathetic towards it, and had to be saved for fundamental, applied, and speculative research. Soon, hand and heart were given equal importance: Puig de la Bellacasa coined ‘matters of care’ in 2017 in an attempt to highlight the affective and transversal dimensions of matters of concern. Science and everyday life are entangled, just like the cognitive, the corporeal, and the cooperative domains. Now more than ever, scholars learn not only from books but also by doing. They (we) engage with makers and publics as part of research. How do scholars use their research for matters of concern, what are those matters and how to use research in order to do so (other than just analyzing or criticizing)?

This year’s seminar will take place at the Grote Zaal of the department of Media & Culture of Utrecht University (Muntstraat 2a, Utrecht).

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