We would like to cordially invite you to our Global Digital Cultures Soirée, which will take place on Wednesday, 17 April, 2024, between 18:00 and 22:00, in Claire's Ballroom at Kapitein Zeppos.
The speakers this time are Kobe de Keere (Faculty of Social Sciences), Balázs Bodó (Faculty of Law) and Ashley Mears (Faculty of Social Sciences), who will discuss cryptocurrency and blockchain. Each speaker will present their thoughts on this topic from a different angle: Kobe de Keere researches imaginaries of crypto advocates, while Balázs Bodó studies the technology of blockchains. Ashley Mears, in the role of discussant, brings to the table her research on how platforms manipulate users' affect to create addictive highs for content creators.
Kobe De Keere is an assistant professor in cultural sociology who devotes his time to examining the moral and cultural dimensions of our economic lives. He holds Master’s degrees in philosophy from Ghent University and sociology from the Free University of Brussels, and he earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the Free University of Brussels as well. His teaching and research activities situated on the intersection of cultural and economic sociology. He has published on a wide range of topics such as legitimation, cultural class boundaries, moral position-taking, the meaning of work, and hiring practices. Now, his primary research focus is on subjects such as economic valuation and the cryptocurrency market. He is affiliated to the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion at Harvard University and the European Center for the Study of Culture & Inequalities at VUB. Currently, he is a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics.
Bodó, Balázs, PhD (1975), Associate Professor, socio-legal researcher at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam. He was a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society in 2006/7. In 2012/13 he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. In 2013 he moved to Amsterdam as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam. In 2018 he received an ERC Starting Grant to study the legal, and political implications of blockchain based technologies, and started the Blockchain & Society Policy Research Lab. In 2019 he was a senior visiting fellow at the Weizenbaum-Institut für die vernetzte Gesellschaft, Berlin. He is the founding (co)director of the University of Amsterdam’s interdisciplinary research area on Trust in the Digital Society. His academic interests include digital piracy, decentralized techno-social systems, shadow libraries, informal media economies, regulatory conflicts around new technological architectures, and trust.
Ashley Mears is Chair of Cultural Sociology and New Media at the University of Amsterdam. She works in cultural, gender, and economic sociology, studying processes of valuation and the circulation of non-financial forms of value. She has published ethnographies of fashion, elites, and viral social media. She received her PhD from New York University.
After brief presentations from these scholars, the floor will be open for questions and comments from participants.
As always, our soirées involve food and drinks; the evening will start with drinks, and dinner will be served around 20:00. Attendance is free of charge.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Stefania Milan & Richard Ronald on behalf of team GDC