Diversity on Screen?!
Materials, Categories, and Methods of Analyzing Representation in Film and Media
Film Studies Workshop and Symposium, 12–13 June 2026, University of Zurich / University Library, Pfingstweidstrasse 60, 8005 Zürich
Recent debates on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) – here framed through historically situated and methodologically operationalized categories such as gender, race, class, disability, sexuality, and age – have increasingly relied on empirical measurements and categorizations to render discrimination in film production and representation visible and intersubjectively analyzable. While such approaches can render structural inequalities visible, they also risk stabilizing historically contingent concepts. At stake is how diversity is not only analyzed but actively produced through methods and categories, and whether such knowledge translates into sustained institutional change.
The PhD workshop (Friday, 12 June) led by our guest lecturer, Prof. Joshua Yumibe (Michigan State University) explores these tensions through the entanglement of aesthetics, technology, and materiality. Registration is open until 31 May.
The symposium (Saturday, 13 June) extends this inquiry by examining how categories are constructed and operationalized across contexts in the analysis of audiovisual media, based on participant inputs and discussion.
We warmly invite scholars, students, and all those interested in the topic to attend one or both events.
If you have any questions or want to participate, please reach out to josephine.diecke@uzh.ch