Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 2202
E-Mail:	j.hamers@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for Cultural Disciplines, Literatuurwetenschap
Office Address:	Witte Singel-complex van Wijkplaats 2 2311 BX Leiden Room number 1.02a

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Fields of interest

Most of my publications deal with nonfictional representation of contemporary history, New German Cinema (especially the films of A. Kluge, W. Herzog and V. Schlöndorff), documentary cinema and essay (especially the work of H. Farocki), militant video, representation by film and media of radical left terrorism, political happening, and audiovisual representation of football (soccer).

Research

My approach of the aesthetics aims at a political understanding of films, videos and installations. Influenced by cultural history as well as by what has been called the (neo)marxist criticism of images, I try to reveal the ideological and political backgrounds, significations and purposes of the audiovisual productions I’m dealing with.

Teaching activities

At Leiden University I’m teaching film & theater language and analysis (Inleiding dramatische media; Theories of Theater, Film and Media), historiography of film (Historiographies of photography and film), film and realism (Realisme in film en literatuur), Belgian and German cinema (Wereldcinema).

Curriculum vitae

After having been a part-time assistant at the media and communication department of the Free University of Brussels (ULB) for three years, I started my Ph.D. research on the documentary representation of the German so called “leaden years” at the University of Liège (supervisor: Dr. G. Van Cauwenberge) where I stayed as a full time assistant for 7 years till the end of this research. Since September 2011, I am an assistant professor (Universitair docent) in film and literature studies at Leiden University (LUICD) and a part-time assistant researcher at the University of Liège (Département des Arts et Sciences de la communication).

I’m also a film director. In 2003, my screenplay Dehors was awarded the Prix Kieslowski Europe. My latest film, the documentary A verdade do gato, has been selected in more than 50 international festivals, won several international awards and has been broadcasted by Arte.

Key publications

• [with Grégory Cormann] “‘Ce qu’il est con…’ Des idées aux corps. Sartre, Baader et la grève de la faim”, Les Temps Modernes, vol. 667, 2012 [2012, in press];

• “Football et art contemporain: quelques remarques préliminaires autour de Deep Play de Harun Farocki”, in Philippe Dubois, Precious Brown, Elena Biserna, Cinéma, architecture, dispositif, Udine, Campanotto, 2011;

• “Katanga Business – Pale Peko Bantu : Notes sur deux moments de cinéma postcolonial belge”, French Forum, nos 2-3, Spring-Fall 2010;

• “Un théâtre sans acteurs : l’enlèvement de Hanns Martin Schleyer par la Fraction Armée Rouge”, Cahiers Louis-Lumière, no 6, 2009;

• “Lektionen in Finsternis de Werner Herzog. Quelle esthétique documentaire après la guerre”, in François-Emmanuel Boucher, Sylvain David, Janusz Przychodzen, La Paix. Esthétiques d’une éthique, Bern, Peter Lang, 2007.