Mission Statement

The Netherlands Research School for Media Studies (RMeS) is a national network of academic experts in media research whose ambition it is to:

1. provide excellent, state of the art education in media studies to PhD candidates and research master's students;
2. provide a platform for academics who want to exchange expertise, build coalitions between various research groups, coordinate and prepare joint grant applications and represent the field of media studies at national and international levels.
3. offer a platform to Dutch graduate students in media research at various universities in order to build academic networks with their peers and to get acquainted with specialist research and researchers in their field;
4. offer an international platform which represents Dutch media scholars in international networks, funding bodies and scientific/academic councils.

Media research is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field that studies the content, history, technology, production and reception of various kinds of media types (film, television, digital media, radio, newspapers, etc). Media researchers develop and employ theories from a number of disciplinary and interdisciplinary angles. Parallel to, but unlike the Netherlands school for Communication research (NESCOR), which is firmly grounded in the social sciences, media studies draws primarily on traditions from the humanities for its theoretical and methodological approaches, although it also borrows from social and information sciences. This school-network is organised as such to advance knowledge on media and to educate and socialise young scholars in both classical and cutting edge theories and methodologies. It is also meant to update academic peers on relevant developments in the field.

The RMeS is represented at eight Dutch universities. These include the University of Amsterdam (UvA, currently chairing the network), Utrecht University (UU), Free University of Amsterdam (VU), Leiden University (UL), University of Groningen (RUG), Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Radboud University Nijmegen (RUN) and Maastricht University (UM). These universities offer research master's and/or PhD programmes in various aspects of media studies. The young field of media studies has a strong international base, with extensive academic networks in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. 

Organisation

Prof. Dr. Frank van Vree will serve as its director for the first two years, followed by Prof. Dr. José van Dijck (as soon as she steps down as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities). The RMeS director consults and informs his/her advisory board and has regular contact with directors of other research schools as well as with the director of the Amsterdam Graduate School for Humanities (Prof. Dr. Jan Willem van Henten).

Executive Board

The RMeS leadership board will consist of the academic director and two members of the advisory board. For the first two years, Professor Marcel Broersma (RUG) will be part of the RMeS Executive Board. The Faculty of Humanities of the UvA will provide administrative, coordinating and financial support for the first five years.

Advisory Board

The advisory board will consist of the following members:

1. Prof. Dr. Patricia Pisters (UvA)
2. Prof. Dr. Frank Kessler (UU)
3. Prof. Dr. Ginette Verstraete (VU)
4. Prof. Dr. Peter Verstraten (UL)
5. Prof. Dr. Marcel Broersma (RUG)
6. Prof. Dr. Susanne Janssen (EUR)
7. Prof. Dr. Anneke Smelik (RUN)
8. Prof. Dr. Renée van der Vall (UM)

Members and associate members

1. Members: academic faculty staff of Dutch universities who are listed as RMeS members by the representatives of their universities. They are expected to have a proven interest in teaching and researching activities (to be programmed by RMeS). The leadership council, unless notified otherwise, may count on their expertise in terms of teaching and/or consulting activities. Members will function as a professional network. Membership is free and non-exclusive (i.e. any RMeS member can also be a member of another national research school.
2. Associate members: academics who are not employed by a Dutch university may be admitted as associate members of the RMeS research school on the grounds of mutual interest (this category includes scholars working at non-Dutch universities). Associate members will receive RMeS information on professional activities, summer and winter schools. If associate members are asked to give a lecture at any of the regular teaching sessions, they will be paid for their expenses (travel and accommodation).

PhD members and associate PhD members

1. PhD members: candidates pursuing a PhD degree and who are employed by one of the participating universities are welcome to enroll as PhD members of the RMeS. PhD membership needs approval from the candidate’s PhD advisor, and membership is submitted through the university’s representative.  Ideally, the candidate’s choice for summer and winter schools is already agreed upon at the beginning of their programme or contract  (‘opleidings- en begeleidingsplan’). As a rule, PhD membership lasts three to five years, depending on the type of arrangement or appointment. The PhD member’s employer will have a standard fee of 2000 euro available for the entire period of the PhD programme (to spent on summer and winter schools). Half of this fee is spent in the research school of their first choice (in this case the RMeS), and the remainder may be spent on teaching programmes organised by research schools other than the RMeS. Members are of course welcome to spend it all on RMeS teaching activities. PhD’s subsidised by the NWO may pay this fee from their bench fee.
2. Associate PhD members: PhD candidates who are not employed by one of these Dutch universities (so-called ‘external’ PhD's) may become associate members of the RMeS. They need to have at least one advisor who is employed by one of the universities listed above. Associate PhD members may participate in the summer or winter seminars, but will however be charged a regular fee (e.g. 500 euro per winter/summer seminar). Universities/faculties may opt to organise a scholarship fund to pay for these fees, but this is a local responsibility rather than the responsibility of the national research school.

Active PhD and associate members will have their own digital platform for communication. This platform will also be used to announce common activities, dissertation defenses and the introduction of new members. The site ideally functions to promote and intensify a network of aspiring media scholars through which PhDs help and support one another. 

Summer & Winter Schools

As the first hosting university, the UvA will take on the responsibility of organising the first seminar on its premises on 27 and 28 June 2011. In the following years, participating faculties will take turns in hosting summer and winter schools in order to familiarise all PhD students with the various (physical) settings of member universities. The University of Utrecht has offered to host the Winter School 11/12 on its premises, while Groningen will host the Summer School 2012.