Symposium Day 1: Mieke Bal - Summary of the first day’s topics and impressions

The Dutch culture theorist, critic, and video artist Mieke Bal (born in 1946) was a founding director of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) and currently teaches cultural theory at the University of Amsterdam. Her research emphases include classical antiquity, contemporary art, modern literature, (inter-) cultural theory, and the connection between verbal and visual art, migration and madness. Since publishing her work "The Practise of Cultural Analysis: Exposing Interdisciplinary Interpretation" (1999), she is known as a champion of a reform of the liberal arts in favor of an interdisciplinary methodology of cultural analysis. In addition to her work as a freelance curator and video artist, Bal works in the area of experimental documentary on the issue of migration (e.g. "State of Suspension", 2009).