Nanjing University's Institute of Global Humanities presents a month-long series on intermediality—the study of meaning across media—led by Prof. Jørgen Bruhn (Linnaeus University, Sweden). Events span both Xianlin (Nanjing) and Suzhou campuses and bring together scholars across literature, media, art history, and environmental humanities.
At-a-Glance Schedule
Thu, Oct 30, 18:30–20:30 (Suzhou Campus, Nanyong East-218)
Mediating Truthfulness in Ecomedia: The Theory and Method of Intermedial Ecocriticism
Host: Prof. He Chengzhou
Mon, Nov 3, 09:00–17:00 (Xianlin Campus, Qiaoyu 303)
Workshop—Intermediality in Literature & Art (morning & afternoon panels; mixed faculty/invited scholar discussion)
Tue, Nov 4, 19:00–21:00 (Xianlin Campus, Qiaoyu 303)
Environmental Grotesque Media: Possibilities and Problems
Host: Dr. Wu Yikun
Mon, Nov 10, 19:00–21:00 (Xianlin Campus, Qiaoyu 303)
Intermedial Subjectivity: Rethinking the Human in a Mediatized World
Host: Prof. Chen Chang
Tue, Nov 18, 18:30– (Suzhou Campus, Nanyong East-428)
Synthetic Transmediation: A First Reflection on AI and Intermediality
Host: Dr. Zhang Tianyi
Speaker’s Bio
Jørgen Bruhn (b. 1968) is Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the Linnaeus University Center for Intermedial and Multimodal Studies (Växjö, Sweden). Trained in literary theory and the history of the novel, his early scholarship addressed Marcel Proust, M. M. Bakhtin, and medieval French literature (Chrétien de Troyes). Over the past decade he has become a leading voice in intermediality studies, publishing widely in English, Danish, and Swedish, with translations into Portuguese and Chinese. His monographs and edited volumes include Intermediality and Narrative Literature: Medialities Matter (2016), Cinema between Media: An Intermediality Approach (with Anne Gjelsvik, 2018), Intermedial Studies: An Introduction to Meaning across Media (co-ed., 2022), Intermedial Ecocriticism: The Climate Crisis in Arts and Media (with Niklas Salmose, 2023), and the Palgrave Handbook of Intermediality (co-ed., 2024).
Bruhn’s current research foregrounds the interfaces between intermediality and contemporary ecocriticism, including debates on the Anthropocene. With colleagues in the IMS Green cluster he advances “Intermedial Ecocriticism” as a comparative method for analyzing how scientific discourse, film, literature, popular science, and the arts construct truth claims and agency across media.
Talks & Workshop
Oct. 30 Mediating Truthfulness in Ecomedia: The Theory and Method of Intermedial Ecocriticism
Nov. 3 Workshop—Intermediality and the Environmental Humanities
Nov. 4 Environmental Grotesque Media: Possibilities and Problems
Nov. 10 Intermedial Subjectivity: Rethinking the Human in a Mediatized World
Nov. 18 Synthetic Transmediation: A First Reflection on AI and Intermediality
Practical Info
Audience: Faculty, graduate and undergraduate students across literature, art history, media/cultural studies, environmental humanities; the Nov 3 workshop includes structured discussion.
Text and posters: Zhang Tianyi
