Since its commencement in 2013, the Entangled Media Histories (EMHIS) research and teaching network has worked to create an arena for transnational dialogue on the historical dimensions of transborder and transmedial flows through the use of the concept entangled history. Our main academic aim has been to join forces with other initiatives that are challenging the traditional blind spots in perspective and common methodological nationalism of media historical scholarship.
The EMHIS network brings together around 50 researchers who are interested in the topic of entangled media histories. In the first six years of its existence (2013–2019), the network was funded by the Swedish foundation STINT through its funding scheme Institutional Grant, with the aim to strengthen Swedish research and higher education by developing and establishing international partnerships. Within EMHIS, this was done through the intellectual exchange and cooperation between three different academic sites: the Section for Media History at the Department of Communication and Media, Lund University, Sweden (main co-ordinator); the Centre for Media History at Bournemouth University, Great Britain (partner); and the Research Centre Media History at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research and Universität Hamburg, Germany (partner). Over time, the network has expanded to include researchers from many other countries and universities.
With complementary areas of expertise, the theoretical approaches and emphasis on the transnational and multi-media dimensions – that is, the entangled nature – of media history are common to all network members. Furthermore, the EMHIS network aims to provide an arena for both PhD students, early career researchers, and senior scholars to explore new ways of studying media history in a bottom-up style, as well as to enhance and intensify internationalisation and networking in research and teaching.
