We welcome Udith Dematagoda to the Zukunftskolleg
We are proud to welcome our first new Fellow from our 12th call for applications to the Zukunftskolleg: Udith Dematagoda has started his Postdoctoral Fellowship in December. For the next two years, he will be part of our community and work on his research project "Machine Men, Machine Minds, Machine Heart: Masculinity, Technology and Fascist Modernities". Udith is associated with the Department of Literature.
"My research is dedicated to the proposition that literary-historical scholarship is more vital than ever to an understanding of the contemporary world. Our global societies, especially in the western occidental world, continue to benefit from a shifting technological landscape, one which has immeasurably and comprehensively altered the structures of human interaction and communication. However, in contradistinction to this paradigm of progress, there is another which is characterised by regression. Contemporary society has begun to witness the increasingly volatile social and ideological forces (which have remained dormant for decades) re-emerge within mainstream political discourse. This project will examine the confluence of ideology, masculinity, and technology within literary and artistic culture in twentieth century English and European literature and art. It intends to give account of how the aesthetic, libidinal, moral, and ethical conceptions of masculinity were altered in the face of technological advancement, and ultimately seeks to question how literature and art become embroiled in destructive and regressive ideological movements and thought."
Besides being a scholar, Udith is also a musician, film-maker, and writer. You can find out more about his work here: https://udithdematagoda.wordpress.com/film