About Me
Born and grown up in an idyllic village in the mountainous South-Eastern part of Tyrol, I was confronted with the sobriety of nature which has captivated my eye from an early age on and forced me to look very carefully and closely on the signs of nature. Fascinated by the abundance of natural wonders being surrounded by, I have never stopped engaging myself with decoding the secrets of life and constantly developed my analytical abilities which finally have guided me into science. Following the principles and concepts of critical theory, I have been focusing on phenomena which are noticeable but due to various social and political power structures often remain silenced and suppressed. Referring to the Visual with a close look on the photographic image, I try to analyse and carve out patterns of hidden visual codes which seems to have an impact on society. In my research, I deal with the visual construction of gender, difference, illness or minorities in (mass) media. Reflecting on the work of gaze theorists like Laura Mulvey (male gaze) or Michel Foulcault (medical gaze), I am interested in the act of seeing and being seen with a special interest in the iconographic construction of otherness. In order to be able to plug holes between theory and practice and to reflect on what I have found out by applying scientific methods, I also make moving and still images myself. As far more work needs to be done on the socio-cultural and medial construction of categories like gender and difference on a theoretical, practical as well as artistical level, I hope that my commitment will never fatigue and my thirst for knowledge will never be quenched...
Short Bio
Nadja M. Köffler, Mag., MA, PhD,
studied media sciences, translational sciences, educational sciences and cultural sociology at the Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck und has conducted research on topics like media ethics and intercultural education at the Concordia University (Canada), the Hebrew University (Israel), the Beit Berl College (Israel), the KU University (Southkorea), the Cheoungiu University (Southkorea) as well as at the Caistor Yarborough School (UK). Since 2015, she has been working as a post-doctoral researcher at the School of Education Innsbruck (University of Innsbruck) with a special research focus on media critique, visuacy (visual literacy), visual culture and image epistemology. Since 2016, Nadja M. Köffler has been leading the film project Spondeo – Lost Oaths in Academia, which deals with methods of visualization of the Unspoken in academic contexts. At the moment, Nadja M. Köffler (together with Mag. Evi Agostini PhD) is leading the academic research platform Taboos in Formal Educational Contexts (TiFEC) and conducting research (qualitatively as well as artistically) on taboos and taboo transgressions in higher education. Since August 2016, Nadja M. Köffler has been leading the artistic research project nightmode with a special focus on the photographic visualisation of the late-night culture of Austrian universities. Recently, Nadja Köffler is dealing with the iconographic and medial construction of gender and difference as well as the visualization of the relation between closeness and distance in teacher-student relationships.
Nadja M. Köffler, Mag., MA, PhD,
studiert(e) Medienwissenschaften, Translationswissenschaften, Bildungswissenschaften und Kultursoziologie an der Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck und forscht(e) zu interkulturellen und medienethischen Themen an der Concordia University (Kanada), der Hebrew University (Israel), dem Beit Berl College (Israel), der KU University (Südkorea), der Cheoungiu University (Südkorea) sowie der Caistor Yarborough School (England). Als promovierte Bildungswissenschaftlerin arbeitet sie seit 2015 als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin (Post-Doc) an der School of Education Innsbruck mit besonderem Forschungsfokus auf Fragen der Medienkritik, Visuacy (visual literacy), visuelle Kultur und Bild-Epistemologie. Nadja M. Köffler gründete (gemeinsam mit Frau Mag. Evi Agostini PhD) das Forschungsforum Taboos in Formal Educational Contexts (TiFEC) und forscht (qualitativ und künstlerisch) zu Grenzgängen und Grenzüberschreitungen in hochschulischen Bildungskontexten. Seit 2016 leitet Nadja M. Köffler das wissenschaftliche Filmprojekt Spondeo – Lost Oaths in Academia, welches sich mit den Möglichkeiten und Formen der Visualisierung von tabuisierten Themen in akademischen Kontexten auseinandersetzt. Im August 2016 rief sie das Artistic Research Projekt nightmode ins Leben, das einen fotografisch-visuellen Bick auf die Late-night Culture österreichischer Universitäten wirft. Aktuell beschäftigt sie sich mit der ikonographischen und massenmedialen Konstruktion von Gender und Differenz sowie den Nähe-Distanzverhältnissen in pädagogischen Kontexten.
© Nadja M. Köffler 2018