The Faces of Science project allows a new group of twelve young scientists to share a glimpse into their lives as researchers. Using blogs, vlogs and presentations, they aim to offer insight into their research, a scientist's life and science in general. PhD candidate Julia Neugarten (RICH) is one of these twelve Faces.
Fanfiction and mythology
Neugarten is conducting her PhD research as part of the Anchoring Innovation project. She examines how fanfiction reuses, criticises and transforms elements from Greek mythology. For this, she uses digital and traditional methods for humanities research, and she analyses how these mythological elements gain new forms. She aims to discover which elements from Greek mythology appeal to fans and how they adapt them to tell new stories about underrepresented perspectives.
Faces of Science
The Faces of Science project aims to make science concrete and accessible, and Neugarten wants to help make this possible. "I want to show fans that science is receptive to their perspectives, their inventiveness, creativity and their sharp vision. I also want to show to a wide audience that fans are often critical and inventive readers who question cultural norms through fanfiction."
Beyond this, she combines elements from traditional humanities - literary studies and cultural studies - with methods from digital humanities and computational literary studies. By drawing attention to this, she wants to show (future and current) humanities scientists what digital methods can offer them. Technological methods can complement the humanities.
Finally, Neugarten aspires to combat stereotypes. She concludes that to a certain extent people still have a stereotypical image of scientists; the older man slogging away in his laboratory. As a young woman with a mobility disability, it is important for her that people falling outside of this stereotypical image can recognise themselves in science.
Faces of Science is a network of PhD candidates from various fields, using blogs, videos, articles, lectures and media appearances to put a young face on science. The project is organised by KNAW, The Young Academy and NEMO Kennislink, with the cooperation of Peper Film. The project is funded by Stichting Lira Fonds.