I went to film school in Colombia but decided that I liked history better, so I got my PhD at Glasgow in 2012 with a thesis on early film distribution in Scotland. I then worked as a research assistant for an AHRC-funded project on Early Cinema in Scotland, and joined Stirling as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in 2015, to carry out a research project on film exhibition in non-permanent venues. I am now a lecturer and mainly teach core undergraduate classes.
Soy egresada de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, donde estudié Cine y Televisión. Luego hice mi trabajo de doctorado en la Universidad de Glasgow, estudiando la exhibición y distribución del cine en Escocia a principios del siglo XX. Desde 2015 trabajo en Stirling, inicialmente con un proyecto financiado por el Leverhulme Trust investigando la exhibición de cine fuera de salas y en espacios temporales o no convencionales. Ahora soy docente, principalmente de cursos básicos en el pregrado.
I am interested in media as something people do, collectively, often as a way to share or remake spaces. I tend to take a geographical approach to media uses, thinking about exhibition spaces, film circulation, and more recently about the relationship between media and uses of the land.
Previously I have worked on early cinema and historical audiences in Scotland and Colombia. I then followed my fascination with non-theatrical cinema spaces into contemporary practices of pop-up, community and travelling exhibition. I also think about archives and the re-use of media, in relation to questions of environmental justice and degrowth.
My recent work has focused on the role of moving images in transnational histories of extraction, particularly in relation to coal mining in Colombia and in Scotland.
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Me interesan los medios como práctica social, algo que la gente hace. En particular, estudio la exhibición cinematográfica como actividad que requiere colaboración y espacios compartidos. Me atraen los momentos de incertidumbre antes de que se cristalicen las convenciones de un medio o práctica cultural (por eso he estudiado el cine de primeros tiempos, y la transición al sonoro). También me interesan los márgenes de las industrias culturales y la persistencia de la informalidad.
Me interesa la exhibición de cine en espacios temporales o multi-propósito, incluyendo prácticas como el cine 'pop-up', al aire libre, itinerante, y el cineclubismo. También me gustan los archivos y el reciclaje de medios, y ando buscando una perspectiva para pensarlos en un marco de sostenibilidad y justicia.
Mi interés por las geografías del cine útil me lleva a mi investigación actual, que se trata de el papel de la imagen en movimiento dentro de la historia transnacional del extractivismo.
Article
Extractive Geographies in Sponsored Media: Colombia’s Large-Scale Coal Mining in the 1980s
Vélez Serna MA (2024) Extractive Geographies in Sponsored Media: Colombia’s Large-Scale Coal Mining in the 1980s. Media and Environment. https://mediaenviron.org/article/116735-extractive-geographies-in-sponsored-media-colombia-s-large-scale-coal-mining-in-the-1980s
Other
Ports and the politics of visibility: An interview with Laleh Khalili
Velez Serna MA & Stauff M (2023) Ports and the politics of visibility: An interview with Laleh Khalili. NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies, 12 (1), pp. 31-67. https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19743
Article
Ports: On the material and symbolic mediation of global capitalism
Velez Serna MA & Stauff M (2023) Ports: On the material and symbolic mediation of global capitalism. NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies, 12 (1), pp. 9-30. https://mediarep.org/handle/doc/20945; https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19733
Website Content
Extractivism and alternative media: Framing coal and energy transitions in Northern Colombia
Velez Serna MA (2023) Extractivism and alternative media: Framing coal and energy transitions in Northern Colombia. Mediatico [Blog post] 05.06.2023. https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/mediatico/2023/06/05/extractivism-and-alternative-media-framing-coal-and-energy-transitions-in-northern-colombia/
Conference Paper (published)
Zioga P & Vélez-Serna MA (2022) Interaction Design for Audiences: A Proposition for Building Resilience and Recovery for COVID-safe Independent Cinemas. In: Tsitsou L, Rana H & Wessels B (eds.) The Formation of Film Audiences: Conference Proceedings. Studies in the Digital Humanities. Audiences beyond the multiplex: understanding the value of a diverse film culture, Online, 02.03.2021-03.03.2021. Sheffield: Digital Humanities Institute. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/books/film-audiences/interaction-design-for-audiences/
Article
Resisting extractive uses of the archive in Colombian experimental non-fiction
Vélez-Serna MA (2022) Resisting extractive uses of the archive in Colombian experimental non-fiction. Frames Cinema Journal, 19, pp. 13-42. https://ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.php/FCJ/article/download/2380/1791; https://doi.org/10.15664/fcj.v19i0.2380
Book Review
Virginia Crisp and Gabriel Menotti, Practices of Projection: Histories and Technologies
Vélez-Serna MA (2021) Virginia Crisp and Gabriel Menotti, Practices of Projection: Histories and Technologies. Review of: Virginia Crisp and Gabriel Menotti, Practices of Projection: Histories and Technologies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020, 312 pp. ISBN 9780190934118. Screen, 62 (1), pp. 129-131. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjab015
Conference Paper (unpublished)
Zioga P & Vélez-Serna M (2021) Interaction Design for Audiences: A Proposition for Building Resilience and Recovery for COVID-safe Independent Cinemas. Audiences beyond the multiplex: understanding the value of a diverse film culture, Glasgow, 02.03.2021-03.03.2021. https://www.beyondthemultiplex.net/session-9-audiences-accessibility-and-responding-to-the-pandemic/
Monograph
Velez Serna MA (2020) Ephemeral Cinema Spaces. Film Culture in Transition. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789462986541/ephemeral-cinema-spaces
Newspaper / Magazine
Culture beyond extractivism: What might a post-growth cinema look like?
Velez Serna MA (2020) Culture beyond extractivism: What might a post-growth cinema look like?. Adamowicz M (Illustrator) Less. 10.2020, pp. 24-27. https://enough.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/LESS1-C3.pdf
Article
Introduction: From Silent to Sound: Cinema in Scotland in the 1930s
Neely S & Vélez-Serna M (2019) Introduction: From Silent to Sound: Cinema in Scotland in the 1930s. Visual Culture in Britain, 20 (3), pp. 195-201. https://doi.org/10.1080/14714787.2019.1687330
Article
Between scenes: Glasgow’s alternative film spaces in the 1990s
Velez Serna MA & Colta A (2019) Between scenes: Glasgow’s alternative film spaces in the 1990s. NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies, 8 (1), pp. 51-68. https://necsus-ejms.org/between-scenes-glasgows-alternative-film-spaces-in-the-1990s/
Edited Book
Caughie J, Griffiths T & Velez-Serna MA (eds.) (2018) Early Cinema in Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-early-cinema-in-scotland.html
Book Chapter
Travelling bioscopes and borrowed spaces
Velez-Serna MA (2018) Travelling bioscopes and borrowed spaces. In: Caughie J, Griffiths T & Velez-Serna M (eds.) Early Cinema in Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-early-cinema-in-scotland.html
Book Chapter
Fixed-site cinemas and the first film renters
Velez-Serna MA (2018) Fixed-site cinemas and the first film renters. In: Caughie J, Griffiths T & Velez-Serna M (eds.) Early Cinema in Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-early-cinema-in-scotland.html
Book Chapter
Maps, grids, instructions: Pop-up Cinemagoing and Tourist Performance
Velez-Serna MA (2017) Maps, grids, instructions: Pop-up Cinemagoing and Tourist Performance. In: Atkinson S & Kennedy H (eds.) Live Cinema: Cultures, Economies, Aesthetics. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 101-116. http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/live-cinema-9781501324833/
Article
Vélez-Serna MA (2017) (Micro)film studies. Moving Image, 17 (2), pp. 95-100. https://doi.org/10.5749/movingimage.17.2.0095
Article
Velez-Serna MA (2017) Critics and Makers. Cinema Journal, 56 (4), pp. 143-144. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2017.0052
Book Review
Human Rights Film Festivals: Activism in Context
Velez-Serna MA (2016) Human Rights Film Festivals: Activism in Context. Review of: Human rights film festivals: activism in context, by Sonia M. Tascón, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 248 pp., ISBN: 978-1-137-45423-2. Studies in Documentary Film, 10 (1), pp. 87-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/17503280.2016.1186350
Book Review
Jean Desmet’s dream factory: the adventurous years of film (1907–1916)
Velez-Serna MA (2016) Jean Desmet’s dream factory: the adventurous years of film (1907–1916). Review of: Jean Desmet’s dream factory: the adventurous years of film (1907–1916), Marente Bloemheuvel, Jaap Guldemont and Mark-Paul Meyer (Eds.), Amsterdam, EYE Filmmuseum/nai010, 2014, 192 pp. ISBN 978-9-46208-174-1. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 36 (2), pp. 277-279. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2016.1164477
Article
Preview screenings and the spaces of an emerging local cinema trade in Scotland
Velez-Serna MA (2016) Preview screenings and the spaces of an emerging local cinema trade in Scotland. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 36 (3), pp. 285-304. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2015.1052222
Article
Scalarama UK, 1-30 September 2016: A Report
Velez-Serna MA (2016) Scalarama UK, 1-30 September 2016: A Report. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, (12), pp. 141-145. http://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue12/ReportVelez-Serna.pdf
Website Content
Velez-Serna MA, Caughie J, Griffiths T, Bohlmann J & Merz C (2016) Early Cinema in Scotland. 23.04.2016. http://earlycinema.gla.ac.uk/
Article
Remote Locations: Early Scottish Scenic Films and Geo-databases
Velez-Serna MA & Caughie J (2015) Remote Locations: Early Scottish Scenic Films and Geo-databases. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 9 (2), pp. 164-179. https://doi.org/10.3366/ijhac.2015.0147
Article
The 'Early Cinema in Scotland' project goes to school
Velez-Serna MA & Bohlmann J (2014) The 'Early Cinema in Scotland' project goes to school. Media Education Journal, (56), pp. 23-25.
Article
Kilts, tanks, and aeroplanes: Scotland, cinema, and the First World War
Archibald D & Velez-Serna MA (2014) Kilts, tanks, and aeroplanes: Scotland, cinema, and the First World War. NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies, 3 (2), pp. 155-175. https://doi.org/10.5117/NECSUS2014.2.ARCH
Thesis
Film distribution in Scotland before 1918
Velez-Serna MA (2012) Film distribution in Scotland before 1918. Doctor of Philosophy. University of Glasgow.
Article
Mapping film exhibition in Scotland before permanent cinemas
Velez-Serna MA (2011) Mapping film exhibition in Scotland before permanent cinemas. Post Script, 30 (3), pp. 25-37.
Book Review
The City and the Moving Image: Urban Projections
Velez-Serna MA (2011) The City and the Moving Image: Urban Projections. Review of: Richard Koeck and Les Roberts (eds), The City and the Moving Image: Urban Projections. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, 281 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0230243385. Screen, 52 (4), pp. 544-546. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjr042
Book Review
From Silent Screen to Multi-screen: a history of cinema exhibition in Britain since 1896
Velez-Serna MA (2010) From Silent Screen to Multi-screen: a history of cinema exhibition in Britain since 1896. Review of: Stuart Hanson. From Silent Screen to Multi-screen: a history of cinema exhibition in Britain since 1896. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2007. 256 pp.. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 30 (4), pp. 563-565. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2010.509984
Book Chapter
En busca del público: Patria films y los primeros a?os del cine sonoro en Colombia
Velez-Serna MA (2008) En busca del público: Patria films y los primeros a?os del cine sonoro en Colombia. In: Zuluaga P (ed.) Versiones, subversiones y representaciones del cine colombiano: investigaciones recientes; memorias. Bogotá: Museo Nacional de Colombia, pp. 180-218.
Article
Visa de estudiante: Buscando el cine colombiano en la academia angloamericana
Velez-Serna MA (2008) Visa de estudiante: Buscando el cine colombiano en la academia angloamericana [Student visa: Looking for Colombian cinema in Anglo-American scholarship]. Extrabismos, (1). http://extrabismos.blogspot.co.uk/2008/
Book Chapter
Imagen dialéctica y 'Allá en el Trapiche': Un experimento
Velez-Serna MA (2008) Imagen dialéctica y 'Allá en el Trapiche': Un experimento [Dialectical image and ‘Allá en el Trapiche’: An experiment]. In: Arias HJ (ed.) Textos (18). Documentos de historia y teoria. Escritos de estudiantes. Textos, 18. Bogota, Columbia: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, pp. 92-106. http://www.maachistoriayteoria.unal.edu.co/portfolio/coleccion-textos-18-2/
Article
The Construction of Popular Taste according to Colombian Filmmakers in the 1940s
Velez-Serna MA (2008) The Construction of Popular Taste according to Colombian Filmmakers in the 1940s. Participations, 5 (1). http://www.participations.org/Volume%205/Issue%201%20-%20special/5_01_velezserna.htm
Article
Empezar por la piscina: Allá en el Trapiche y las encrucijadas de una industria nacional de cine
Velez-Serna MA (2007) Empezar por la piscina: Allá en el Trapiche y las encrucijadas de una industria nacional de cine. Artefacto, 12, p. 57. http://facartes.unal.edu.co/fa/cdm/revista-artefacto.html
Book Chapter
Transmutaciones de una caja negra: lo nacional en el cine colombiano, según los críticos
Velez-Serna MA (2007) Transmutaciones de una caja negra: lo nacional en el cine colombiano, según los críticos. In: Gomez-Echeverri N, Gonzalez-Espinosa F & Bernal M (eds.) Los pasos sobre las huellas. Ensayos sobre crítica de arte. Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, pp. 63-80. https://premionalcritica.uniandes.edu.co/wp-content/uploads/Los-pasos-sobre-las-huellas.pdf
Book Chapter
Historia de Divulgación Cultural en la sede Bogotá
Velez-Serna MA (2006) Historia de Divulgación Cultural en la sede Bogotá [History of the Cultural Redifussion Department in the Bogota campus]. In: Políticas de Divulgación Cultural de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia: Procesos Inaugurales. Bogotá: Dirección Nacional de Divulgación Cultural - Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Book Chapter
Dogma 95: Provocación, emoción y estilo
Velez-Serna MA (2005) Dogma 95: Provocación, emoción y estilo [Dogma 95: Provocation, emotion and style]. In: Memorias del Seminario ‘Movimientos y Renovación en el Cine’ / Revista del Cine Club. Bogotá: Universidad Central.
During my time at Stirling I have mostly taught Media 1 (first year module), where we talk about current issues in media industries and institutions; Understanding Audiences in second or third year; and Researching Media and Culture (research methods for undergraduate dissertations). I have also convened the dissertation modules and supervised student projects. I contribute to other modules such as Experimental Cinema, The Poetic Eye, Researching Gender, and Global Creative Industries.