Research grant NIAS
Yesterday, I got the wonderful that my application to become Fellow of the prestigious Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) was honored, and this despite fierce competition (even more so than in previous years). This means I will get a teaching replacement subsidy for the time span between early September 2021 and late January 2022, enabling me to write the manuscript of my upcoming monograph on Italian silent cinema, within a cross-medial and transnational perspective. As my university doesn’t know official sabbaticals, this was the chance of lifetime (o.k., career time) to get leave for research and do something more substantial than an article or a book chapter. Italian silent cinema has been my specialism for decades, as expressed in numerous conference papers, workshops, network organizations, and publications. So after my two monographs Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade (2003) and Reframing Luchino Visconti: Film and Art (2018), the publication of many single articles, and the editing of several special issues for the Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis (Journal for Media History), it is now time for my third monograph.
Ivo Blom 