SLU-Madrid's Brian Goss Advances Film and Media Research During Trips to Palermo and Rotterdam
While on sabbatical this semester, communication professor Brian Goss, Ph.D., has continued to represent Saint Louis University-Madrid through international academic engagements that highlight his contributions to media and cultural research.
Goss recently presented at the GENDERCOM25 Conference at the University of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. His paper, “A (Gendered) Specter Is Haunting Europe: Neoliberalism and Women Protagonists in Three European Films (Two Days, One Night – 2014, The Teachers’ Lounge – 2023, and The Worst Person in the World – 2020),” examines the intersection of gender, economy and cinema across contemporary European narratives.
A specialist in mass media and film who teaches three courses on cinema at SLU-Madrid, Goss noted that his manuscript — now under review at an academic journal — reflects the productive interplay between his research and teaching.
"My dissertation from 2000 was on the economic doctrine of neoliberalism and its cultural concomitants," he said. "This conference was an opportunity to bring that thinking up to the present moment."
As part of his sabbatical activities, Goss also undertook a research visit to Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where he delivered two presentations. The first, under the university's Popular Culture and Inequalities research cluster, explored nationalism and citizenship in texts from Spain and the United Kingdom designed for immigrant audiences. His second talk, presented to undergraduates, examined "flak" — political harassment in news media — through recent coverage of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Even while away from campus, Goss advances the global reach of SLU-Madrid's Communication Department, deepening scholarly exchanges that will inform both his future research and his students' classroom experience.