New Anthology from DEFA Film Library's Mariana Ivanova Explores Science, Media, and the Cold War

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A new anthology, edited by DEFA Film Library Academic Director Mariana Ivanova and University of Lübeck, Germany's Juliane Scholz, was recently published by the prestigious academic press, Berghahn Books. "Science on Screen and Paper: Media Cultures and Knowledge Production in Cold War Europe" is the second volume in the book series Visual and Media Cultures of the Cold War and Beyond, co-sponsored by the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst.

The anthology explores the ways in which science and media were central to the making of the Cold War, as well as to the lived experiences of persons in divided Europe. In 11 groundbreaking chapters, the volume illuminates the impact of ideological and scientific competition, as well as geopolitical and cultural differences between societies on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The volume amplifies the writing of young researchers and to bring them into a transatlantic dialogue.

Of the anthology, co-editor Mariana Ivanova says, “More than 30 years since the alleged end of the Cold War, twelve authors from countries in the Eastern and Western hemispheres explore intersections between scientific research and media by drawing from media history, film studies, and the history of science. They effectively draw on under-researched audio-visual and print media, such as PR, educational and science films, children’s magazines and television broadcasts to demonstrate that the Cold War was not a monolithic era, frozen in time, but rather one shaped by evolving, dynamic political and cultural processes as well as transnational protagonists and institutional relations."