Thomas Elsaesser and Film Studies
Thomas Elsaesser and Film Studies

Summary/Abstract: On March 6th, 2008 in Philadelphia, Thomas Elsaesser received the annual award of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) for outstanding scholarly achievement (Distinguished Career Achievement Award). His thank you speech for this occasion was a reflection on his professional journey, significantly entitled “Stepping sideways”, as this was also the year of his mandatory retirement, when he was “stepping down” from his Chair at the University of Amsterdam. He characterised his academic career as a series not of career-steps or mis-steps, but of sideways steps, often based on misunderstandings, “mostly productive ones, to be sure, but (in true melodramatic and parapractic fashion) out of sync, too soon, too late, the right thing at the wrong place, or vice versa”

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