American Studies Association 2024 - Visual Culture Caucus Sponsored Papers/Panels
Call for Participation:
Visual Culture Papers at the 2024 American Studies Association
November 14-17, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland
The Visual Culture Caucus (http://www.theasa.net/caucus_visual/) of the American Studies Association (ASA) promotes the participation of visual culture scholars at the ASA annual meeting. Within the theme “Grounded Engagements in American Studies” we are looking for papers and panels that investigate or interrogate visual culture in its many forms. We link potential panelists with shared interests in visual culture topics to encourage the formation of strong visual culture-related panels. We aim to host three proposed sessions, with one of these explicitly about film and media and another on pedagogy. If you, your colleagues, or graduate students are considering proposals for the conference, please email us your panel idea or paper abstract and we will work to connect you with similar panelists and papers. We are also happy to offer suggestions on complete panel proposals. Topics might include a variety of visual practices outside of the art world as well as those that seek to transform what is possible within the privileged space of the gallery, creative films, filmmaking, and television; the Internet and social media; methods of studying visual culture; and the instruction of visual culture across various disciplines.
Please read about each of the submission options below and, if interested, send the materials requested to both co-chairs of the Visual Culture Caucus, Rebecca Kumar (rebecca.kumar@spelman.edu) and Carmen Merport Quiñones (cmerport@oberlin.edu) by January 20, 2024. Please put either “ASA proposal for scholarly paper/panel” or “ASA proposal for pedagogy roundtable” in the subject line. If you are particularly interested in helping locate other potential participants in a panel, please reach out as soon as possible.
The VCC will provide its decision on sponsored panels and roundtable participants by January 25th. Panelists will then be responsible for following all posted instructions and for submitting their own panels or papers in proper ASA format to the ASA by the ASA deadline (February 5, 2024). For more ASA instructions on proposal submission, see: https://www.theasa.net/node/5681
Visual Culture Caucus Panel Sessions:
The “Grounded Engagements in American Studies” theme of this year’s conference asks us to consider the literal and conceptual ground on which we stand, from which we work, and with which we build new futures. It focuses on collaborative, communal engagement and research that might help us “work toward thinking through new trajectories in American Studies that emerge from the ground up.” We hope to form two panels:
1. The Visual Culture Caucus invites proposals for conference papers/panels, especially from emerging scholars, that address this wide-ranging conference theme through analysis of visual practices that reflect past, present, and even future forms of grounded engagement. Please submit a paper abstract (maximum of 500 words per abstract), a 350-word (or less) biographical statement, and an abbreviated CV.
Some possible themes include, but are not limited to:
-Visual representations of place and landscape
-Social change through social media
-Alternative and community print and broadcasting media
-Collaboration and collective artistry
-Art on the walls and in the streets (graffiti, lowrider art, murals)
-Visuality and vision in sacred spaces
-Critical cartographies
2. The VCC also invites proposals for conference papers/panels, especially from emerging scholars, that address the conference theme with an eye toward film and television. Not only are we seeking work that analyzes representations of the ground and grounding onscreen, but also welcome submissions on the material conditions/limitations/possibilities of visual cultural production (i.e. the writer’s strike and its impact on film and television; the way in which race and gender mediates the ground on which we encounter visual media .)
Visual Culture Caucus Pedagogy Session:
The VCC welcomes brief proposals of topics (including individual submissions) for participation in a roundtable or skill sharing session on visual culture-centered teaching across fields and disciplines, including classroom methods, assignments, projects, exhibitions, campus film festivals, and other forms of outreach or hands-on learning that employ visual culture. The session may feature short-presentations by participants followed by a moderated discussion. Please submit a paper abstract (maximum of 500 words per abstract), a 350-word (or less) biographical statement, and an abbreviated CV.