Visual Activism and Social Justice Conference 2012 (Aug 2012, Buenos Aires)

ISA/TG05 Call for Session/Workshop Organizers
Dates: 1-4 Aug 2012
Contact: Regev Nathansohn
Proposal deadline: 15 May 2011

Under the auspices of the International Sociological Association Forum on Social Justice and Democratization, the Visual Sociology Thematic Group (TG05) will hold its mid-term conference August 1-4, 2012, in Buenos Aires, Argentina and will focus its session on Visual Activism and Social Justice.

In our sessions, we would like to both create the opportunity for a sociological discussion of the meaning of Visual Activism and Social Justice, and at the same time endeavour to democratize the ways our knowledge and practices are produced and shared.

Thus, we welcome sessions that would focus on broad themes such as:

visual sociology of/as activism; visualizing social justice; the visualizable and the unvisualizable in political action; the history of the use of images in activism, as well as sessions that focus more specifically on such topics as the visual aspects of activism related to sex, gender, sexualities, disability, ill-health, place, migration, ethnicity, labor, colonialism, capitalism, and nationalism.
In addition to regular academic sessions, we welcome ideas for workshops that would serve as platforms for collaborations between scholars, artists, and community activists. These workshops could focus on themes such as: toolkits for visual activism; using visual methods to promote social justice and raise awareness of social injustices; the politics of aesthetics (and aesthetics of politics); making power relations (in/)visible; ethics and data collection and dissemination techniques in visual activism; and visual techniques of/for collaboration.

Guidelines

If interested in organizing a session or a workshop for TG05 (or co-organizing a session/workshop, either within TG05 or in conjunction with another RC, WG or TG), TG05 members are invited to submit a session or a workshop proposal to the Program Coordinator, Regev Nathansohn (regev@umich.edu) by May 15, 2011.

In this proposal, please include:- Session/Workshop title and a brief description of the focus of the session/workshop.- Contact information for each (co-)organizer: name, institutional affiliation (if any), postal address, e-mail, Skype, phone, fax.

If the proposal is for a joint session/workshop with another RC, WG, or TG please indicate this clearly. Agreement of both groups will be required for inclusion as a joint session in the TG05 program, and a member of each participating unit will normally be (co-)organizer of the session. The proposal will be submitted to (and probably discussed in advance with) both Program Coordinators.
Based on its size, TG05 has been allocated 10 sessions, including our business meeting and any joint sessions in which we may wish to participate. Once the overall structure of sessions and workshops for the TG05 program has been determined by the TG05 Program Committee, there will be a call for papers, issued centrally, by July 15, 2011. Thus, normally the participants in a session should not be pre-determined by the session (co-)organizer. A session chair does not have to be the same person as the session (co-)organizer. For workshops, please indicate who, besides academics, the prospective participants should be.

NOTE: In accordance with ISA Forum regulations, a person may not present in a session of which s/he is chair, and no one (except for Program Coordinators and session (co)-organizers) may be in the Forum program more than twice (e.g. as author, co-author, discussant, plenary speaker, session (co-)chair, critic, roundtable presenter, poster presenter). All participants must be registered by the early registration deadline of April 10, 2012 in order for their names to appear in the Program Book or in the Abstracts Book. Sessions may be organized in English or in Spanish, but due to budget constraints we will unfortunately be unable to provide simultaneous or sequential interpretation. The TG05 organizers may be able to assist with some more informal measures to facilitate communication across language lines (such as the provision of translated outlines).

The TG05 Program Committee for 2012 Forum

Regev Nathansohn (TG05 President and Program Coordinator), Arianna Mencaroni, Christian von Wissel, EJ Milne, Gabry Vanderveen, Jerome Krase, Maciej Frąckowiak, Maru Martinez, Ruth Bartlett, Valentina Anzoise