WS: Katharina Stornig & Silvan Niedermeier: Imperialism & Photography: Historical Perspectives (GCSC)

*** Part I of the “Interdisciplinary Methodological Lab: Exploring Political Dimensions of the Visual“***

This research workshop is aimed at GCSC/GGK doctoral researchers in all disciplines. It addresses the relationship between photographic image-making and processes of empire building as well as the construction and deconstruction of imperial subject positions and identities. More particularly, the workshop asks for the role, use and function of images (and particularly photographs) in larger political, social and cultural projects connected to both imperialism and the contestation of imperial power. Taking place in the framework of the “Interdisciplinary Methodological Lab: Exploring Political Dimensions of the Visual” organized by Research Area 4: Visual and Material Culture Studies, the workshop draws special attention to the discussion of methodological issues and source material regarding the visual. This includes the social dimensions of seeing and of being seen in historical and present contexts. The workshop has two parts. While the first section is dedicated to a discussion of theoretical and methodological approaches based on recent literature, the second part starts out with two brief presentations of empirical studies and source material by the speakers. The short presentations will introduce methodological approaches to the study of images, which were produced, collected, interpreted and used in historical contexts of inequality and domination and allow to explore the power and limitations of photographs and photographic practices in history.

Preparatory Readings:

Brenda l. Croft, “Laying Ghosts to Rest”, in: Eleanor M. Hight and Gary D. Sampson (eds), Colonialist Photography. Imag(in)ing Race and Place, London and New York: Routledge, 2002, pp. 20–29.

Elizabeth Edwards, “Shifting Representation. The Making of the Ethnographic in Nineteenth Century Photography, in: Hans-Peter Bayerdörfer et al. (eds), Bilder des Fremden. Mediale Inszenierungen von Alterität im 19. Jahrhundert, Berlin: LIT, 2007, pp. 41–62.

Sumathi Ramaswamy, “Introduction. The Work of Vision in the Age of European Empires“, in: Martin Jay and Sumathi Ramaswamy (eds), Empires of Vision. A Reader, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2014, pp. 1–22.

//Dr. Silvan Niedermeier (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, University of Erfurt)

  Prof. Dr. Katharina Stornig (Junior Professor, GCSC/JLU)