WHO ARE WE?
Founded in 2002, the Center for Visual Cultures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison supports curricular innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration from faculty and students in the emerging field of visual cultures. We sponsor a yearlong speaker series on topics of general and critical interest and invite members of the community and the university to meet speakers and participate in events and workshops. For students, we offer a Ph.D. Minor and a Graduate Certificate in Visual Cultures. Join us in exploring the multiple visual cultures around us and around the world.
WHY STUDY VISUAL CULTURES?
Students need the skills in visual literacy and criticality that we teach, if they are to participate and succeed in the rapidly expanding field of Visual Cultures. What we mean by this is that, while the study of visual cultures is an interdisciplinary field in its own right, its rise as a field stems from the fact that we live in an image-dominated world. As a growing consequence, a demonstrated capacity to analyze and critically and creatively intervene in that visual world becomes increasingly an aspect of professional demand for students pursuing degrees in a wide range of traditional disciplines from Anthropology to History. Thus, there are two primary reasons to pursue the Ph.D. Minor and its associated Graduate Certificate that we take into consideration. First, training in visual literacy and criticality enhances qualifications, and thus job prospects, for students across disciplines. Second, students across a range of disciplines pursue research for their home degrees (i.e., theses, M.F.A. exhibitions, dissertations) that requires skill in visual analysis training for which is not provided by their primary host degree program. The rigorous course work for the Ph.D. Minor and the Graduate Certificate ensures that students who complete the program have a solid understanding of critical methods, field training, and theories in visual cultures. The strength of the program is demonstrated by the professional success of its graduates.
MORE ABOUT THE VISUAL CULTURES COMMUNITY ON CAMPUS
Over the years, the Center has been fortunate to host artists and scholars from around the world. Their visits have contributed significantly to the creative, academic atmosphere that we strive to foster on campus. The study of transdisciplinary and critical work with the visual is radically dispersed across not just departments within the College of Letters and Science but also across schools and colleges. From its inception and largely for this reason of atomized dispersal, the Center and its degree program have offered a way to create the kind of robust intellectual community necessary for advanced research and professional training (including re-training). The lectures, exhibitions, and workshops that we host enable all students with interests in Visual Cultures to tap into a ready-made academic structure with a community of scholars, artists, and activists. Currently, our faculty affiliates and an ever-expanding number of students are based in departments across colleges and schools, ranging from Afro-American Studies, English, Art, Communication Arts, History, Art History, Gender and Women Studies, and Languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German, French) to Design Studies, Geography, Genetics, Ethnomusicology, and Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, among others.
MINOR & CERTIFICATE
We offer a Doctoral Minor and a Graduate Certificate for masters and professional students. Students enrolled in a terminal M.A. or M.F.A. program are eligible for a Graduate Certificate whereas Ph.D. students are eligible for a Doctoral Minor.
The Doctoral Minor and the Graduate Certificate in Visual Cultures are intended for students from across the University who desire training in the interdisciplinary study of visual cultures. The field of visual cultures analyzes the social construction of images as well as their impact in our social world. Visual Culture Studies differs from other related disciplines in two ways: first, its field of inquiry includes an expansive array of visual cultural artifacts and practices; and, second, its methodologies focus on the constitution of power relations through visual markers of race, gender, disability, and nationality. As the world continues to become increasingly understood through, and reliant on, the visual (the internet, films, television, scientific graphs, data visualization, video games, and advertisements), the need for people trained with the ability to critically interpret, create, and evaluate those mediums is essential.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION STATEMENT
The Center for Visual Cultures thrives in its diverse and inclusive community in which individuals of any gender, race, ethnicity, caste, ability, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, cultural upbringing, language variety, and socioeconomic standing may flourish. Diversity, equity and inclusion are central to our core identity, our founding mission, and how we design our lecture lineup and academic program. We welcome diverse perspectives, especially of those who are marginalized or vulnerable members of society.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Professor Preeti Chopra has been awarded a 2022-2023 Rome Prize!
2022-2023
ANNUAL THEME:
“Aesthetics for Times of Crisis: Horror, Humor, Hunger”
This year-long lecture series looks at the intersections among historical, political, and affective visualities, including still and moving image art, theater and performance, and theoretical approaches that call attention to an array of iconographies and performative practices. We are especially interested in visual responses to crisis that engage modes of horror, humor, and hunger that may explore how vulnerability, precarity, and sociality relate to the affective modes of crisis. In framing this year’s theme in terms of the potentials of aesthetics for times of crisis, we have invited talks and other events that focus on a wide range of approaches to how art’s visceral modes— including weird, shocking, or weak/minor modes of affect, aesthetics, and practice—can help us rethink crisis.
CVC PROGRAMMING SPRING 2023
Graduate Research Forum
Are you curious about the innovative work being done by Center for Visual Cultures affiliates? The CVC invites you to join us for a re-introduction of our bi-annual research forum–a showcasing the work of CVC faculty and graduate students. This colloquium will focus on current graduate student research projects with the goal of sharing and sustaining intellectual energy around visual cultures topics.
Featured Students:
Jalessa Bryant, Curriculum and Instruction
Gabriel Chazan, Art History
Elaine Cannell, English–Literary Studies
Praveen Maripelly, Art
Sabina Madrid-Malloy, Spanish and Portuguese
Friday, March 3, 2023
12:00–1:30 PM CST
The Hagen Room
Elvehjem Building
Join us in-person (lunch provided) or on Zoom: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/91091508570
Sur Rodney Sur
Lecture: “Fly in the Buttermilk of the Contemporary Art World”
Lecture:
Thursday, March 23, 2023
5:00 PM CST
Online:
https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/94770627236
Elvehjem L140
Workshop:"Archiving Your Artworks"
Workshop:
Friday, March 24, 2023
12:00 PM CST
University Club Rm 212
432 East Campus Mall
*To attend the workshop please RSVP to cvc@mailplus.wisc.edu
All are welcome!
Carlos Martiel
Lecture:
Thursday, April 6, 2023
5:00 PM CST
Online:
https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/94545872626
Elvehjem L140
Workshop:
Friday, April 7, 2023
12:00 PM CST
University Club, Rm 212
432 East Campus Mall
*To attend the workshop please RSVP to cvc@mailplus.wisc.edu
All are welcome!
Jisha Menon
Lecture: “Panic, Property, and Precarity in Neoliberal India” Thursday, April 13, 2023
5:00 PM CST
Online:
https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/99100294337
Elvehjem L140
Workshop:
Friday, April 14, 2023
12:00 PM CST
University Club Rm 212
432 East Campus Mall
*To attend the workshop
please RSVP to cvc@mailplus.wisc.edu
All are welcome!
Jazmin Llana
Lecture: “Gut Feeling Hunger Action” Thursday, April 27, 2023
5:00 PM CST
Online:
https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/93761234036
Elvehjem L140
Workshop:
Monday, May 1, 2023
5:00-8:00 PM CST
University Club Rm 212
432 East Campus Mall
*To attend the workshop
please RSVP to cvc@mailplus.wisc.edu
All are welcome!