240236 VU VU topics (2014W)

The Politics of Images: Representation is never innocent!

14. Lecture Series Gender Studies for the Study Year 2014/2015

Images are never simply a reproduction of reality, representation is never innocent (Abi-Sara Machold). The title of the lecture series Bildpolitiken/Politics of Images points to the essential relation between images and power. We question, who or what is made visible in which context and in which way? This lecture series will critically analyze hegemonial regimes of representations from a queer-feminist, postcolonial and crip perspective.

How are images used to legitimize and stabilize power relations? Who claims the power to define, produce and circulate images? In which ways do images support old and new processes of normalization by structuring our perception and therefore structuring the conditions of intelligibility? What influences do images gain on the persistency of binary heteronormative gender relations, able-bodied norms and racist structures? What kinds of subversive strategies can be imagined from a perspective of gender/queer/postcolonial/disability studies?

In this lecture series, we want to discuss inter-, multi- and transdisciplinary approaches that intend to analyze scientific, social and artistic forms of representation. Our aim is to reveal power structures as well as interventions and forms of agency within the field of visibility.