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UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies

Photography and International Conflict CALL FOR PAPERS

Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin
25-27 June 2009

This conference will bring together scholars and practitioners in the fields of visual media and international relations to examine the roles of image producers and the functions of photographic imagery in the documentation and communication of wars, violent conflicts and human rights issues. The conference is the first major event of an international research project on this topic.

Speakers include

Ariella Azoulay (Bar Ilan University), Thomas Keenan (Bard College), Liam Kennedy (University College Dublin), Paul Lowe (University of the Arts London/Panos Pictures), Sean Smith (The Guardian)

Papers might address one or more of the following topics:

• The histories and genres of photographic depictions of conflict
• The ethical and legal function of images as evidentiary representations of human suffering
• The role of new technologies and technological convergence in depicting conflict
• The visual economies that translate and regulate the value of images of conflict and suffering
• The role of humanitarian and cosmopolitan frameworks in ‘Western’ genres of documentary photography
• The role of news organizations and NGOs in the global distribution of images
• The effects of imagery on government policy and NGO activity

Please submit a 300 word abstract by 15 May 2009 to Dr Caitlin Patrick, at Caitlin.Patrick@ucd.ie

• Registration Information
• Accommodation & Food
• Programme (to follow)
• How to Find Us
• Contact Details
• Links

Registration Information

• €50 Registration Fee
• €35 Student/Unwaged Registration Fee

Registration fee includes a conference pack and admission to all conference seminars, plenary sessions, teas/coffees.

A conference meal will take place on the one of the evenings. The meal is €29 per person, excluding drink.  While registering for the conference please inform me if you wish to attend the meal.

To register please email Catherine.Carey@ucd.ie and provide the following information

• Name
• Institute/Affiliation
• Full Postal Address
• Email
• Tel/Fax
• Number of places
• Will you be attending the conference dinner

Payment can be made by cheque (in Euros only) in advance or by cash at the start of the event

Accommodation & Food

Attendees are responsible for booking and paying their own accommodation.

• Accommodation near UCD

Food on Campus

Details of places to eat on campus are listed below and can be located on the UCD Campus Map.
There are a number of restaurants and snack bars also available on campus.

Programme PROVISIONAL SCHEDULE

Thursday, June 25

1-1:30pm - Registration at Clinton Institute (Belfield House).

1:30pm - Introduction & Welcome (Clinton auditorium)

2pm-3:30pm - Panels A & B (Clinton auditorium & seminar room)

Panel A - Photography & the Iraq War

• Jennifer Saffron, University of Pittsburgh Film Studies - “Baghdad Street Photography”
  
• Katy Parry, University of Liverpool - “The First ‘Clean’ War?  Visually Framing Civilian Casualties in the British Press during the Iraq Invasion”
  
• Lindsay Anne Balfour, University of British Columbia, Okanagan - “Looking Saddam in the Eye: Emergent Technologies and the Ethics of Visual Confrontation”
  

Panel B - Photographic Subjects & Ethics of Representation

• Wendy Kozol, Oberlin College - “Ambivalent Witnessing: Affect and Spectacle in Women’s Human Rights Photography”
  
• Edit Kalman, Central European University - “Just Photographs?  The Depersonalizing Portrayal of the Developing World and the Visual Depiction of the UNICEF Child”
  
• Ellen Thornton, DIT Dublin - “Victim of Conflict: Humans with a right to their image, or a commodity in the commercial traffic of pain”

3:30-4pm - Tea and coffee

4pm - Plenary 1- Ariella Azoulay, Bar Ilan University - The Civil Contract of Photography

5:30pm - Plenary finishes, participants travel to Gallery of Photography in Temple Bar, City Centre

6:30pm -   Screening of Josef Koudelka’s ‘Prague Spring’ photos at The Gallery of Photography, Temple Bar

Friday, June 26

9-11am - Panels C & D

Panel C - Conflict & Human Rights Photography in the Middle East

• Chava Brownfield-Stein, Bar Ilan University - “A genealogy of one single war photograph: in between heroism and massacre”
  
• Karin Dobernig, Katharina Lobinger & Irmgard Wetzstein, University of Vienna - “Covering Conflict in Quality Journalism: Analyzing Visual and Verbal Texts on the Gaza Crisis 2009 in Four Weekly News Media”
  
• Ruth Ginsburg, Bar Ilan University - “Protection and preservation: two roles of the camera in Israeli human rights organization, B’Tzelem documentation”
  
• Bahareh Afghahi, Universite Lumiere Lyon - “Eloquent photographs: Reporters of human rights violations in Iran”
  

Panel D - Representing Conflict in Popular Media: From Vietnam to Present

• Steven Nestor, DIT Dublin - “The Fog of Photography: Newsweek & the Vietnam War”
  
• Nandi Dill & Jennifer Telesca, New York University - “Imagining Humanitarian Emergencies: Photographic Genres of Crisis in Mainstream US Newsmagazines”
  
• Valerie Gorin, University of Geneva - “Humanitarian crises and their iconography of pity: a comparative analysis of French and US newsmagazines”
  
• Alexandra Moschovi, University of Sunderland - “No Control: Reporting the Greek Riots in the Age of Social Networking Media”

11am - tea and coffee break

11:30am - Plenary 2

Post-photojournalism?  New Directions and Strategies

• Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, London College of Communication - The Day Nobody Died
  
• Tom Keenan, Bard College & Carles Guerra, artist & curator - Barcelona

12:45pm- 2pm - lunch

2-3:30pm - Panels E & F

Panel E - Depiction, Display & Distribution: How Photographs Perform

• Jay Prosser, University of Leeds - “Installing Atrocity: The Body of the Photograph”
  
• Justin Carville, IADT - “The Face of War: Visual Politics and Portraiture in WPP Awards”
  
• Caitlin Patrick, UCD - “What’s Left?  Photojournalism’s Places in the 21st Century”
  

Panel F - Histories & Perception- New Studies in War Photography

• Myles Ludwig, Lynn University, USA - “Combat, Color and Credibility: Photographic Perception”
  
• Frank Watson, Westminster University & Croydon College of Art & Design- “The Cold War Conflict: Nuclear Sites and The English Landscape”
  
• Elena Siemens, University of Alberta- “Death in Vienna: A story of an image from the end of WWII”

3:30-4pm - tea and coffee

4pm - Plenary 3

Photographic Practices in a Global Context

• Shahidul Alam - photographer, Drik, Bangladesh
  
• Paul Lowe - London College of Communication
  
• Sean Smith - photographer, The Guardian

5:15pm - Closing roundtable, chaired by Liam Kennedy- Anthony Suau’s 2008 World Press Photo-winning image- “What is a conflict photograph?”  Leading into a more open discussion.

How to get to University College Dublin and the UCD Clinton Institute

Registration and the conference will take place in the William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium at University College Dublin.
Delegates are responsible for booking their own travel and accommodation.

• How to get to UCD hot button to

Contact Details

Contact details are available on our contact page.

Links

For more information about Dublin.