[Discussion] VISUAL GENDERS
sule tarakcioglu
suletar@Bilkent.EDU.TR
Wed, 09 Jun 2004 09:15:13 -0700
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*SPECIAL ISSUE OF GENDER AND HISTORY* TITLE: /VISUAL GENDERS/
What can a serious engagement with visuality bring to the study of
gender histories? Submissions are invited for a Special Issue of the
journal that will focus on visual genders. Aside from a body of feminist
scholarship in film and art history, research has treated gender studies
and visual studies largely in isolation from one another. Given Gender
and History's record of exploring new pathways into gendered pasts, this
attention to the visual provides the opportunity for a new and critical
historical turn.
In certain quarters, placing pictures at the center of historical
enquiry has the effect of unsettling the gender asymmetries in the
archive. The implicit hierarchies of documentary text, oral source and
photograph for example are brought into question, because it is often
the case that women are seen but not heard. This belies the common
assertion of their 'invisibility', and raises crucial issues about the
agendas of visibility of those who produced the images.
Visual theorists and others have pointed to the western tendency to
privilege vision over the other human senses. Special Issue editors are
therefore interested in papers that interrogate the cultural primacy of
the visual, its potential Eurocentrisms and gender configurations in
colonial and other settings. Equally, what happens when the means of
representation come under the control of those who were formerly the
object of the gaze? Editors encourage submissions that study the making
of new visual cultures and economies - with women or marginalised men
central to the process. The visual construction of femininities and
masculinities; how visual culture both reflects and produces ideologies
of gender; the unearthing of neglected artists, photographers,
filmmakers: such themes are pertinent to the Special Issue and the
methodological challenges of attending to the visual. Finally, editors
encourage papers that explore the ways gender might be deployed to
generate new understandings of the workings of visuality. This is in a
context where surveillance and 'the gaze' are frequently represented in
visual theory as part of an almost unshakable formula of perceptual
mastery and control. This ignores the gendered and even unconscious
relation between observer and observed, subject and object, knower and
known. It calls for a repositioning of visual studies in relation to
gender: a new interdisciplinary cluster that will, it is hoped, lead to
fresh research and political insights. The Guest Editor for this Special
Issue is Patricia Hayes (University of the Western Cape). A parallel
workshop on Gender and Visuality is planned for 26-29 August 2004 in
Cape Town (contact visual@uwc.ac.za). Please send abstracts only, by 31
July 2004, to Gender & History (gheds@umich.edu or Gender & History,
IRWG, 1136 Lane Hall, 204 S. State Street, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, MI 48109-1290, USA).
Marti Lybeck
Gender & History
Institute for Research on Women and Gender
1136 Lane Hall
204 State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290
734-647-7533
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<font size="2" face="verdana, arial, helvetica"><b>SPECIAL ISSUE OF
GENDER AND HISTORY</b>
TITLE: <i>VISUAL GENDERS</i>
</font>
<p><font size="2" face="verdana, arial, helvetica">What can a
serious engagement with visuality bring to the study of gender
histories? Submissions are invited for a Special Issue of the journal
that will focus on visual genders. Aside from a body of feminist
scholarship in film and art history, research has treated gender
studies and visual studies largely in isolation from one another. Given
Gender and History’s record of exploring new pathways into gendered
pasts, this attention to the visual provides the opportunity for a new
and critical historical turn. </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="verdana, arial, helvetica">In
certain quarters, placing pictures at the center of historical enquiry
has the effect of unsettling the gender asymmetries in the archive. The
implicit hierarchies of documentary text, oral source and photograph
for example are brought into question, because it is often the case
that women are seen but not heard. This belies the common assertion of
their ‘invisibility’, and raises crucial issues about the agendas of
visibility of those who produced the images. </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="verdana, arial, helvetica">Visual
theorists and others have pointed to the western tendency to privilege
vision over the other human senses. Special Issue editors are therefore
interested in papers that interrogate the cultural primacy of the
visual, its potential Eurocentrisms and gender configurations in
colonial and other settings. Equally, what happens when the means of
representation come under the control of those who were formerly the
object of the gaze? Editors encourage submissions that study the making
of new visual cultures and economies – with women or marginalised men
central to the process. The visual construction of femininities and
masculinities; how visual culture both reflects and produces ideologies
of gender; the unearthing of neglected artists, photographers,
filmmakers: such themes are pertinent to the Special Issue and the
methodological challenges of attending to the visual. Finally, editors
encourage papers that explore the ways gender might be deployed to
generate new understandings of the workings of visuality. This is in a
context where surveillance and ‘the gaze’ are frequently represented in
visual theory as part of an almost unshakable formula of perceptual
mastery and control. This ignores the gendered and even unconscious
relation between observer and observed, subject and object, knower and
known. It calls for a repositioning of visual studies in relation to
gender: a new interdisciplinary cluster that will, it is hoped, lead to
fresh research and political insights.
The Guest Editor for this Special Issue is Patricia Hayes (University
of the Western Cape). A parallel workshop on Gender and Visuality is
planned for 26-29 August 2004 in Cape Town (contact <a
href="mailto:visual@uwc.ac.za" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated">visual@uwc.ac.za</a>).
Please send abstracts only, by 31 July 2004, to Gender & History
(<a href="mailto:gheds@umich.edu" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated">gheds@umich.edu</a>
or Gender & History, IRWG, 1136 Lane Hall, 204 S.
State Street, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290, USA). </font></p>
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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#330066" width="1"><img alt=""
height="1" width="1" src="cid:part1.08000107.03070206@bilkent.edu.tr"></td>
<td width="100%"> <font size="-1" face="Verdana, Helvetica"><font
size="-1" face="Verdana, Helvetica">Marti Lybeck <br>
Gender & History <br>
Institute for Research on Women and Gender <br>
1136 Lane Hall <br>
204 State Street <br>
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290 <br>
734-647-7533</font></font></td>
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