Visual Culture Studies (2026/2027: Semester 2 – Spring)

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Cursusdoel

Course Aim

After completing this course
1. You will have developed a deeper understanding of Visual Culture Studies through its cross-disciplinary intersections.
2. You will be able to position yourself whilst engaging with theoretical perspectives on the politics of looking and image-making (e.g. in your reading portfolio).
3. You will be able to conduct case study analyses across media formats thereby critically interrogating how visual culture shapes identity, regulates power dynamics, and governs visibility.
4. You will understand and engage with "the affective turn" in media and cultural studies, exploring how images produce sensory and emotional responses.
5. You will have practiced visual ethnography as a research method by combining creative practice (e.g., photo- or video-essays) with a more traditional academic format (writing/analysis).

Relationship between assessment and learning goals:
1. Practice-based research – learning goals: 1, 5,
2. Reading portfolio – learning goals: 1, 2, 4
3. Term paper – learning goals: 1,2, 3, 4,
4. Attendance, in-class activities and participation – learning goals: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Vakinhoudelijk

Course Content
Visual culture can be entertaining and afford us pleasure, impact who we are or who we aspire to be. It also mediates and regulates power relations and determines who is visible and who or what remains unseen.

Visual Culture Studies is a fairly recent crossdisciplinary field of inquiry at the intersection of cultural studies, media studies, social-cultural anthropology, philosophy, and other relevant approaches.
In the first part of this course, we will explore and critically reflect our various ways of seeing (John Berger). We will learn about visual ethnography (photography, videography) as a creative research practice.
In the second part of the course we will further develop our theoretical-analytical framework on the politics of the image and image-making, in popular culture but also in photojournalism, street art, visual art in galleries or for poster campaigns. We will read academic texts to deepen our understanding on the production of meaning through visuality in relation to social class, gender, or the climate crisis.
While the second part of the course focuses on more traditional approaches to visual/media analysis, in the third part our inquiry will center on affect and embodiment (for example by asking "How does this image move or shock?” or “How do formal aspects of film form generate this embodied sensation?”).


Format
Most classes will be held seminar-style and as dialogic lectures. There may be some in-class screenings, guest lectures, or even an excursion.
In preparation for each class, students will read the assigned texts and occasionally they will be prompted to do another type of exercise (e.g. creative self-portrait, visiting an exhibition, watch a movie, etc).
Students will also be working on their reading portfolio throughout the semester. In their portfolio students will compile reading responses to assigned readings and create productive tangents between readings.
In class, there will be ample opportunity to reflect on current debates and apply theories and concepts to specific case studies. Therefore, active participation in class is expected.

Werkvormen

UCU HUM 2 course

Toetsing

Attendance, in-class activities and participation

Verplicht | Weging 15% | ECTS 1,13

Reading portfolio

Verplicht | Weging 25% | ECTS 1,88

Practice-based research (visual ethnography + written analysis)

Verplicht | Weging 30% | ECTS 2,25

Term paper

Verplicht | Weging 30% | ECTS 2,25

*midterm FEEDBACK*

Niet verplicht

Ingangseisen en voorkennis

Voertalen

  • Engels

Competenties

  • Academisch schrijven
  • Debatteren / discoursanalyse
  • Internationale en interculturele oriëntatie
  • Interdisciplinariteit
  • Kritisch lezen
  • Leren In Community’s
  • Onderzoeksvaardigheden
  • Presenteren
  • Samenwerken

Cursusmomenten

Gerelateerde studies

Tentamens

Er is geen tentamenrooster beschikbaar voor deze cursus

Verplicht materiaal

  • READER
    Reader

Aanbevolen materiaal

Er is geen informatie over de aanbevolen literatuur bekend

Coördinator

N. Köll MA N.Koll@uu.nl

Docenten

N. Köll MA N.Koll@uu.nl

Inschrijving

Let op: deze cursus is niet toegankelijk voor studenten van andere faculteiten, bijvakkers mogen zich dus niet inschrijven.

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