Chair
Dr. Sima Baidya, Jawaharlal Nehru University
sima.baidya@gmail.com
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Centre for West Asian Studies
131 Uttarakhand
New Delhi 110067
India
Vice-Chair
Dr. Martin Plot, UNSAM-CONICET
mplot@unsam.edu.ar
UNSAM-CONICET
EIDAES
Holmberg 2135
Caba 1430
Argentina
Secretary
Mr. Noe John Joseph Sacramento, University of the Philippines Cebu
nesacramento@up.edu.ph
University of the Philippines Cebu
College of Social Sciences
Rm 144, AS Bldg., UP Cebu Campus,
Gorordo Ave
Cebu City 6000
Philippines
Officers
Eugénie Richard, Universidad Externado de Colombia
Karin Liebhart, Department of Political Science, University of Vienna
Diane Colman, School of Humanities and Communication Arts|Parramatta Campus, Western Sydney University
Emilia Palonen, University of Helsinki
Praveen K. Chaudhry, Political Science, State University of New York
Background
Recognised as research committee in 2020.
The “visual” or “aesthetic” turn in global politics refers to an international and interdisciplinary enterprise motivated by the acknowledgment of the centrality of visuals in our contemporary political and social realities. It concerns both the use of visuals in the narration of politics beyond words (e.g., through photography, documentary cinema, and so on) and the study of visual phenomena as part of political facts, events and representations. Since its gradual development in the late 1990s and its expansion in the following decade, scholarly research dedicated to visual politics includes various disciplinary and analytical approaches – such as security studies; international relations; political sociology; or comparative politics. It also includes a large yet specialized spectrum of fields and research topics – including but not limited to new technologies; discourses, representations and forms of warfare; peace and conflict; foreign policy; refugee crises; health issues; international organizations; diplomacy; affects and emotions; identity politics; nationalisms. More than considering visuality as a key-resource to understand the world and its organizing dynamics, the originality of visual politics also relies on the methods used and developed by its scholars. Favoring qualitative methods and often committed in in-depth fieldwork and reflexivity, visual scholars can use fieldwork photography, image analysis, participatory research, documentary cinema and autoethnography.
Objectives
The research committee will serve the following objectives:
- Promote, expand and critically discuss research in visual international politics through publication and teaching, both regarding peers and students;
- Contribute to the support of early-career scholars whose research and/or teaching relates to visual politics;
- Question the epistemological bias (e.g., colonial politics) in visual scholarship and contribute to the field’s inclusivity and global representativeness;
- Contribute to fill the lack of institutionalization of visually engaged research in political science;
- Represent the disciplinary diversity of the community of visual political scientists bringing together a wide range of politics, political sociology and international relations scholars;
- Create an international and inclusive platform for exchanges, collaborations and debates among scholars whose research emphasizes the visual in political phenomena around the world;
- Provide a forum for in-depth and creative exploration of various approaches, particular methods, fields and visual phenomena;
- Centralize and circulate information, opportunities and contacts among visual scholars in political science or related disciplines;
- Promote acceptance and understanding of a wide range of methods, approaches and paradigms that constitute visually oriented research in political science or related disciplines;
- Supporting the IPSA to become a resource for all approaches and empirical fields that engage with images, politics and the international;
- Provide a framework between scholars and organizations concerned with research and teaching in political and other social sciences emphasizing global politics.
