Visual Sociology - YMGS645

• Title: Visual Sociology
• Guaranteed by: Programme Gender Studies (24-KGS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
• Actual: from 2024
• Semester: summer
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:0/2, MC [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / 25 (25)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Ludmila Maria Dobrovolná Wladyniak, M.A., Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): Ludmila Maria Dobrovolná Wladyniak, M.A., Ph.D.
• Co-requisite : {The course under this code is intended for MA level students. BA students interested in this course need to enrol the BA level code that begins with "YB".}
• Incompatibility : YBAJ351, YBLS015, YMH550
• Is incompatible with: YBAJ351, YMH550, YBLS015

Annotation

The course is an introduction to visual sociology and visual research methods. It provides students with the basics of visual sociology and visual studies, both in theory and practice. Its aim is also to give students an opportunity to explore the field themselves and gain some practice in working with visual material in social sciences. The course is completed by in-class workshops, students’ own projects and outside classroom activities.

Last update: Dobrovolná Wladyniak Ludmila Maria, M.A., Ph.D. (05.02.2024)

Aim of the course

 OBJECTIVES:

·         to present the basic assumptions and main currents of the subdiscipline

·         to help to understand the visual culture – offline and online

·         to let students explore the field themselves

·         to involve students into the practical exercises and activities

·         to show the usability of sociological approach outside the academic environment

Last update: Dobrovolná Wladyniak Ludmila Maria, M.A., Ph.D. (05.02.2024)

Course completion requirements

REQUIREMENTS & ASSESSMENT

•       active participation in classes - reading and discussing compulsory literature

•       final project

•       attendance - 70%

Last update: Dobrovolná Wladyniak Ludmila Maria, M.A., Ph.D. (05.02.2024)

Syllabus

COURSE PROGRAM

1.   Introduction to the course I

FILM: John Berger Ways of seeing (1972), part 1

2 & 3.  Photo workshop: interactions in public place

4.     History of image and photography

 Sontag, Susan (2005) ‘On Photography’. New York: Rosetta Books, p. 1-20.

Film: The Hand that Touches the Arm (2022)

5.   War photography

Butler, Judith (2009) Torture and the Ethics of Photography: Thinking with Sontag, in: ‘Frames of War’. New York: Verso, p. 63-101.

FILM: The War Photographer (2001)

6 & 7.  Visual semiotics & advertising

Rose, Gillian (2012) Semiology: laying bare the prejudices. Beneath the smooth surface of the visible, in: 'Visual Metodologies'. Thousand Oaks California: Sage Publications, p. 106-146.\

Film: Helmut Newton: the Bad and the Beautiful (2020)

8. The final project planning and design

In-class discussion and work

9.  Methods I: photo-elicitation 

Clark-Ibánez, Marisol (2004) Framing the Social World With Photo-Elicitation Interviews. American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 47, No. 12, pp. 1507-1527.

10.     Methods II: photo-essay

Bourgois,  Philippe & Jeff Schonberg (2009) Righteous dopefined. California University Press: chapter 7. 

11. Presentation of final projects

Last update: Dobrovolná Wladyniak Ludmila Maria, M.A., Ph.D. (24.03.2025)

Learning resources

Moodle: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=9483

Last update: Dobrovolná Wladyniak Ludmila Maria, M.A., Ph.D. (05.02.2024)