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Images: Past & Present (ASMCF–SSFH Postgraduate Study Day 2022)

Images: Past & Present (ASMCF–SSFH Postgraduate Study Day 2022)

Publié le par Perrine Coudurier (Source : Pallavi Joshi)

ASMCF-SSFH Postgraduate Study Day 2022

Call for papers - Images: Past & Present 

A virtual study day to be held on 23 April 2022


Keynote: To Be Confirmed


What happens when the images come into the world? With or without its consent, civil society has been constantly imaged, recorded, documented, archived and exhibited. This omnipresence of images created, circulated, and displayed merits an analysis of the multiplicity of its forms and its roots.


This year, we have decided to focus on images, their disconcerting plurality, and their power which keeps in reserve infinite possibilities of actualisation; we have decided to follow them through heterogeneous geographies and temporalities of the French and Francophone world.


We will focus on decentering our perspective on the production, representation, confrontation and reception of images, past and present, by openly admitting the multipolar character of the societies where they are born and set in motion. It is by uniting historical and contemporary perspectives and several disciplinary fields that we seek to grasp the historical, epistemic, political and social issues that unite images and representations.


The theme that we have selected for ASMCF-SSFH Study Day 2022 is evidently one that is rich in interpretation. We encourage our participants to reflect on the different ways in which images (re)present and/or question the past and the present. We invite proposals for 20-minute papers in English or French from across French and Francophone history and society, literature, politics, linguistics, film and visual cultures, philosophy, critical theory, and other disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary approaches. We particularly welcome contributions from postgraduates overseas and those from under-represented groups in academia.


Possible topics include, but are not limited to contemporary or historical studies on the following:


Face aux crises: images of trauma, pandemics and pain
Images and Agency: images subversives, images subverties
Images mentales, concrétisations imageantes
Images mise en trope(s): caricatures, clin d’œil, parody, emprunt, hommage, pastiche
Images et geste politique: press, propaganda and political images 
Diverging from the norm: clandestine images, censorship and control
Picturing the margins: migrations et territoires
Images of War: violence, reconciliation and pardon
Images and symbolism in literature: ekphrasis
Images de l’autre, images de soi : imaginaire, fantastique, inventé, fantasmé
Vignettes de domination (post)coloniale
Illustration and textuality : aux frontières du lisible et du visible
Images en mouvement : cinema, technology and digital cultures
Images in the class : images fixes et supports audiovisuels
(Re)presenting/(re)inventing the past: mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli
Images in public spaces: statues, exhibitions, street art, billboards, posters, art installations
Œuvres hybrides : graphic novels, comics, magazines, documentaries
Archival images: preservation, conservation, restoration
Images patrimoniales: heritage and influence
Role of cultural institutions: archives, libraries, museums

Abstracts of no more than 250 words, in either English or in French, should be sent to asmcf.ssfh.pgstudyday@gmail.com. Submissions should be received by 9:00 AM (GMT) on 31 January 2022.

Call for Flash Presentations

Share your voice! We welcome proposals from MA and PhD students to explain their own research in three minutes, limited to one Powerpoint slide OR one creative method of their choice. Presentations on any topic connected to French and Francophone studies and histories are welcome.


Please email asmcf.ssfh.pgstudyday@gmail.com  to express your interest.


The Study Day will include professional development panels and an opportunity to engage with senior academics from other institutions. It is generously funded by the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF) and the Society for the Study of French History (SSFH). Attendance is free but all attendees are kindly requested to become members of one of the societes on or before the day via one of the society’s website. We will endeavour to ensure that the virtual conference is fully accessible, and we are very happy to discuss particular needs that participants might have and how we can best accommodate these.


Organising Committee: Pallavi Joshi (Univeristy of Warwick, ASMCF), Sophie Dubillot (Open University, ASMCF), Daniel Baker (Cardiff, SSFH) 

asmcf.org  @asmcf

frenchhistorysociety.ac.uk @FrenchHistoryUK