The Stone Summer Theory Institute is week-long school in contemporary art
theory. It is held in Chicago, in July, at the School of the Art
Institute, organized by James Elkins.
THEME - 2011
Farewell to Visual Studies
Co-organized with Sunil Manghani and Gustav Frank
The field of Visual Studies, inaugurated in the 1990s, has not fulfilled
its promise--which was, roughly, to provide an optimal methodological
model for the study of images of all sorts, and to create a new academic
space partly inside, and partly outside, existing structures. Despite the
appearance of new journals and online sites devoted to visual studies, and
despite the continuously increasing number of departments worldwide, the
field of visual studies remains a minority interest with an increasingly
predictable set of interpretive agendas and subjects. Typically it
attracts students in the humanities, who explore Marxist critiques of mass
media and fine art. The growth of vision science, together with the rise
of hybrid departments without the term "visual studies" or its
analogues--such as the initiatives in East Anglia and Leiden, which study
"world art"--may signal the end of the project of visual studies. Our
purpose is to assess the relevant history, current condition, and future
prospects of visual studies, image studies, visual culture, Bildvetenskap,
Bildwissenschaft, and other initiatives.
FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Lectures and panel discussions are open to the public. Most of the week,
however, is occupied by closed seminars, which are attended by 15 Fellows
chosen in an international competition. There are 6 hours of seminars each
day, with up to 1,500 pages of assigned readings, circulated in advance.
The full schedule of closed seminar topics is available as a pdf
(http://www.stonesummertheoryinstitute.org/images/pdfs/SSTI_2010/2010-schedule.pdf).
(Note: the schedule on this pdf is provisional.)
Applications for the 15 Fellow positions are invited from advanced
graduate students, faculty, artists, and administrators. In 2007, the
competition was difficult, with an applications to admissions ratio of 13
to 1; in 2008 the ratio was 19 to 1; in 2010, 20 to 1.
To apply, send a curriculum vitae, a writing sample (published or
unpublished), and a two-page letter describing your knowledge and interest
in the subject, to: [log in to unmask]
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript
enabled to view it . The materials should be in a single pdf or Word
file. Please put "Application for the Stone Summer Theory Institute" in
the subject line of the email, and be sure to include your email address
and full contact information in the application itself. (There is no
separate application form: the Word or pdf file comprises the entire
application.)
The deadline is April 15, 2010; successful applicants will be notified
April 20.
Support is available for the Fellowships. All 15 Fellows receive
accommodation at the School of the Art Institute. We also have funds for
air travel, which are given on a merit basis. Funding will be announced
along with the successful applicants on April 20.
(The closed seminars will also include a class of 10 students from the
School of the Art Institute: if you are a current student of the School
and would like to apply to be a member of that class, please email Jim
Elkins This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need
JavaScript enabled to view it with a one- or two-page letter describing
your interests in the subject.)
Dr G Frank
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Institut für deutsche Philologie
Schellingstraße 3 / RG (Raum 416a)
D-80799 München
Telefon: +49 (0)89 2180-6220
[log in to unmask]
http://lmu-munich.academia.edu/GustavFrank
recent publications:
(mit Barbara Lange) Einführung in die Bildwissenschaft. Bilder in der
visuellen Kultur. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2010.
Symptoms of Epistemological Change: Intersections of Music and the Visual
Arts in the German Novel of the Long 19th Century. In: Textual
Intersections: Literature, History and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century
Europe. Hg. Rachael Langford. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi 2009, 53-62.
Girlkultur, Populärkultur und neues Wissen in der Weimarer Republik. In:
Irmgard Keun. Hg. Stefan Scherer. München: Text+Kritik 2009, 35-46.
Literaturtheorie und Visual Culture. In: Bildtheorien: Anthropologische
und kulturelle Grundlagen des Visualistic Turn. Hg. Klaus Sachs-Hombach.
Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp 2009, 354-392.
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