Craig Campbell

Students will be introduced to theories of colonial critique and visual culture studies as you explore the history of the Indigenous peoples of the Eurasian north. Through carefully chosen English-language materials you will learn about Indigenous peoples through their own words and works. You will also learn about key historical epochs beyond the overly simplistic macro-categories of Imperial Russia/Soviet Union/Post-Soviet Russia. This more nuanced account allows us to better understand how Indigenous peoples function as agents of history in the 20th and 21st Centuries. A hands-on independent research focus in this course will allow students to engage directly with the most challenging ideas identified by Indigenous peoples and scholars today. You’ll learn how to identify tropes and stereotypes and how to get beyond simply classifying them to understanding how they function in society. Major themes in the course include: colonialism, socialist colonialism, borealism through the lens of Indigeneity, northern stereotypes, Indigenous self-representation, photography and printmaking, symbols and ornaments, museums and exhibitions, as well as documentary and fiction films. This course foregrounds the study of digital images (still and moving). We will treat these images as culturally encoded rather than semiotically transparent. That is, students will learn how the meaning accorded to images changes over time and is culturally specific. This frame will train you to apprehend images in their complex movements through transcultural spaces. With a major final project (worth 40% of the final grade) you will become focused on designing and developing a research agenda contribute to a growing public archive on representations of Indigenous peoples in Russia. As this course is taught over multiple years the archive will grow in significance.

This workshop-format seminar builds theoretical foundations for encounters with sensible and sensuous worlds. Through weekly readings, screenings, experiences, and group exercises, we explore ways of knowing, remediating, and evoking as they not only originate in the academy but also from the art world. We look at the way these formations relate to and produce their objects of fascination. Key words like critique, media, intermedia, politics, affect, ethics, and aesthetics are sites of current attention and coalescence in disciplines affliated through the humanities. Readings (which are limited to less than 50 pages per week, and often less than that) will include selections from Jacques Rancière, Kathleen Stewart, Natalie Loveless, George Marcus, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Erin Manning and Brian Massumi, Tim Ingold, and others. The readings are designed to provide a framework for collective discussions without distracting from individual and small-group readings you may undertake for your independent final project.

Roughly half the classes will be spent actively workshopping projects directly (or indirectly) related to your own research. The other half will be dedicated to a few select readings that help to feel out the edges of emerging discourses on arts-based research (sometimes called research creation). Over the course of the semester I will assign a series of 'obstructions' ... these are mini-projects meant to challenge you to remediate (over and over, under different conditions) your final project.

Past projects by students include websites, software, gallery installations, photo-essays, short videos, illustrated essays, and slide shows. Graduate students in RTF and Studio Arts are encouraged to join this seminar as are students in text-heavy disciplines who are interested in exploring the critical world of multi-sensory research and expression as well as research creation. No previous experience with film, video, photography, or other studio arts is necessary. I work closely with each of you to develop skills plans to ensure completion of your desired final project.

The purpose of this course is to introduce the concept of culture as a crucial dimension of human life. Because we tend to think of thought and action as stemming from individual impulses, we find the notion of a shared, highly variable, but influential force in our lives hard to fathom.  Even if we speak of "society" as a familiar concept, we tend to make of it a uniform, oppressive force, some institution outside ourselves that we individually confront and oppose. Yet only if we can learn to recognize how deeply we share certain assumptions and inclinations with others--but only some others, and to varying degrees--can we appreciate the degree to which culture inheres within us and makes us who we are.

Students in this class will develop skills associated with the critique and use of different forms of digital and analogue media. They will develop sensibilities for the examination of vision as a cultural practice. Participants will develop methodological and analytical tools associated with Visual Anthropology. This course will explore the history of the visual in anthropology as seen in the production of photographs, films, and videos. We will explore themes of media, mediation, everyday life, “the gaze,” documentary forms, materiality, technology, realism and representation, as well as ethics. This course will introduce participants to critical approaches and analytic methods that broaden their toolkit for describing the world and the ways in which it is culturally and historically mediated. 

"The Photographic Image" applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory, place, and everyday life. The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques of representation. Whereas photographs are often taken to be static representations of the world, we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing not only on how to produce images but how they are 'read' by others.

The class is planned around multiple photo-based projects. You will be required to read for these projects and undertake original photography assignments. At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings. We will begin with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions. Students are expected to engage fully in both individual and group activities. Students are expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

"The Photographic Image" applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory, place, and everyday life. The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques of representation. Whereas photographs are often taken to be static representations of the world, we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing not only on how to produce images but how they are 'read' by others.

The class is planned around multiple photo-based projects. You will be required to read for these projects and undertake original photography assignments. At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings. We will begin with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions. Students are expected to engage fully in both individual and group activities. Students are expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

This workshop-format seminar builds theoretical foundations for encounters with sensible and sensuous worlds. Through weekly readings, screenings, experiences, and group exercises, we explore ways of knowing, remediating, and evoking as they not only originate in the academy but also from the art world. We look at the way these formations relate to and produce their objects of fascination. Key words like critique, media, intermedia, politics, affect, ethics, and aesthetics are sites of current attention and coalescence in disciplines affliated through the humanities. Readings (which are limited to less than 50 pages per week, and often less than that) will include selections from Jacques Rancière, Kathleen Stewart, Natalie Loveless, George Marcus, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Erin Manning and Brian Massumi, Tim Ingold, and others. The readings are designed to provide a framework for collective discussions without distracting from individual and small-group readings you may undertake for your independent final project.

Roughly half the classes will be spent actively workshopping projects directly (or indirectly) related to your own research. The other half will be dedicated to a few select readings that help to feel out the edges of emerging discourses on arts-based research (sometimes called research creation). Over the course of the semester I will assign a series of 'obstructions' ... these are mini-projects meant to challenge you to remediate (over and over, under different conditions) your final project.

Past projects by students include websites, software, gallery installations, photo-essays, short videos, illustrated essays, and slide shows. Graduate students in RTF and Studio Arts are encouraged to join this seminar as are students in text-heavy disciplines who are interested in exploring the critical world of multi-sensory research and expression as well as research creation. No previous experience with film, video, photography, or other studio arts is necessary. I work closely with each of you to develop skills plans to ensure completion of your desired final project.

Summary:

1.  Each participant identifies an already completed project which they transform or remediate into a new media-form.  Most past students come in with a paper they have written in another class, some have a project already half completed. The key is that you are focusing on remediating research you have already completed (or nearly completed) rather than conducting new research. This class is designed to help you develop skills to foster play and experimentation.

2. In the seminar we collectively read, view, and experience work that challenges us to think and theorize knowledge production as well as conceptual and compositional work.

"The Photographic Image" applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory, place, and everyday life. The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques of representation. Whereas photographs are often taken to be static representations of the world, we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing not only on how to produce images but how they are 'read' by others.

The class is planned around multiple photo-based projects. You will be required to read for these projects and undertake original photography assignments. At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings. We will begin with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions. Students are expected to engage fully in both individual and group activities. Students are expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

This seminar and workshop-format class explores the theoretical foundations for encounters with sensible and sensuous worlds. This theme explores ways of knowing and representing/evoking as they originate in the academy and from the art world and in the way these formations relate to their objects of fascination. Key words here (critique, media, intermedia, aesthetics) are sites of current and increasing attention and coalescence in cultural studies and associated disciplines. Readings will include selections from Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Erin Manning and Brian Massumi, Tim Ingold, Bruno Latour, Jacques Rancière, George Marcus and others. 

**A visual anthropology course run through a blender with contemporary critical and cultural theory.**

Half the classes will be spent actively workshopping projects directly (or indirectly) related to your own research. The other half will be dedicated to a few select readings that help to feel out the edges of emerging discourses on arts-based research, politics and aesthetics, and multi-sensory anthropology.

Past projects by students include websites, software, gallery installations, photo-essays, short videos, and slide shows.  Graduate students in RTF and Studio Arts are encouraged to join this seminar as are students in text-heavy disciplines who are interested in exploring the critical world of multi-sensory research and expression as well as research creation.  No previous experience with film, video, photography, or other studio arts is necessary.

The purpose of this course is to introduce the concept of culture as a crucial dimension of human life. Because we tend to think of thought and action as stemming from individual impulses, we find the notion of a shared, highly variable, but influential force in our lives hard to fathom.  Even if we speak of "society" as a familiar concept, we tend to make of it a uniform, oppressive force, some institution outside ourselves that we individually confront and oppose. Yet only if we can learn to recognize how deeply we share certain assumptions and inclinations with others--but only some others, and to varying degrees--can we appreciate the degree to which culture inheres within us and makes us who we are.

"The Photographic Image" applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory, place, and everyday life. The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques of representation. Whereas photographs are often taken to be static representations of the world, we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing not only on how to produce images but how they are 'read' by others.

The class is planned around multiple photo-based projects. You will be required to read for these projects and undertake original photography assignments. At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings. We will begin with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions. Students are expected to engage fully in both individual and group activities. Students are expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

Students in this class will develop skills associated with the critique and use of different forms of digital and analogue media. They will develop sensibilities for the examination of vision as a cultural practice. Participants will develop methodological and analytical tools associated with Visual Anthropology. This course will explore the history of the visual in anthropology as seen in the production of photographs, films, and videos. We will explore themes of media, mediation, everyday life, “the gaze,” documentary forms, materiality, technology, realism and representation, as well as ethics. This course will introduce participants to critical approaches and analytic methods that broaden their toolkit for describing the world and the ways in which it is culturally and historically mediated. This course is ideally taken prior to “The Photographic Image: Visual Anthropology II.”

Ephemeral things are marginal things. They have been cast away or ignored; they have been

consigned to no archive, fond, collection, treasury or compendium. Ephemera are statements and

communications that are not meant to be kept; they were produced with no intention of preservation

or consignment. They are of the moment.

This graduate course disentangles ideas of ephemerality through an explicit study of collecting/not

collecting and archiving/not archiving. Theorizing the ephemeral must be a theory of the

everyday. It is a theory of gazes; it is a theory of the mobility of things; it is a theory of passing by: of

the world passing us by and of us passing by things. One thinking of the ephemeral is that it is

something that is truly a fleeting experience, one that cannot be remembered. This is the ephemeral

that is opposed to persistence and permanence. That which passes into oblivion with no enduring

record can be said to have been ephemeral-a judgment or valuation that is only proven in hindsight.

One approach to exploring the ephemeral will be through a close examination of archives. We will

be visiting multiple archives (on and off campus) and exploring archival theory with the goal of

understanding the limits of the practice and concept. As such students will develop a critique of the

archive alongside tools for conducting research within it and on it.

The purpose of this class is to focus on creative acts, events, and encounters. It is to develop tools for analyzing them. What is a Mexican border Corrido? What is the importance of mountains and rivers to Tuvan Xoomei singers? Why is the Victory Lounge located in East Austin? Who is Giveup, Fail, or Banksy? What is Christeene’s album “Waist up, kneeze down” all about? We’re asking questions of this world we live in; in this class we’re gathering, developing, and honing tools and tool kits for observation and description.

While we will study individual artists and creators as well as audiences we will also look at larger questions of tradition, continuity, change and expression. Central to this is an inquiry into the historicization of cultural assumptions. By pursuing this line of inquiry we will be developing a tool kit for thinking critically about the world around ourselves. Locating this in broader anthropological conversations, ‘Expressive Culture’ connects to critical world- shaping processes like representation, colonialism and imperial power, race and ethnicity, gender identity, pleasure, politics, and the everyday.

"The Photographic Image" applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory, place, and everyday life. The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques of representation. Whereas photographs are often taken to be static representations of the world, we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing not only on how to produce images but how they are 'read' by others.

The class is planned around multiple photo-based projects. You will be required to read for these projects and undertake original photography assignments. At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings. We will begin with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions. Students are expected to engage fully in both individual and group activities. Students are expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

This seminar examines the anthropology of “nature” and “natural resources,” with particular attention to the communities in the arctic and subarctic regions. We will use ethnographies to learn about the cultures of peoples who inhabit northern latitudes (e.g. Russia, Alaska, Canada), especially their cosmological modes of belief and their ecological ways of life. We will explore the complexities of culture change through the lens of colonialism and question the popular misconceptions that these peoples are out-of-time with the ‘modern’ world. Climate change is disproportionately affecting northern peoples, and the imperiled arctic has been caught in the global politics of energy. We will engage in a nuanced exploration of human experience framed against industrialism and extractive economies in the North, along the way considering controversial topics such as energy futures and the ends of history.

Flags: Global Cultures, Independent Inquiry, Writing

The purpose of this course is to introduce the concept of culture as a crucial dimension of human life. Because we tend to think of thought and action as stemming from individual impulses, we find the notion of a shared, highly variable, but influential force in our lives hard to fathom.  Even if we speak of "society" as a familiar concept, we tend to make of it a uniform, oppressive force, some institution outside ourselves that we individually confront and oppose. Yet only if we can learn to recognize how deeply we share certain assumptions and inclinations with others--but only some others, and to varying degrees--can we appreciate the degree to which culture inheres within us and makes us who we are.

"The Photographic Image" applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory, place, and everyday life. The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques of representation. Whereas photographs are often taken to be static representations of the world, we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing not only on how to produce images but how they are 'read' by others.

The class is planned around multiple photo-based projects. You will be required to read for these projects and undertake original photography assignments. At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings. We will begin with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions. Students are expected to engage fully in both individual and group activities. Students are expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

Ephemeral things are marginal things. They have been cast away or ignored; they have been

consigned to no archive, fond, collection, treasury or compendium. Ephemera are

statements and communications that are not meant to be kept; they were produced with no

intention of preservation or consignment. They are of the moment.

This graduate course disentangles ideas of ephemerality through an explicit study of

collecting/not collecting and archiving/not archiving. Theorizing the ephemeral must be a

theory of the everyday. It is a theory of gazes; it is a theory of the mobility of things; it is a

theory of passing by: of the world passing us by and of us passing by things. One thinking

of the ephemeral is that it is something that is truly a fleeting experience, one that cannot be

remembered. This is the ephemeral that is opposed to persistence and permanence. That

which passes into oblivion with no enduring record can be said to have been ephemeral-a

judgment or valuation that is only proven in hindsight.

One approach to exploring the ephemeral will be through a close examination of archives.

We will be visiting multiple archives (on and off campus) and exploring archival theory with

the goal of understanding the limits of the practice and concept. As such students will

develop a critique of the archive alongside tools for conducting research within it and on it.

The purpose of this course is to introduce the concept of culture as a crucial dimension of human life. Because we tend to think of thought and action as stemming from individual impulses, we find the notion of a shared, highly variable, but influential force in our lives hard to fathom.  Even if we speak of "society" as a familiar concept, we tend to make of it a uniform, oppressive force, some institution outside ourselves that we individually confront and oppose. Yet only if we can learn to recognize how deeply we share certain assumptions and inclinations with others--but only some others, and to varying degrees--can we appreciate the degree to which culture inheres within us and makes us who we are.

This course applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory,

place, and everyday life. The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive

approaches to practices of looking (observation) and techniques of representation. Whereas

photographs are often taken to be archival technologies, we will invert this idea and explore how

images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing on sites of encounter and orders of

engagement. This course is organized as a split theory/hands-on exploration of the image and

image-making. At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an

interpretive and critical engagement with course readings. We will begin with techniques of

visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the

margins of documentary traditions. This course will work primarily with still images.

Students will be expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

The class is organized into weekly lectures and labs. The entire class meets for Tuesday (3:30-

5:30 pm) seminars. These seminars will consist of lectures and discussions. Friday labs meet for

one hour each in the Intermedia Workshop (4.120). The labs will focus on individual and

collaborative labor in a workshop setting.

The goal of this course is to learn about the history of Visual Anthropology and to gain skills in

using photographic methods in research.

Ephemeral things are marginal things.  They have been cast away or ignored; they have been consigned to no archive, fond, collection, treasury or compendium.  Ephemera are statements and communications that are not meant to be kept; they were produced with no intention of preservation or consignment.  They are of the moment.   This graduate course disentangles ideas of ephemerality through an explicit study of (not) collecting and  (not) archiving.  Theorizing the ephemeral must be a theory of the everyday.  It is a theory of gazes; it is a theory of the mobility of things; it is a theory of passing by: of the world passing us by and of us passing by things.  One thinking of the ephemeral is that it is something that is truly a fleeting experience, one that cannot be remembered.  This is the ephemeral that is opposed to persistence and permanence.  That which passes into oblivion with no enduring record can be said to have been ephemeral-a judgment or valuation that is only proven in hindsight.   One approach to exploring the ephemeral will be through a close examination of archives.  We will be visiting multiple archives (on and off campus) and exploring archival theory with the goal of understanding the limits of the practice and concept. As such students will develop a critique of the archive alongside tools for conducting archival research.  

In this course we will be developing methodological and analytical tools for the examination of what has been called visual culture.  Visual Culture bridges communication studies, media studies, anthropology, and cultural studies.  According to one scholar visual culture experienced through mass media "is now the dominant form of culture which socializes us and provides materials for identity in terms of both social reproduction and change" (Kellner 1995). We will examine this claim and develop our own framework for studying visual cultures.

Intermedia and aesthetics explores the theoretical foundations for arts of immediacy and for encounters with sensible and sensuous worlds. This theme explores ways of knowing and representing as they originate in the academy and from the art world and in the way these formations relate to their objects of study. The key words here (intermedia and aesthetics) are sites of current and increasing attention and coalescence in cultural studies and associated disciplines. Readings will include selections from Jacques Ranciere, James Clifford, George Marcus, Susan Hiller, and others. Studio practices will include hands-on and DIY inspired techniques of photography and collage. You will also have the opportunity to learn and develop skills in digital media production.

Half the classes will be spent actively workshopping projects directly (or indirectly) related to your own research. The other half will be dedicated to a few select readings that help to feel out the edges of emerging discourses on arts-based research, politics and aesthetics, and multi-sensory anthropology. 

“The Photographic Image” applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory, place, and everyday life.  The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques of representation.  Whereas photographs are often taken to be archival technologies, we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing on sites of encounter and orders of engagement.This course is organized as a split theory/hands-on exploration of the image and image-making.  At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings.  We will begin with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions.  This course will work primarily with still images.  Students will be expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

Ephemeral things are marginal things.  They have been cast away or ignored; they have been consigned to no archive, fond, collection, treasury or compendium.  Ephemera are statements and communications that are not meant to be kept, they were produced with no intention of preservation or consignment.  They are of the moment.This graduate course disentangles ideas of ephemerality through an explicit study of (not) collecting and  (not) archiving.  Theorizing the ephemeral must be a theory of the everyday.  It is a theory of gazes; it is a theory of the mobility of things; it is a theory of passing by: of the world passing us by and of us passing by things.  One thinking of the ephemeral is that it is something that is truly a fleeting experience, one that cannot be remembered.  This is the ephemeral that is opposed to persistence and permanence.  That which passes into oblivion with no enduring record can be said to have been ephemeral—a judgment or valuation that is only proven in hind sight.As a major project for this course students will curate a collection of images or things from a public archive (or from their own collections or research).  We will be actively work-shopping the projects as they move through various stages until a final presentation at the end of the course.

Intermedia and aesthetics explores the theoretical foundations for arts of immediacy and for encounters with sensible and sensuous worlds.  This theme explores ways of knowing and representing as they originate in the academy and from the art world and in the way these formations relate to their objects of study.  The key words here are sites of current increasing attention and coalescence.  In both cases they are terms that have found new audiences and proponents.  They have been apprehended and are currently going through a phase of  re-definition and re-consideration.

Travelling ideas, images, artifacts, and people have troubled traditional scholarly notions of bounded cultures and cultural wholes. Mobilities are about boundaries and passages: conceptual and actual rifts and ruptures. This course will look specifically at mobility as a point of inquiry into questions of identity, community, belonging, place and landscape, art, representation, cultural difference, experience, and history. Both major and minor travels or mobilities are suggestive not only of engaging bodily with the world but also of spectatorship, looking, and being looked at. From mundane experiences of sauntering and wandering, to ritualized forms of travel as well as life-changing displacements we will explore mobility as generative of cultural exchange (marking sameness and difference), hybridization, exploration, and play.

Please check back for updates.

Ephemeral things are marginal things.  They have been cast away or ignored; they have been consigned to no archive, fond, collection, treasury or compendium.  Ephemera are statements and communications that are not meant to be kept, they were produced with no intention of preservation or consignment.  They are of the moment.This graduate course disentangles ideas of ephemerality through an explicit study of (not) collecting and  (not) archiving.  Theorizing the ephemeral must be a theory of the everyday.  It is a theory of gazes; it is a theory of the mobility of things; it is a theory of passing by: of the world passing us by and of us passing by things.  One thinking of the ephemeral is that it is something that is truly a fleeting experience, one that cannot be remembered.  This is the ephemeral that is opposed to persistence and permanence.  That which passes into oblivion with no enduring record can be said to have been ephemeral—a judgment or valuation that is only proven in hind sight.As a major project for this course students will curate a collection of images or things from a public archive (or from their own collections or research).  We will be actively work-shopping the projects as they move through various stages until a final presentation at the end of the course.

“The Photographic Image” applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory, place, and everyday life.  The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques of representation.  Whereas photographs are often taken to be archival technologies, we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing on sites of encounter and orders of engagement.

This course is organized as a split theory/hands-on exploration of the image and image-making.  At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings.  We will begin with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions.  This course will work primarily with still images.  Students will be expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

Intermedia and aesthetics explores the theoretical foundations for arts of immediacy and for encounters with sensible and sensuous worlds.  This theme explores ways of knowing and representing as they originate in the academy and from the art world and in the way these formations relate to their objects of study.  The key words here are sites of current increasing attention and coalescence.  In both cases they are terms that have found new audiences and proponents.  They have been apprehended and are currently going through a phase of  re-definition and re-consideration.

The Photographic Image - Memory, Place and Everyday Life {anthropology 325}

course website: http://metafactory.ca/ant325_2009 1

The Photographic Image - Memory, Place and Everyday Life

This is a preliminary syllabus. Critical information will be posted on the course website:

http://metafactory.ca/ant325_2009

Fall 2009

ANT 325L • 30492

Instructor: Craig Campbell

Time: Tuesdays & Thursdays: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM

Location: Benedict Hall (BEN) 1.102

Office hours: Wednesday 10am to 11am, or by appointment (EPS 4.128)

Pithy quote:

“I always hope that people will find what I do interesting and that it will spark

questions of their own. If my writing has any goal it is to show that the world is

more interesting than we sometimes think it is and that it is more full of contingency

and doubt” (interview, 2007).

Course Description

"The Photographic Image" applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography

to the study of memory, place, and everyday life. The course aims at developing

counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques

of representation. Whereas photographs are often taken to be archival technologies,

we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by

focusing on sites of encounter and orders of engagement.

This course is organized as a split theory/hands-on exploration of the image and

image-making. At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of imagemaking

as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings. We will begin

with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists,

documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions. This

course will work primarily with still images. Students will be expected to have at their

disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

Grades & Assignments

Class participation = 10%

Photo studies (2 small photo projects) = 20%

Scrapbook minor (2 scrapbook entries w/metacommentary) = 30%

Scrapbook major (final project; self-directed; written and visual components) = 40%

The Photographic Image - Memory, Place and Everyday Life {anthropology 325}

course website: http://metafactory.ca/ant325_2009 2

Required Texts

Barthes, Roland. 1981. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and

Wang.

Highmore, Ben. 2002. Everyday Life and Cultural Theory: An Introduction. London and

New York: Routledge.

The missing text. I was just informed that our third text is unavailable. This actually

puts us in a very interesting position and opens up the possibility for something

different. I will be assigning several additional articles throughout the semester

(always with at least one-week notice). But we will also be incorporating a

participatory learning element in selecting readings. This will come mid-semester

when you will participate in small, shared interest groups and work to determine the

direction of the course. This will be done in consultation with me. There are many aspects

to photography and I am interested to give you the opportunity to draw in some of

your own interests. You might be interested in war photography, fashion

photography, art photography, photographic collectors, etc.

Learning Goals

I have provided some learning goals here but they are all with caveats. In general

though, there are a number of critical things that I think you should learn in this

course. As the title suggests the idea and practice of photography are central. This is

not a photography course that you would take in a Fine Arts program. But we will

be using our cameras. This will be a form of practice-based learning. As we study

photography and photographic uses we will be using our own photographs and

cameras to extend our inquiry.

We will develop a flexible and extensible skill set that will allow us to read

photographic theory and history, look at and think about photographs as a form of

visual culture, and most importantly think about the ways that photographs are

apprehended by people in the everyday.

• Learn some history of photography

• Learn some photo-theory

• Learn some approaches or techniques for using photography as tool for

research and analysis

• Learn about a variety of culturally specific uses of photography and

photographs.

Note:

All information in this syllabus is subject to change. Students will be given

reasonable and explicit notice for all changes to the syllabus.

The Photographic Image - Memory, Place and Everyday Life {anthropology 325}

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Classroom Policies

Information about plagiarism and the consequences of plagiarizing.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/faculty/plagiarism/preventing.html

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/learningmodules/plagiarism/

University Notices and Policies

University of Texas Honor Code

The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership,

individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these

values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.

Documented Disability Statement

The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for

qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with

Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).

Resources for Learning & Life at UT Austin

• The University of Texas has numerous resources for students to provide assistance and support for

your learning.

• The UT Learning Center: http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/

• Undergraduate Writing Center: http://uwc.utexas.edu/

• Counseling & Mental Health Center: http://cmhc.utexas.edu/

• Career Exploration Center: http://www.utexas.edu/student/careercenter/

• Student Emergency Services: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/emergency/

Use of E-Mail for Official Correspondence to Students

Email is recognized as an official mode of university correspondence; therefore, you are

responsible for reading your email for university and course-related information and

announcements. You are responsible to keep the university informed about changes to your e-mail

address. You should check your e-mail regularly and frequently—I recommend daily, but at

minimum twice a week—to stay current with university-related communications, some of which

may be time-critical. You can find UT Austin’s policies and instructions for updating your e-mail

address at http://www.utexas.edu/its/policies/emailnotify.php.

Religious Holy Days

By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to

the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work

assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to

complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.

Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL)

If you are worried about someone who is acting differently, you may use the Behavior Concerns

Advice Line to discuss by phone your concerns about another individual’s behavior. This service

is provided through a partnership among the Office of the Dean of Students, the Counseling and

The Photographic Image - Memory, Place and Everyday Life {anthropology 325}

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Mental Health Center (CMHC), the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and The University of

Texas Police Department (UTPD). Call 512-232-5050 or visit http://www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal.

Emergency Evacuation Policy

Occupants of buildings on the UT Austin campus are required to evacuate and assemble outside when

a fire alarm is activated or an announcement is made. Please be aware of the following policies

regarding evacuation:

• Familiarize yourself with all exit doors of the classroom and the building. Remember that the

nearest exit door may not be the one you used when you entered the building.

• If you require assistance to evacuate, inform me in writing during the first week of class.

• In the event of an evacuation, follow my instructions or those of class instructors.

Do not re-enter a building unless you’re given instructions by the Austin Fire Department, the UT

Austin Police Department, or the Fire Prevention Services office

Q drop Policy

The State of Texas has enacted a law that limits the number of course drops for academic reasons

to six (6). As stated in Senate Bill 1231:

“Beginning with the fall 2007 academic term, an institution of higher education may not permit an

undergraduate student a total of more than six dropped courses, including any course a transfer

student has dropped at another institution of higher education, unless the student shows good

cause for dropping more than that number.”

The photographic image (ANT 325)

Schedule of readings and assignments

Aug. 27 Thursday

Sept. 1 Tuesday

Sept. 3 Thursday

Bring one photograph that is important to you. Be prepared to

show it to the class and discuss the meaning and value of the

image.

Sept. 8 Tuesday

You need to have read Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida for

today.

Sept. 10 Thursday

Sept. 15 Tuesday

The Photographic Image - Memory, Place and Everyday Life {anthropology 325}

course website: http://metafactory.ca/ant325_2009 5

Sept. 17 Thursday

Highmore, Ch. 1. Figuring the everyday

Sept. 22 Tuesday

Photo study #1

Sept. 24 Thursday

Highmore, Ch. 2. Arguments

Sept. 29 Tuesday

Photo study #2

Oct. 1 Thursday

Highmore, Ch. 3. Simmel: Fragments of everyday life

Oct. 6 Tuesday

Photo study #3

Oct. 8 Thursday

Highmore, Ch 4. Surrealism: The marvelous in the everyday

Oct. 13 Tuesday

Photo study #4

Oct. 15 Thursday

Highmore, Ch. 5. Benjamin’s trash aesthetics

Oct. 20 Tuesday

Oct. 22 Thursday

Highmore, Ch. 6. MassObservation:

A science of everyday life

Oct. 27 Tuesday

Determine collaborative readings in class.

Oct. 29 Thursday.

Highmore, Ch. 7. Henri Lefebvre’s dialectics of everyday life.

Nov. 3 Tuesday

Minor scrapbook #1

Nov. 5 Thursday

Highmore, Ch. 8. Michel de Certeau’s poetics of everyday life

Nov. 10 Tuesday

Minor scrapbook #2

Nov. 12 Thursday

Highmore, Ch. 9. Postcript: Everyday life and the future of

cultural studies.

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Nov. 17 Tuesday

Collaborative readings #1

Major scrapbook proposal

Nov. 19 Thursday

Collaborative readings #2

Nov. 24 Tuesday

Collaborative readings #3

Nov. 2628

ThursdaySaturday

Thanksgiving holidays

Dec. 1 Tuesday

Dec. 3 Thursday

Last Class *no class