The Department of Culture and Aesthetics offers this course as part of the Faculty Doctoral School in Humanities.

Course content

The aim of this course is twofold. First, it gives the participants the opportunity to reflect over their own thesis with a wider visual theoretical perspective. Second, it offers a generally widened awareness regarding technical, theoretical and methodological perspectives in relation to images and other visual sources.

The course conveys critical awareness and knowledge on the large variety of methods that can be used when working with images and other visual sources. Accordingly, the course is not an introduction to art- and image history. Rather, it aims to open up discussion on and create awareness of the possibilities and difficulties with visual sources in general.

Besides the introduction seminar and final examination seminar the course include the following eight seminars (dates to be confirmed in October 2021):

    Materiality and historicity of images
    Picture Research
    Visual studies or what is an image
    Visual media and mediated images
    Image, text, and metadata
    Online Images Cultures
    Ethics, Diversity and images
    Images as big data

Learning outcomes

In order to pass the course, students are expected to display awareness of and be able to critically reflect on:
- images and other visual expressions and their historicity and materiality in relation to social and ideological contexts;
- the circumstances of image production, circulation, consumption and re-use;
- different visual interfaces such as the image archive, print media, television and film, Internet and other digital media;
- different methods and theoretical perspectives for interpreting images and other visual sources.
Practical information

Attendance is mandatory. Students are expected to attend at least 80 percent of the classes.

NB. The course is offered in hybrid format, i.e. it is offered on campus, but participation online is also possible.

The course is assessed through active attendance at the seminars, the completion of a written paper (2000 words) and an oral presentation of the paper.

The participants will continuously present and reflect on the above theme in relation to their own thesis. Moreover, the content of the course will be adjusted to the interest and needs of the student group. The course ends with an individual written and oral report where each participant reflects over images and other visual sources in relation to their own thesis.

Course dates (prel.): April 19, 21, 26, 28, May 3, 5, 10, 12, 16. Either 1 pm - 4 pm or 3 pm - 6 pm. (to be confirmed in October 2021)

Language of instruction: English

Course director: Anna Dahlgren

Course name in Swedish: Visuella källor

To apply for the course: follow the instructions from the Faculty of Humanities

Syllabus for Visual Sources (452 Kb)