BA

Link zum Vorlesungsverzeichnis

‘Seeing is believing’, a well-known saying goes. As international relations are shaped by images
as much as words, scholars are paying increasing attention to the intersection of images,
emotions, and global politics. How is a violent conflict, like the war against Ukraine, visually
represented on social media? How do in-/visibilities re-produce gender inequality and racist
imaginaries on a local, regional, and global scale? What are the political implications of visualizing
climate change in specific ways, like the world map turned red?
This seminar introduces students to contemporary debates at the intersection of international
relations theory (IR) and visual culture studies. It is conceptualized as a reading seminar with case
studies on specific visual policies, representing political violence, migration, gender, climate
change and many more. The seminar provides students with a deeper understanding of the role
of visuality, visual regimes and images for global politics; fosters a critical engagement with a wide
range of literature from different disciplines, including IR, peace research, political theory and
cultural studies; and discusses, assess, and evaluates theories and methods to study visual
politics.