Call for Papers
Thematic Focus: Visual Anthropology in the Middle East
Editors: Esther Hertzog and Yael Katzir
Forthcoming: Volume 14, Issue 2 (forthcoming, winter 2019)
Submission Deadline: March 15, 2019
The editors of this special issue invite articles related to visual anthropology in the Middle East. Visual anthropology serves as “a mode of inquiry that sticks close to lived experience” (Grimshaw and Ravetz 2009: xiv). This kind of social exploration bridges the art and anthropology divide. It links between visual and social anthropology and between anthropological gazes and artistic visions. Visual anthropology can offer, sometimes unintentionally, a surprising and unfamiliar picture of reality, which otherwise would not be identified or acknowledged. The Middle East provides numerous contexts for the “exploration of the sensory, material and subjective dimensions of field work” (ibid.: xii). It is a region involved in turbulent events, fierce national battles, revolutionary struggles and religious, ethnic, gender and economic conflicts and tensions. On this background, the study of social life in the Middle East by visual means can enrich anthropological knowledge in general and of this region in particular. Moreover, elaborating on visual materials enables us to deepen our understanding of processes that have occurred in the near and distant past.
Hence, the use of documentary films, photographs, posters, albums, advertisements and other means of data collecting are welcome as a basis for describing and analysing ethnic, gender, political and economic issues in a way that combines the artistic and sociological. The articles should reveal, demonstrate and unveil the role of cultural codes and symbols in constructing the social order and hierarchical structures, and may expose power relations in society and the cultural reproduction of patriarchal social order.
We invite articles, reports from the field and reviews (books, films, conferences and exhibitions) that deal with the above, and more.
Please send the title and possibly a short abstract of your article as soon as possible.
Deadline: March 15, 2019
Please e-mail submissions to one of the following:
Esther Hertzog: bental4@gmail.com
Yael Katzir: katziry@gmail.com
Birgit Pour Ramazan: birgit.pourramazan@gmx.net
Soheila Shahshahani: soheilairan@gmail.com