Word, Image and Social Dynamics
24-28.08.2026
Abstract
Word and image relations and the institutions where these play out determine much of how societies (individuals and groups) define themselves. With this conference, we propose to explore how intermedial practices (inter- and/or transdisciplinary) impact on social dynamics, e.g. determine the ways in which art and activism operate and intersect and how art, literature, comics, film, digital media, theatre, etc. institute themselves in the public sphere or are entangled in power dynamics.
These relations can take many forms and engage us in thinking about the significance of society’s connection with various semiotic signs and in studying a variety of material that tends to fall outside of traditional boundaries. Therefore, we welcome historical and contemporary case studies and methodological explorations from artistic research, art history and theory, creative writing, literary studies, cultural studies, cultural analysis, film, theatre, comics or digital media studies, political science, museum studies, art sociology etc.
Questions that this conference aims to address include:
• the dynamic (power)relationships
between words and images and
their social impact
• the creative, activist and / or
transformative potential of this
interdisciplinary dialogue
• the institutions of word and
image (and experimental
institutionalism)
• intermedial activist art and
literature / digital
subjectivities
• the impact of word / images on
the situated reader / viewer
• historical perspectives on word
and image and this history’s
mediation today
• questions of (art) institutions,
display, and curating
• methodological questions arising
from hybrid cultural material in
the social domain
• indirect efficacies in / of word
and image in repressive
political contexts
• environmental activism in word
and image
• critical fabulation in word and
image
• word and image in counter-
forensis
• word, image, and the affordances
of their infrastructures
Call for Papers
We invite individual and group proposals for 20-minute papers. We also welcome artists’ contributions and non-standard presentations (subject to the facilities being available). Please note any intention for your contribution to be supported by or delivered through performance, artefacts, or film-aided or -based presentation.
Roundtables and pre-constituted sessions of 3–4 speakers are also welcome. We do, however, prefer encounters of speakers who do no't yet know each other, as well as combinations of senior and more junior contributors and cross-disciplinary or otherwise diverse panels for the themed sessions. Proposals for already compiled sessions may, therefore, be modified.
Please send a 250–300-word abstract with a title, up to seven keywords, and a 150-word (maximum) biographical note to iawis2026@zohomail.eu by 2 June 2025. The conference will be bilingual, and proposals can be submitted in either English or French.
There will be a pre-selection of contributions by at least two of the conveners. Subsequently, a final selection will be made when compiling the programme, which we aim to have completed by mid-June 2025.
This will be an in-person conference, though we can make some accommodations where an online presentation is strictly necessary. Please indicate if you require virtual attendance (and include a short sentence on why that is).
The draft programme will be uploaded on our website soon after the selection of contributors. It is vital that you let us know as soon as possible if there is any change, i.e. withdrawal or change from virtual to in-person attendance, or vice versa.
Junior Scholars’ Session / Roundtable
• How does this session / roundtable differ from other panels?
It will focus on networking and feature introductions of participants, clustered around common interest topics.
• Who can attend this session / roundtable?
This session is open to all ‘junior scholars’ (rMA students, PhD candidates, early career researchers). Senior scholars who are interested in mentoring or discussing early-career problems and experience are welcomed as well.
• Do I need to register separately for this session / roundtable?
You need to send only a short proposal by the CFP deadline, indicating that you are applying for the Junior Scholars’ Panel(s), and formulating a question (or two) that you would like to discuss. This should lie within the remit of the conference theme.
Anticipated Conference Fees
The conference fee will be approximately 260 Euro. This includes IAWIS membership fee for three years.
There will be a special rate for delegates with precarious contracts or from less financially advantaged academic cultures. We expect this to be around 100 Euro. If you need to avail of this, please send a short e-mail motivation with "special rate" in the subject line. We aim to provide as much catering as possible from the conference fee.
Call for Papers
We invite individual and group proposals for 20-minute papers. We also welcome artists’ contributions and non-standard presentations (subject to the facilities being available). Please note any intention for your contribution to be supported by or delivered through performance, artefacts, or film-aided or -based presentation.
Roundtables and pre-constituted sessions of 3–4 speakers are also welcome. We do, however, prefer encounters of speakers who do no't yet know each other, as well as combinations of senior and more junior contributors and cross-disciplinary or otherwise diverse panels for the themed sessions. Proposals for already compiled sessions may, therefore, be modified.
Please send a 250–300-word abstract with a title, up to seven keywords, and a 150-word (maximum) biographical note to iawis2026@zohomail.eu by 2 June 2025. The conference will be bilingual, and proposals can be submitted in either English or French.
There will be a pre-selection of contributions by at least two of the conveners. Subsequently, a final selection will be made when compiling the programme, which we aim to have completed by mid-June 2025.
This will be an in-person conference, though we can make some accommodations where an online presentation is strictly necessary. Please indicate if you require virtual attendance (and include a short sentence on why that is).
The draft programme will be uploaded on our website soon after the selection of contributors. It is vital that you let us know as soon as possible if there is any change, i.e. withdrawal or change from virtual to in-person attendance, or vice versa.
Junior Scholars’ Session / Roundtable
• How does this session / roundtable differ from other panels?
It will focus on networking and feature introductions of participants, clustered around common interest topics.
• Who can attend this session / roundtable?
This session is open to all ‘junior scholars’ (rMA students, PhD candidates, early career researchers). Senior scholars who are interested in mentoring or discussing early-career problems and experience are welcomed as well.
• Do I need to register separately for this session / roundtable?
You need to send only a short proposal by the CFP deadline, indicating that you are applying for the Junior Scholars’ Panel(s), and formulating a question (or two) that you would like to discuss. This should lie within the remit of the conference theme.
Anticipated Conference Fees
The conference fee will be approximately 260 Euro. This includes IAWIS membership fee for three years.
There will be a special rate for delegates with precarious contracts or from less financially advantaged academic cultures. We expect this to be around 100 Euro. If you need to avail of this, please send a short e-mail motivation with "special rate" in the subject line. We aim to provide as much catering as possible from the conference fee.
Word, Image and Social Dynamics
24-28.08.2026
Abstract
Word and image relations and the institutions where these play out determine much of how societies (individuals and groups) define themselves. With this conference, we propose to explore how intermedial practices (inter- and/or transdisciplinary) impact on social dynamics, e.g. determine the ways in which art and activism operate and intersect and how art, literature, comics, film, digital media, theatre, etc. institute themselves in the public sphere or are entangled in power dynamics.
These relations can take many forms and engage us in thinking about the significance of society’s connection with various semiotic signs and in studying a variety of material that tends to fall outside of traditional boundaries. Therefore, we welcome historical and contemporary case studies and methodological explorations from artistic research, art history and theory, creative writing, literary studies, cultural studies, cultural analysis, film, theatre, comics or digital media studies, political science, museum studies, art sociology etc.
Questions that this conference aims to address include:
• the dynamic (power)relationships
between words and images and
their social impact
• the creative, activist and / or
transformative potential of this
interdisciplinary dialogue
• the institutions of word and
image (and experimental
institutionalism)
• intermedial activist art and
literature / digital
subjectivities
• the impact of word / images on
the situated reader / viewer
• historical perspectives on word
and image and this history’s
mediation today
• questions of (art) institutions,
display, and curating
• methodological questions arising
from hybrid cultural material in
the social domain
• indirect efficacies in / of word
and image in repressive
political contexts
• environmental activism in word
and image
• critical fabulation in word and
image
• word and image in counter-
forensis
• word, image, and the affordances
of their infrastructures
FR