Visual and Critical Studies took shape as a new academic discipline in the 1990s in response to demands for alternate models of cultural analysis. For a decade, students in CCA's program have contributed to the expansion of this field's parameters in ways that reveal the ideological infrastructures of vision, visuality, and visibility. Having completed a rigorous program of interdisciplinary study and a sustained research project, graduating students distinguish themselves by their ability to think critically through writing about the seen world.

At this symposium, presentations by our graduating class will share critical perspectives and professional narratives that affirm the centrality of the visual. Looking at the world -- whether through the lens of gender and/or identity, political activism, scientific objectivity, or aesthetic evaluation -- involves the formation and communication of visual images, which in turn mediate and shape our daily experiences and conceptions.

Spring 2011 Symposium schedule

Spring 2011 presentation abstracts