Research Topics

Please post a brief description of your research topic including the following: 

1) name of photograph and/or photographer (if available), 2) brief description of photograph i.e., subject/context, and 3)  what you will argue this photograph's political, historical, social and/or cultural impact has been.

An Oblique Glance

Lister and Wells assert that the context and venue in which a particular image is encountered by a viewer influences his/her interpretation of it.  This photograph was taken by Robert Doisneau in 1948 post WW II Paris.  It depicts a couple looking into the window of an art gallery.  What is your interpretation of this image?  What, if anything, do you find unusual about it?  Why?

Photographs

In their essay Beyond Belief:  Cultural Studies as an Approach to Analysing the Visual Lister and Wells explore how culture, social circumstances, history, and semiotics impact how  meaning, pleasure, and power are articulated through specific images.  Examine the image at right and comment on what you see.  What social, cultural, and/or historical significance does this photograph have?  

Fact or Fiction?

Angela Carter skillfully weaves fact and fiction in her account of the Fall River Axe murders.  After reviewing newspaper articles and/or transcripts of testimony of the trial from 1893, how well do you think she uses factual details to support her argument?