Winter School “Gaze and Glance: Ways of Seeing in Culture”
Degree Course sponsored by
the Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts (GSCSA) and
the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory (CECT)
Tallinn University
January 23–27, 2012
4/6 ECTS credits
See also: other courses at Tallinn University Winter School
The second Winter School of the Estonian Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts focuses on the topic that has a certain bearing on any branch of the humanities and social sciences, however far from the visual their subject is. Because gazes and glances (together with views, stares, peeks etc), our ways of looking at the Other, are not just that, but simultaneously ways of structuring our relationship with everything that we see and come into contact. Constructing landscapes out of nature, or looking at pictures in a museum in a correct way, or even building the events of our own lives into stories that we want to tell others, all involve specific forms of gaze, which form a part of our cultural competence – but which can, in addition to showing us things (and people) how they should be for us, also make us not see things (and people) that may actually be significant for us. Any method, or even the most innocent and allegedly methodless approach to anything is always conditioned by a specific gaze – and even the most trifling bits of information that come to our notice evoke in us a specific glance.
| interdisciplinary lectures and discussions conducted by Estonian and guest lecturers | student seminars where graduate participants present and discuss their own research | workshops outside the customary classroom environment |
The course is lead by scholars of diverse academic and cultural backgrounds, including:
Prof. W. J. T. Mitchell (University of Chicago)
Prof. Donald Sassoon (Queen Mary College, University of London)
Prof. Gunther Kress (Institute of Education, University of London)
Prof. Martin Schulz (Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe)
Dr. Joana Breidenbach (independent scholar and journalist)
Prof. Kenneth Olwig (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)
Dr. Kristin Marek (Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und Medientheorie, Karlsruhe)
Dr. Rupert Cox (The University of Manchester)