Media, Encounter, Witness: Troubling Pasts

Dr Kieran Connell, QUB, ‘Race, prostitution, and cultural studies: the photographic eye of Janet Mendelsohn'
Mon 27 Nov, 3:00pm
Humanities Institute Seminar Room

This lecture will discuss the work of Janet Mendelsohn, whose documentary photography depicts everyday life in the inner-city district of Balsall Heath in Birmingham in the late 1960s. Enrolled as a student at the newly-established Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), Mendelsohn was encouraged by Stuart Hall and Richard Hoggart – then deputy and director of CCCS – to explore ways in which photography could be used in field research. The resulting archive of 3,000 photographs and interviews are now held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham. By using photography as “a tool for cultural analysis”, she provides a unique insight into a transforming community, shaped by increasing immigration from the Caribbean and South Asia, and affected by ongoing poverty-related issues.

Dr Declan Long, NCAD, ‘Same difference: constructive ambiguity and contemporary art from post-conflict Northern Ireland’
Mon 13 Nov, 3:00pm
Humanities Institute Seminar Room

This lecture coincides with the publication of Dr Long’s new book Ghost-haunted land: Contemporary art and post-Troubles Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2017)
(opens in a new window)http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781784991449/