Join us for an immersive exploration of community-driven preservation efforts at Mount Zion Historical Church in Athens, Ohio. Through a captivating presentation, we delve into the innovative use of photo advocacy to raise awareness and inspire action among local residents and Ohio University students. Unveiling the poignant narrative behind the "Save Mount Zion Church" photo exhibition, this session illuminates the critical role of visual storytelling in galvanizing support for heritage conservation. Discover firsthand the transformative potential of community solidarity and engagement, as we invite dialogue and reflection on the imperative of safeguarding cultural treasures for future generations.
Photojournalist / Researcher, Mount Zion Black Cultural Center / Ohio University
Ahmed Hamed, a passionate communicator and visual storyteller, holds a Master's in Communication and Development Studies from Ohio University. With extensive experience in media and communication roles across Egypt, Germany, and the USA, Ahmed excels in leveraging the power of imagery... Read More →
This project describes a photovoice project aimed at investigating the multifaceted impact of political division within a school district. Utilizing photovoice as a participatory research methodology, community members were invited to engage in a visual thinking interview while viewing images taken at local school board meetings. The findings of this study reveal a community deeply entrenched in political polarization, with distinct ideological factions permeating various aspects of school life. Through the lens of photovoice, participants highlighted the palpable tension and divisiveness that manifested both in schools and in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Tabitha Dell’Angelo is a professor of urban education and interim Dean at The College of New Jersey. Her work has been focused on teacher training, recruitment, and retention. And, she primarily uses arts based methods including ethnodrama, comics, and applied photography.
Visual literacy emphasizes the use of social, political, and historical context to help one critically examine a visual. However, the physical process of the visual’s construction is also vital to one’s understanding of the piece. Process becomes even more fundamental to understanding a visual when the piece was constructed collectively. These collective pieces are doorways to stories, connection, and understanding; but these doors cannot be opened unless one explores the creative process behind the piece and values it as much as the standalone work. Photo albums, intersections of both personal and collective identity, are living visuals that rely on process to form meaning. As such, they are vital objects that can help one explore the importance of process and how it can influence one’s capacity for visual literacy. This project examines the development of photo albums and compares analyses that include and exclude processes as part of their final interpretation.
Outreach and Engagement Librarian, Indiana University-Bloomington
Micaela Deogracias is the Outreach and Engagement Librarian for the Education Library at Indiana University, Bloomington. She has a broad range of research interests, many of which are centered on arts-based research methods.
This work uses photographs to critique and question western market economies. It starts from the perspective of monopoly capitalism analysis, and looks in nooks and crannies. It concentrates on the Okanagan, western Canada, part of the territories of the Syilx Okanagan people. It looks in municipal council chambers, overseen by the monarch; in city streets, where archive photographs provide comment; beside a forest road, after campfires have burned out; in outdoor shelters, where people without housing stay the night; in public places, where Indigenous children in unmarked graves are remembered; in a cemetery, where early settlers have a modern brand. Aware that interaction with audiences reveals new meanings, the work does not represent any end-point in knowledge production. Audiences include publics interested in the economies they inhabit. The work suggests practices that will be fossilised in the forever future, unless people’s challenge leads to choice of a different development path.
Roger Sugden has a PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick (England). He is currently Professor at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia (Canada), in syilx Okanagan Nation territory. He has previously worked at the University of Stirling (Scotland), University... Read More →
Honorary Research Associate, University of British Columbia
Marcela Valania has a postgraduate degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina). She is currently Honorary Research Associate at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia, in syilx Okanagan Nation territory... Read More →
