Illuminating Perspectives through Critical Visual Literacy: 56th Annual IVLA Con: Full Schedule

2:30pm CDT

“Is it Black Lives Matter?” Employing Visual Literacy in First-Year Library Instruction

Monday October 7, 2024 2:30pm - 3:15pm CDT

Centered around a famous photograph from the 1968 Olympics that sparked controversy for protesting racism in sports, this campfire session will show how using a critical lens can inform the selection of significant images that allow students to connect images to current events and social justice movements, offering students an inquiry-based methodology to use what they encounter in the world to generate research topics. The presenter will discuss the pedagogical application of the photograph and the lesson in which it is used. During the discussion portion of the session, the presenter will facilitate a conversation about how instructors use visual objects to motivate and empower students in choosing and iterating their research topics, as well as how to help students navigate comprehension and evaluation challenges regarding race, gender, politics, and other critical issues due to the historical origins of the chosen visual objects.

Speakers

Michelle Demeter

Head of Undergraduate and Instructional Services, New York University

Michelle Demeter is the Head of Undergraduate and Instructional Services at New York University Libraries.She leads the development and facilitation of in-person and remote instructional services that support the research and creative endeavors of faculty and students across campus... Read More →

IVLA 2024 Demeter pptx

Monday October 7, 2024 2:30pm - 3:15pm CDT
Studio M (Digital Humanities Center)

Campfire

3:30pm CDT

Seeing Against the Grain: Visual Literacy and Narrative Art

Monday October 7, 2024 3:30pm - 4:15pm CDT

Studio M (Digital Humanities Center)

Narrative art captures layered readings and histories through visual storytelling. At face value, viewers are encouraged to employ visual literacy skills to extract the story unfolding before their eyes. What happens, though, when a museum begins to define a counternarrative for the viewer? Is there a story that can be held as an objective truth, or does each work of narrative art contain multitudes?

Staff at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a new museum being built in Exposition Park in Los Angeles, are prototyping tools to help answer said questions. Used in gallery settings, these tools will help facilitate conversations where visitors can create meaning from images, integrating their interpretation with those of other visitors and historical counternarratives. Led by members of the Curatorial and Learning and Engagement teams, this campfire session will inform attendees about the Museum’s prototyped interpretation tools while testing their usefulness in a facilitated setting.

Speakers

Mariam Tabatabaee

Associate Educator, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Mariam Tabatabaee (she/her) is the Associate Educator at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, where she collaborates with museum and community colleagues to develop programs that engage people in visual storytelling. Her interest lies in learning in informal spaces, creating knowledge... Read More →

Armando Pulido

Curatorial Assistant, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Armando Pulido is a Curatorial Assistant at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. His research has focused on art from the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Mexican Muralism, and contemporary U.S. Latinx art. He has contributed to exhibition projects at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College... Read More →

Monday October 7, 2024 3:30pm - 4:15pm CDT
Studio M (Digital Humanities Center)

Campfire

1:30pm CDT

Unleashing the Power of AI-Generated Comics: Exploring Social Justice through Visual Storytelling in Teacher Education

Tuesday October 8, 2024 1:30pm - 2:00pm CDT

Studio M (Digital Humanities Center)

This study investigates an undergraduate Diversity course where pre-service teachers created social justice comics using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. Comics offer a unique visual experience that makes real-world problems more visible than conventional writing. To analyze these comics, a novel framework integrating critical literacy, visual literacy, and AI literacy was employed. This approach allows researchers to understand how pre-service teachers engage with social justice issues, use visual storytelling, and navigate AI technologies. The critical literacy component examines how comics challenge power structures and promote change, while visual literacy focuses on analyzing multimodal elements such as panels, gutters, speech bubbles and colors. AI literacy considers the ethical implications and biases of using AI tools. Findings suggest that creating AI-generated comics can help pre-service teachers develop critical thinking skills, engage with complex topics, and explore the possibilities and challenges of AI in education. The comics can also serve as educational resources that foster critical thinking, empathy and discussions about social justice issues.

Speakers

Suriati Abas

Assistant Professor, State University of New York (SUNY) Oneonta

Dr. Suriati Abas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Elementary Education and Reading at State University of New York (SUNY) Oneonta. Her research focuses on intersections of spatial, multimodal and critical dimensions of literacy within and beyond the school context. She... Read More →

Tuesday October 8, 2024 1:30pm - 2:00pm CDT
Studio M (Digital Humanities Center)

Paper Presentation

2:15pm CDT

Exploring Personal and Leader Identity through Identity Tableaux

Tuesday October 8, 2024 2:15pm - 2:45pm CDT

Studio M (Digital Humanities Center)

This study employed identity tableaux, visual self-portraits integrating images, symbols, and narratives, to facilitate graduate students in the Strategic Educational Leadership program to critically explore their multifaceted cultural identities and their understanding of capitalizing on them for effective leadership. Grounded in counter-storytelling and critical visual literacy frameworks, participants curated artistic depictions representing the intersectional aspects of their backgrounds and lived experiences that shape their perspectives.
Through a guided process of critical self-reflection, visual metaphor selection, and tableaux construction, students analyzed the sociocultural contexts influencing their lives, positionalities, and leadership development. Applying critical visual literacy strategies encouraged the interrogation of dominant narratives encoded within visuals.
This presentation aims to highlight effective strategies for utilizing critical visual literacy to uncover personal identity, explore counter-storytelling, and empower leadership rooted in equity, empathy, and socio-cultural understanding.

Speakers

Geri Chesner

Associate Professor, National Louis University

Geri Chesner, PhD., is an Associate Professor at National Louis University in the National College of Education, Chicago. She has been a member of IVLA for over 20 years, since learning about the organization during her doctoral work in which she studied how children construct meaning... Read More →

Tuesday October 8, 2024 2:15pm - 2:45pm CDT
Studio M (Digital Humanities Center)

Paper Presentation

3:00pm CDT

Shifting Identity Narratives: Mindfulness in Higher Education

Tuesday October 8, 2024 3:00pm - 3:45pm CDT

Studio M (Digital Humanities Center)

This paper presentation describes a critical visual inquiry into the ways in which undergraduate students describe the impact of mindfulness practices incorporated into sociology curriculum. Part of a larger study, participants engaged in a critical multimodal visual project to explore how mindfulness as a pedagogical tool impacted their learning around problematizing oppressive traditions. Evidence suggests that incorporating mindfulness helped develop students’ critical reflexive dispositions, allowing students to “learn to know themselves more fully” and “process their embodied experiences” (p. 37). Analysis of the critical multimodal visuals also show how mindfulness practices paired with complex discussions provide rich grounds for critical engagement that empowers students to engage in meaning making and construct “disruptive knowledge” about themselves, groups, and the way in which a society is organized around power (Kumashiro, 2000). Implications for integrating mindfulness practices in higher education and employing a critical multimodal approach (Cappello et al., 2019) are discussed.

Speakers

Rachael Horn Langford

Lecturer and PhD candidate, San Diego State University

Rachael Horn Langford (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Joint PhD Program in Education at San Diego State University and Claremont Graduate University. She has been a sociology lecturer in higher education for 15 years; teaching a range of courses in theory, body, sexuality... Read More →

Tuesday October 8, 2024 3:00pm - 3:45pm CDT
Studio M (Digital Humanities Center)

Campfire