organized by Dr. Svea Bräunert and Dr. Frauke Surmann

The International Research Training Groups “InterArt” and “Visibility and Visualization” will hold a joint reading and discussion workshop with W.J.T. Mitchell,Professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago. W.J.T. Mitchell is editor of the interdisciplinary journal Critical Inquiry, a quarterly devoted to critical theory in the arts and human sciences. A scholar and theorist of media, visual art, and literature, he is associated with the emergent research fields of visual culture and iconology.His publications include: Cloning Terror (2011); What Do Pictures Want? (2005); Picture Theory (1994) Iconology (1987); and The Language of Images (1980).

The workshop will take place on Monday, June 29^th from 10 am to 2 pm at Freie Universität Berlin. It is open to PhD students and postdocs of the respective research training groups as well as for PhD students and postdocs of affiliated programs. Basis for discussion is W.J.T. Mitchell’s essay “What Do Pictures Want?” In: Mitchell: What Do Pictures Want? Chicago, London: Chicago UP 2005: 28-57.

If you would like to participate in the workshop, please formulate a 250-word abstract indicating a question, observation or comment you would like to discuss based on your reading of the text. During the workshop, you will be asked to give a 5-minute input briefly explicating your submission.

To apply for the workshop, please send your abstract together with your name, affiliation, field of research, and the title of your dissertation to interart@zedat.fu-berlin.de, header line “WS Mitchell”. The deadline for applications is June 12, 2015. We will notify successful candidates and send out the final program by June 22^nd at the latest.