2018 Evry

Venue: UNIVERSITY OF PARIS-SACLAY – UNIVERSITY OF EVRY, FRANCE

Dates: JUNE 25-28

The 2017 IVSA conference was dedicated to the concepts of “Framing & Reframing”, and “The Everyday” inspired by one of Canada’s most influential sociologists, and also one of the most cited authors in the humanities and social science, Erving Goffman.

By drawing on eclectic sources, modelling cross-disciplinary fertilization and collaborative knowledge building, and by developing metaconcepts derived from a life-long interest in “communication and conduct in everyday life,” Goffman’s work challenges visual sociology to find ways to dialogue with audiences across the academy and beyond in an endeavour to bring sociological understandings to the micro level of the everyday, but also to help connect it to broader public issues.

Why The University of Evry?

For many years sociologists have made films, but until recently film has had a marginal role as a fully accredited sociological method.

In 1998, Joyce Sebag, working with a team of social sciences and humanities scholars and cinema professionals (screenwriters, directors, operators, sound engineers, editors) created a filmic sociology master’s program at the University of Evry. She has long been a proponent of film as a sociological method, and has also been convinced that social scientists doing “filmic sociology” needed professional film making skills. So, in the Image et société master, courses are half social sciences and half film making. Every year, each student completes his master’s program with a 15’ film.

Since then, filmic sociology has become an important stream of the research at the Centre Pierre Naville, at the University of Evry. There are now Professors and PhD students who make a film as an integral part of their dissertation.

Sociological photography has also played an important role at the sociology department of the university of Evry. Jean-Pierre Durand, the founder of the department and the laboratory, was also a professional photographer. As a result, photography-centered visual sociology has been an integral part of the Centre Pierre Naville.

The team has long worked to have visual and filmic sociology academically recognized. The Evry team created the “Sociologie Visuelle et Filmique” research network within the French Association of Sociology, and in 2016, the Evry team has been joined by Genova University’s Laboratorio di Sociologia Visuale. Together, we initiated the “Visual and Filmic Sociology” research stream of the European Sociological Association and the Genova team is also part of the IVSA conference team.

Organizing the 36th IVSA conference was also a way for the Evry team to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Image and Society master degree program.

Now, University of Evry is part of the Paris-Saclay COMUE: a community of south Paris academic institutions.

Gallery

All photos by Nigel Brunsdon

Our Next Conference

2027 IVSA Conference: Cardiff, Wales, UK

Venue: University of South Wales and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

Conference dates: Wednesday June 30th – Saturday July 3rd 2027

We’re delighted to announce the IVSA Conference 2027, taking place in Cardiff from Wednesday 30 June to Saturday 3 July. Hosted by the University of South Wales and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, this year’s conference brings together scholars, artists, and practitioners from around the world to explore A Dance of Perception – the symbiosis between image and sound, inviting rich, interdisciplinary conversations across visual sociology, sound, culture, and social life.

Find out more