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Image credit: Nigel Brunsdon

About The IVSA

The International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA) is a nonprofit, democratic, and academically -oriented professional organization devoted to the visual study of society, culture, and social relationships. Our members represent a wide spectrum of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, education, visual communication, photography, filmmaking, art, and journalism. On this site you can become a member of IVSA, view some of our members work or find out more about our annual conference.

The IVSA Board

The IVSAs board plays a vital role in overseeing and guiding the organization’s mission and activities. Comprised of dedicated individuals with diverse backgrounds, the board acts as a collective decision-making body, providing strategic direction, governance, and accountability. Its primary responsibilities include setting organizational goals, approving budgets and policies, and ensuring compliance with legal and ethical standards. Through their expertise, networks, and commitment, our board members contribute to the sustainability, growth, and impact of the IVSA.
More about the board

Our Purpose

The purpose of IVSA is to promote the study, production, and use of imagery, visual data, and visually-oriented materials in teaching, research, and applied activities. We also foster the use of still photography, film, video, and electronically transmitted images in sociology and other related fields. Together we work to encourage:

  • documentary studies of everyday life in contemporary communities
  • the interpretive analysis of art and popular visual representations of society
  • studies about the social impact of advertising and the commercial use of images
  • the analysis of archival images as sources of data on society and culture
  • the study of the purpose and the meaning of image-making practices like recreational and family photography

Code of Research Ethics

The IVSA Code of Research Ethics and Guidelines sets forth the principles and ethical standards that underlie professional responsibilities doing visual research from a diversity of cultures, disciplinary orientations and methodological approaches, including but not limited to multi-national professions: sociology, anthropology, communications, art, history. These principles and standards should be used as guidelines for research activities in the conduct of professional work
View the code

Our Bylaws

The IVSA bylaws serve as the association’s constitution. This document defines our name, purpose, membership, officers and executive board, meetings, and committees.
Download our bylaws

Image credit: Felix Mooneeram

Our Commitment

IVSA is committed to open and free intellectual discourse surrounding the visual representation of society and culture with due respect for the rights, dignity, and diversity of the human beings, organizations, and communities represented.

We uphold the standards of free speech, self-expression, and academic freedom in our pursuit of knowledge through the work of our organization and membership.

Through our publications, activities, and programs, we support the theoretical and methodological advancement of visual sociology and related fields as a way of examining and understanding our social and cultural world.

We are committed to the development of a body of scholarship and knowledge that maximizes the potential contributions of the study of visual images and the visual representation of society. We are equally committed to scholarship and knowledge that contributes to the public good.

We share with other professional organizations a social responsibility to strive to eliminate bias in professional activities, and we do not tolerate any forms of discrimination based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, health conditions, or marital, domestic, or parental status. Everyone is welcome to join our organization and contribute to our work.