2026 marks the IVSA’s 40th anniversary as a truly international association!
While 1981 marks the year where the decision to form an international association for visual sociology was first made, the association was then still linked to the American Sociological Association as a parent organisation, with the IVSA as an “interest group.” The first annual meeting of the IVSA was in 1983, in Windsor Canada, and the second and third meetings were held in 1984 and 1985 at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. 1986 marks the year of our first international conference, with the IVSA’s first meeting outside of North America (at the University of Bielefeld, Germany). This year also marks the launch of our association’s flagship journal, Visual Studies (then the Visual Sociology Review).
This anniversary thus marks 40 years of being a truly international association. To celebrate, we have coordinated an international series of anniversary activities devoted to Visual Studies and Visual Sociology, to be run throughout 2026. Thank you to all of our IVSA members who have taken on the role of organising an anniversary activity!
Throughout 2026, activities will be held by IVSA members across the globe (including the USA; France; South Korea; Italy; Chile; Wales; UK; India; Spain and Hong Kong SAR) in reflection of our increasingly international membership. Most anniversary activities are free to IVSA members, however some events do have a modest registration fee.
We kick off our programme this Sunday March 1, with the launch of an exhibition curated by IVSA board member Laura Krystal Porterfield, at Rutgers University–Newark, USA, on The Storied Experiences of Educators of Color Through Photovoice.
We hope you are able to attend an anniversary activity near you!
Best wishes,
Susan on behalf of the IVSA board