Teaching Workshop: Taking a Stance: Images and Politics

The relationship between images and politics has been greatly altered by the development of mass media. On the one hand, photographic and cinematic images displayed a degree of realism that seemed to be beyond the possibilities of traditional visual arts. On the other hand, mass communication has also opened paved the way for the era of aestheticisation, society of the spectacle, and simulacra. Students will analyse these topics in terms of their practical implications for the social life of men and for their political understanding of their history. Moreover, the workshop will explore the changes underwent by the relationship between images and politics due to the emergence of digital media and social networks.
The workshops also aims to discuss 20th- and 21st-century philosophical texts that are particularly relevant for the analysed topic.

The workshop aims to develop the following skills:

Critical thinking skills:
By the end of the workshop, students will display a sufficiently independent critical approach in selecting and interpreting the notions that are most relevant their area of study and to the broader socio-cultural context in which they operate

Communication skills:
By the end of the workshop:
- students will be able to effectively communicate the acquired knowledge and disseminate it to the general public;
- student will have developed basic IT skills concerning knowledge preservation and transfer.

Learning skills:
By the end of the workshop, students will have developed the learning skills required to continue their studies in keeping with their own research interests. In order to meet this objective, students will also develop relevant skills in the independent interpretation of sources and in the use of basic IT tool for bibliographic research.