Word and Image: Making Connections Across Different Disciplines and Across Institutions
I have recently taken part in an interdisciplinary conference that brought together doctoral and post-doctoral researchers from The Courtauld Institute of Art and King’s College London through a focus on Word/Image relations. The conference was inspired by the announcement of the ten-year strategic partnership between The Courtauld and KCL in 2022.
Whilst KCL does not have an History of Art department, and The Courtauld does not have a literature department, there are many researchers at both institutions whose work is interdisciplinary and explores Word/Image relations. The theme of Word/Image offered an ideal opportunity to bring together researchers from The Courtauld and KCL to network and share their research with the public.
The event offered a collaborative space in which to illuminate the diverse approaches to word and image studies. Word and image intersect frequently in the work of many scholars today, but the ways in which this intersection occurs are multiple and varied. Scholars had the opportunity to present how their research brings together text and visual culture, highlighting the points of contact between the two disciplines. The conference therefore transcended the study of art history alone, appealing to multiple disciplines. As a result, the event aimed to foreground word and image not as distinct sites of independent interpretation, but as contrastable and comparable spaces of enquiry, striving to dismantle the longstanding hierarchy between written word and visual culture.
The event is organised by Phoebe Day and Rose Pickering (Research Students, The Courtauld).