Theorizing Visual Studies: Writing Through the Discipline

This forward-thinking collection brings together over sixty essays that invoke images to summon, interpret, and argue with visual studies and its neighboring fields such as art history, media studies, visual anthropology, critical theory, cultural studies, and aesthetics. The product of a multi-year collaboration between graduate students from around the world, spearheaded by James Elkins, this one-of-a-kind anthology is a truly international, interdisciplinary point of entry into cutting-edge visual studies research. The book is fluid in relation to disciplines; it is frequently inventive in relation to guiding theories; it is unpredictable in its allegiance and interest in the past of the discipline―reflecting the ongoing growth of visual studies.

James Elkins teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Kristi McGuire is a writer, editor, and independent curator of printed matter currently based in Chicago. She holds an MA in visual and critical studies and an MFA in studio art, with an emphasis in writing, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MA in the humanities from the University of Chicago.

Maureen Burns is a writer, editor, and arts consultant, currently living in Chicago. She received her MA in visual and critical studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010.

Alicia Chester is a Chicago-based artist and writer. She completed her MA in visual and critical studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010.

Joel Kuennen is an editor at ArtSlant.com and an arts writer living in Chicago. He received his MA in visual and critical studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010.