European Society for Women in Theological Research (Web)

Venue: Leuven
Time: 12.-15.09.2019
Proposals by: 15.03.2019

Visibility is a social process that combines the domains of aesthetics and politics; it emerges from intersecting relations of perception and power. Social visibility is always relational – seeing and being seen simultaneously affect the observed and the beholder. The particular relations of visibility, in any context, depend on a multitude of social, cultural, technical and political arrangements. These “regimes of visibility” determine who is in/visible, in what contexts and networks, and they regulate access to participation and resources in societies. And while we might strive for ‘intervisibility’ (a reciprocity of vision) as the ideal form for social relations, relationships of in/visibility are often asymmetric. Social in/visibility is thus never free from power, yet, the relationship between power and visibility is complex: power does not rest simply either with visibility or with invisibility. Visibility is not inherently liberating, nor does it necessarily imply oppression of others. It can be empowering but also disempowering.

The ESWTR Conference 2019 aims to investigate how the categories of religion, gender and race intersect to produce social in/visibility. Some of the main questions that will be touched upon in the 2019 ESWTR conference are the following: How do religious communities and … read more and source (Web)