Conveners: Manuela Caiani and Hans Joerg Trenz (SNS)

Financial and logistic support Scuola Normale Superiore, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Florence

The Scuola Normale Superiore (Florence, Italy) invites applications from doctoral students for  the 2025 Ph.D. School on Visual Analysis and Contentious Politics. The PhD School will be  held at the Palazzone di Cortona, one of the colleges of the Scuola Normale Superiore, in the  small town of Cortona in southern Tuscany, Italy. The school will take place from June 02-5  2025. 

When: 02 June – 05 June 2025

Where: Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzone di Cortona, Cortona (Arezzo) 

Contacts: Prof. Manuela Caiani (manuela.caiani@sns.it), Prof. Hans-Joerg Trenz (hansjorg.trenz@sns.it)

Description

Studies on online political communication, participation and mobilisation increasingly  integrate visual materials among relevant data for the understanding of contentious politics. To  explore the symbolic messages and discursive meaning of images in online campaigning,  contentious politics, political participation and progressive and regressive mobilisation this  PhD school focuses on methods of visual content analysis. Visual productions by political  actors such as photos, posters, leaflets and memes are considered relevant for their power to  communicate, to mobilise political protest (e.g. during the Covid-19) and as tools of propaganda (e.g. during the Ukraine war). The PhD school will further pay attention to the new  salience of visuality in online political contestation of values and democracy, This regards in  particular the mobilisation of radical political forces of the political right and the left,  expressions of populism, anti-gender, no vax, hate speeches and conspiracies. What images are  used by these actors to tell their stories? What (pop-)cultural repertoires do they tap into to  create resonance with their target audience? Which narrative and visual strategies do  transitional phenomena, as ‘movement parties’, online opinion movements or conspiracy  mobilisations use as forms of contentious politics?

The PhD school welcomes papers on geographical areas and actors that are underrepresented  in current research and media coverage.

Application procedure 

The PhD School is open to 17 Ph.D. researchers with an interest in visual analysis and the  study of political conflicts on social media. Applicants should submit a curriculum vitae and a  short cover letter (no more than 1 page) outlining how their research focus fits with the topic  of the PhD School and how participation in the school would benefit their research. These  materials should be submitted as one PDF by sending an email to Prof. Manuela Caiani  (manuela.caiani@sns.it) and Prof. Hans-Joerg Trenz (hansjorg.trenz@sns.it) before the 15st of  March 2025. Accepted candidates will be notified not later than March 30.

Enrolment fees, accommodation and location 

There are no enrolment fees. The organisers will help providing accommodation in either  single or double rooms in hotels in Cortona. Travel and accommodation costs for the duration  of the stay need to be covered by the participants. Lunch and coffee breaks are covered by the  School. Cortona is a small town in the South of Tuscany, Italy, in easy reach by train from  Florence or Rome. Classes will take place in the same location.

Provisional programme of the PhD School

The PhD School consists of three days with lectures by prominent scholars in the field of image  analysis in the morning and sessions on carrying out visual analysis in the afternoon. The  students will have a theoretical session and a methodological session every day, followed by a  lab in which they apply the methods that they learn. Students will also get feedback from  experts in the field of image analysis about their own research projects.

Monday 02/06/2025 

14.00-14.30 Welcome and practical infos by Manuela Caiani and Hans-Joerg Trenz

14.30-16.00 Lecture 1: Political conflict in digital images (Prof. Hans-Joerg Trenz, SNS) 16.00-16.30 Break

16.30-18.30 Feedback Session 1

Tuesday 03/06/2025 

09.15-11.00 Lecture 2: Analysing the visual repertoires of far-right extremism – from memes  to merch (Prof. Tina Askanius, University of Malmö)

Discussants:

11.00-11.30 Break

11.30-13.00 Practical Session 1: Tina Askanius

13.00-14.30 Lunch

14.30-16.30: Feedback Session 2

16.30-17.00 Break

17.00-18.30 Lecture 3: Visual analysis and the Radical Right (Prof. Manuela Caiani, SNS) Wednesday, 04/06/2025 

09.15-11.00 Lecture 4: Computer Vision for Contentious Politics (Prof. Luca Rossi, University  of Copenhagen)

11.00-11.30 Break

11.30-13.00 Practical Session 2: Luca Rossi

13.00-14.30 Lunch

14.30-16.00 Lecture 5: Emotions and populism: a visual perspective (Prof. Donatella  Bonansinga, University of Southampton)

16.00-16.30 Break

16.30-18.30 Feedback Session 3 and Feedback Session 4 (parallel sessions):  20.00 Dinner

Thursday, 05/06/2025 

09.15-11.00 Lecture 5: Analysing Visuals: A CDA Perspective (Prof. Bernhard Forchtner,  University of Leicester)

11.00-11.30 Break

11.30-13.00 Practical Session 3 (Bernhard Forchtner)

13.00 Lunch