USC Center for Visual Anthropology

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The USC Center for Visual Anthropology (CVA) is a center located at the University of Southern California. It is dedicated to the field of visual anthropology, incorporating visual modes of expression in the academic discipline of anthropology. It does so in conjunction with faculty in the anthropology department through five types of activities: training, research and analysis of visual culture, production of visual projects, archiving and collecting, and the sponsorship of conferences and film festivals. It offers a B.A. [1] and an MVA [2] in Visual Anthropology.

University of Southern California Private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States

The University of Southern California is a private research university in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1880, it is the oldest private research university in California. For the 2018–19 academic year, there were 20,000 students enrolled in four-year undergraduate programs. USC also has 27,500 graduate and professional students in a number of different programs, including business, law, engineering, social work, occupational therapy, pharmacy, and medicine. It is the largest private employer in the city of Los Angeles and generates $8 billion in economic impact on Los Angeles and California.

Visual anthropology

Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science and visual culture. Although sometimes wrongly conflated with ethnographic film, Visual Anthropology encompasses much more, including the anthropological study of all visual representations such as dance and other kinds of performance, museums and archiving, all visual arts, and the production and reception of mass media. Histories and analyses of representations from many cultures are part of Visual Anthropology: research topics include sandpaintings, tattoos, sculptures and reliefs, cave paintings, scrimshaw, jewelry, hieroglyphics, paintings and photographs. Also within the province of the subfield are studies of human vision, properties of media, the relationship of visual form and function, and applied, collaborative uses of visual representations. Multimodal anthropology describes the latest turn in the subfield, which considers how emerging technologies like immersive virtual reality, augmented reality, mobile apps, social networking, gaming along with film, photography and art is reshaping anthropological research, practice and teaching.

Contents

History

The CVA was founded and directed by Ira Abrams [3] [4] in collaboration with Barbara Myerhoff. [5] Tim Asch took over as director of the CVA in 1983. In 1984, he collaborated with the USC School of Cinematic Arts to create the MAVA degree (Master of Arts in Visual Anthropology), a 2-3 year terminal Masters program unique in its emphasis on both textual and visual media (film and photography) as components of an academically grounded research project. [5] Asch served as director of the CVA until his death in 1994. In 2001, the MAVA program was merged into a Certificate in Visual Anthropology given alongside the Ph.D. in Anthropology. For a number of years, the CVA served as the west coast venue for the Margaret Mead Film Festival. [6] [7] A new one year version of the Masters of Arts in Visual Anthropology was established in 2008, which focuses on the production of a half-hour ethnographic documentary over a twelve month period. [8] Over thirty new ethnographic documentaries (including the Oscar nominee Gang Cops ) have already been produced in this new program, and many of them are now in distribution and shown at film festivals.

Barbara Myerhoff American filmmaker and anthropologist

Barbara Myerhoff was an American anthropologist and filmmaker, and founder of the Center for Visual Anthropology at the University of Southern California.

Tim Asch American anthropologist

Timothy Asch was a noted anthropologist, photographer, and ethnographic filmmaker. Along with John Marshall and Robert Gardner, Asch played an important role in the development of visual anthropology. He is particularly known for his film The Ax Fight and his role with the USC Center for Visual Anthropology.

The USC School of Cinematic Arts —formerly the USC School of Cinema-Television, otherwise known as CNTV—is a private media school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. The school offers multiple undergraduate and graduate programs covering film production, screenwriting, cinema and media studies, animation and digital arts, media arts + practice, and interactive media & games. Additional programs include the Peter Stark Producing Program and the Business of Entertainment.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Anthropology: Undergraduate Degree Programs
  2. ↑ Master of Arts in Visual Anthropology
  3. ↑ The Professionalization of Visual Anthropology in the United States - The 1960s and 1970s
  4. ↑ Faculty Bios
  5. 1 2 Legends Asch and Myerhoff Inspire A New Generation of Visual Anthropologists > News > USC College
  6. ↑ Center for Visual Anthropology: USC Department of Anthropology Archived 2009-11-27 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Filming Culture: Nigeria, Korea And Beyond Margaret Mead Ethnographic Film Festival Travels To The University, Bringing Two Videos By Usc Visual Anthropology Graduates Archived 2008-05-24 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Andrews, Susan 2009 "Legends Asch and Myerhoff Inspire A New Generation of Visual Anthropologists", Daily Trojan

Further reading

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Jay Ruby is an American scholar who was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Temple University until his retirement in 2003. He received his B.A. in History (1960) and Ph.D. in Anthropology (1969) from the University of California, Los Angeles.


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