Thursday, February 6, 2013
09.00 Welcome addresses:
Nada BOŠKOVSKA, Jeronim PEROVIĆ, Philipp CASULA
(University of Zurich)

09.30 Panel 1
Analysing Pictures of War
Chair: Philipp CASULA
Scholars in history and social sciences often adopt an eclectic mix of approaches, including those proposed by Erwin Panofsky or Roland Barthes. A first question concerns the relation between images and text and, more broadly speaking, between images and discourse. Opening the analysis for discourse theory or cultural studies may provide opportunities to come to terms with the polysemous character of images and how meaning is fixed temporarily. A second concern worth discussing are formalistic and schematic approaches to images as opposed to more interpretative ones. The panel pits such strict methodologies against more flexible and open research strategies. These questions pertain to images generally but come to the fore particularly with regard to images of war with their strong claims to truth and their depiction of clear-cut identities. They also point to a specific interpretation of armed conflict and to specific practices of war, for example as ethnic war, as war between civilisation and barbarism, as war to save a specific population, or as a war to install or restore a certain order. All of this is expected to become visible or evident in the respective visual representations, including photojournalism, films and printed news.
09.30 – 09.50 Introduction by Philipp CASULA (University of Zurich)

10.00 – 10.30 Lilie CHOULIARAKI (London School of Economics): “The ethics of images. Photojournalism and the humanity of war”

10.30 – 11.00 Cornelia BRINK (University of Freiburg): “Photography and violence. Theoretical and methodological considerations”

11.00 – 12.30 Discussion (discussant and chair: Philipp CASULA)

12.30 – 14.00 Speakers’ Lunch at ETH “Dozentenmensa”

14.00 Panel 2
The War in Yugoslavia
Chair: Nadine FREIERMUTH
The escalation of violence during the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1990s triggered intense debates about a common “western” policy. Visual representations of the conflict in various western media outlets played a crucial role in forming this debate and influencing public opinion. On the one hand, this panel is concerned with the depiction of this conflict in western media and about the role of visual precursors. On the other hand, the panel aims at shedding more light on stakeholders involved in the visual representation of the conflict. It highlights their role within the circle of communication that influences the conveyed image of the war. The panel, hence, looks at the interests of photographers, journalists, NGOs, PR-agencies and editors. Finally, the panel seeks to deepen the methodological discussion from panel 1 and apply it to the Yugoslav context.
14.00 – 14.20 Introduction by Nadine FREIERMUTH (University of Basel)

14.20 – 14.50 Tanja ZIMMERMANN (University of Konstanz): “What happens in/as photography? War icons and indirect discourses”

14.50 – 15.15 Coffee break

15.20 – 15.50 Jörg BECKER (University of Marburg): “PR Agencies and War Reporting”

16.00 – 17.30 Discussion (discussant and chair: Nadine FREIERMUTH)

19.00 Speakers’ Dinner at Ziegel oh Lac, Seestrasse 407, Zurich

Thursday, February 7, 2013
09.30 Panel 3
The War in Afghanistan
Chair: Markus MIRSCHEL
After the invasion of Afghanistan, the USSR invested heavily in expanding its civil and military presence and supporting the Kabul regime. While the reasons for and the consequences of occupation have been analysed in detail, this panel aims to elaborate on the cultural side of the war, i.e. on various ways the conflict has been represented in the Soviet press, and on how the Soviet media informed the society back home about the events in Afghanistan. Key to this understanding is an analysis of the role official and non-official images (pictures, movies, cartoons or paintings) and images in popular culture played. This analysis also includes images produced in post-Soviet Russia. An important question concerns how it was possible to create a “situation of security” backed by a visual framework that reflected ideological consideration and picked up historical traditions, for example from WWII.
09.30 – 09.50 Introduction by Markus MIRSCHEL (University of Zurich)

10.00 – 10.30 Aleksandra YATSYK (University of Kazan): “Politics of Memory and the Aestheticization of the Soviet Union's Last War: ‘Afganskij Izlom’ and ‘Devjataja Rota’”

10.30 – 11.00 Philipp FRAUND (University of Konstanz): “The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: The gravest threat to World Peace?”

11.00 – 12.30 Discussion (discussant and chair: Markus MIRSCHEL)

12.30 – 14.00 Speakers’ Lunch at ETH “Clausiusbar”

Panel 4
Securing Russia and the War in Chechnya
Chair: Philipp CASULA
The two wars in Chechnya have represented the longest, most intensive conflicts of post- independence Russia. While the first Chechen war sparked serious debates about its legitimacy, the second conflict took place with a high degree of political and popular support. To determine the end of the war has been difficult, because the conflict increasingly gained traits of counter-insurgency or, at least, was increasingly cast in these terms. This latter framing could represent a discontinuity to other Soviet and Russian military engagements. This panel will, however, inquire both into continuities and discontinuities with other wars, tracing its imagery back to that of WWII and draw a comparison to the conflict in Afghanistan, as discussed in the previous panel. As has been shown in various studies, the war in Afghanistan provided a key cultural backdrop for understanding the conflict in Chechnya. The concepts of security and securitisation are deemed to emerge as important analytical tools and are expected to reappear in visual representations of the conflict.
14.00 – 14.20 Introduction by Philipp CASULA (University of Zurich)

14.20 – 14.50 Andrey MAKARYCHEV (University of Tartu): “Visual Imagery of North Caucasus in Russian Mass Cultural Narratives”

15.00 – 15.30 Oksana SARKISOVA (Central European University): “Filming at the threshold: Mantas Kvedaravicious’ ‘Barzakh’ in the context of contemporary representations of Chechnya”

15.30 – 15.45 Coffee break

15.45 – 16.30 Concluding Discussion (chair: Benjamin SCHENK, University of Basel)

End of workshop, Departure of participants
Venue: The workshop will take place at the premises of the University of Zurich, Department of History, Karl Schmid-Str. 4, 8006 Zurich, hall KO2-F-152.