12th IASA World Congress 2025

As we approach the end of the twenty-first century’s first quarter, we find ourselves in an era that W.J.T. Mitchell famously termed the “pictorial turn”—a period marked by the abundance and explosion of visual imagery. Indeed, the phenomenon is by no means new; our species has always relied on its visual perception, in combination with other senses, creating a hybridity of perception expressed through cultural and artistic products. Visuals and visuality have become the expected and primary end-points of human experience and are key in our interpretation of the world. Moreover, what Mitchell described as a “postlinguistic, postsemiotic rediscovery,” a novel burgeoning of the visual, is placing the image, regardless of the form in which it is created and presented, at the center of our social and cultural interactions.

Recognizing the crucial role of visuality in shaping our everyday experiences, we invite scholars and practitioners to contribute to a vibrant dialogue on the role and impact of visuality in the American context. The congress venue, Ankara, located in Anatolia, a bridge between two continents, offers a distinct blend of cultural visuality. The figurative and nonfigurative art forms of multiple Anatolian civilizations over the centuries provide a fitting backdrop for discussions on visual narratives and cross-cultural exchange.

Congress Theme

The congress will delve into the multifaceted aspects of the visual culture of the Americas, exploring how visual narratives, from ancient cave drawings to contemporary digital forms, have evolved and continue to shape our understanding of the Americas and/in the world. It will also investigate how contemporary visual practices, empowered by digital technologies, are redefining the ways we produce, circulate, and contextualize images in the translocal, hemispheric, and transoceanic contexts.

Key Questions

• How do past or contemporary visual practices inform and influence societies?
• What is the role of digitalization in shaping our perception and experience of imagery?
• How does visuality contribute to and alter meaning-making processes?
• In what ways do ideologies influence the creation and interpretation of visual objects and texts?
• How do visual components enhance literary works and other textual forms?
• How does visuality contribute, shape, and change performance and/or theatrical space?

Suggested Topics

• The text as image, the image as text; i.e., the narrative function of visuality and the image within the text
• Visual storytelling in its various forms (e.g., drawing, painting, television, film, illustrations, graphic novels, comics, video or computer games, social media)
• The interplay of visualities in the performing arts and media
• The aesthetics and politics of visuality
• The impact of digital visual culture in modern society
• Visuality and the concept of visibility as a matter of equality and/or representation in society, politics, culture, and the arts
• Analyses, ideologies, and the ethics of visuality including looking, seeing, making in/visible, showing, or withholding an image
• Policing, or a refusal to regulate, visuality and visibility

Submission Guidelines

We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations. Submissions are open to academics, early-career researchers, and creative practitioners. Please send submissions as an attached Word document to: congress@iasa-world.org

Submissions MUST include the Author’s:

Congress Language: English

Important Dates (Updated)

Founded in 1967 and located in Ankara, Türkiye, Hacettepe University is one of the nation’s leading institutions of higher education. Its emblem, designed by a second-year medical student during the university’s early years, is a stag—a Hittite deity and an amalgamated version of the letters “H” and “T” for Hacettepe. The motto of the university, “To the Leading Edge…Towards Being the Best,” defines its mission: to contribute to national and global scientific knowledge, train qualified researchers, and develop cooperation among different disciplines, while seeking excellence and considering ethical and social responsibilities such as merit, transparency, participation, and how to benefit society. The university has two main campuses, one in old Ankara, which houses the medical center, and the other in Beytepe, with over a thousand acres of woodland.

Hacettepe University offers associate, undergraduate, and graduate degrees in the Medical and Health Sciences, Science and Engineering Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities. With 53,000+ students enrolled in 150+ bachelor’s degree programs and 200+ graduate degree programs, supported by 3,600+ academic staff, the university houses fourteen graduate schools and institutes, two applied schools, one conservatory, five vocational schools and over a hundred research and application centers.

Congress Fee

Keynote Speakers

Djelal Kadir, Pennsylvania State University, USA (Confirmed)

Djelal Kadir is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University and, most recently, Visiting Professor at La Sapienza, University of Rome (2016). He is a member of the founding board of the Institute for World Literature, of Synapsis: The European School of Comparative Studies, and of the Stockholm Collegium of Literary History. He is the Founding President of the International American Studies Association and former Editor of the international quarterly World Literature Today and Director of the Neustadt International Prize in Literature. His authored books include: Juan Carlos Onetti (Twayne, 1977), Columbus and the Ends of the Earth: Europe’s Prophetic Rhetoric as Conquering Ideology (University of California Press, 1992; Chinese edition forthcoming Jiuzhou Press); The Other Writing: Postcolonial Essays in Latin America’s Writing Culture (Purdue UP, 1993); Questing Fictions: Latin America’s Family Romance (University of Minnesota Press, 1987) and Memos from the Besieged City: Lifelines for Cultural Sustainability (Stanford UP, 2011). He is the Co-editor of the Routledge Companion to World Literature (2012; 2022), the Co-Editor of Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History (Oxford UP, 2004), and of the Longman Anthology of World Literature (2004). He is Co-Editor of Literature: A World History and Principal Editor of Vol 4, Twentieth Century (Wiley Blackwell, 2022. Chinese edition forthcoming from Sichuan People’s Publishing House). His most recent book project is “Solitude”.

More to be announced

Publication Opportunity

Review of International American Studies (RIAS), the title of the University of Silesia Press, is the peer-reviewed, electronic/print-on-demand, Open Access journal of the International American Studies Association. Articles must be submitted through the RIAS website: https://www.journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/RIAS  

Accommodation & Travel Info

To be updated

Social Events

Gala Dinner, Visit to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations (Ankara), Post-Congress Tour (2 nights)

Post-Congress Tour – May 16-18, 2025

Join us for a two-night tour to the Cappadocia region in Anatolia, 300 kms from Ankara, known for its unique geological formations and historical significance. The tour is contingent upon a minimum of 15 participants.

The Emory Elliott Award

Congress Organizing Committee