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The Center for Southeast Asian Studies organizes and sponsors a number of events such as lectures, film screening, workshops, symposia, conferences, exhibits, and performances throughout the year.  Several of these events are in collaboration with other U-M units, and are often free and open to the public. To see what we have planned for this semester, please visit our 2020 Lecture Series page.

CSEAS Friday Lecture Series. Photographic Mourning: Witnessing the Philippine Drug War

Vicente L. Rafael, University of Washington, Department of History
Friday, January 25, 2019
11:30 AM-12:30 PM
Room 555 Weiser Hall Map
Under the regime of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, the so-called drug war in the Philippines has exacted an enormous toll. In this talk, I inquire into one of the earliest and most graphic responses to this war: the work of photojournalists. How does photojournalism become a kind of advocacy by becoming a mode of mourning? How are trauma and witnessing braided together in the experience of photographers covering war? Indeed, how does photography offer evidence that trauma can be the site for the emergence of truth? What is the role of the camera and what are the ambivalent effects of the technical and aesthetic imaging of the dead and their survivors? What is the fate of photographic images once they travel beyond the control of photographers? For example, converted into commodities, what happens to them when they circulate in the global mediascape and are rendered into items for the daily consumption of anonymous viewers? And among the family of victims, how do dreams recapitulate as they displace the work of photographic mourning?

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If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to attend this event, please reach out to us at least 2 weeks in advance of this event. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Contact: alibyrne@umich.edu
Building: Weiser Hall
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: Discussion, International, Lecture, Politics, Social Impact, Social Justice, Social Sciences, Southeast Asia
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Center for Southeast Asian Studies, International Institute, Asian Languages and Cultures, Department of History