The 54th Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) will be organized at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland on 10-12 August 2022. It will be hosted by the Department of Language and Communication Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in collaboration with the MultiLEAP (Multiliteracies for social participation and learning across the life span) profiling area of the University of Jyväskylä.

I am in charge of chairing the Local Organizing Committee. The call will be out in December 2021. Here is an overview of the conference theme:

Connecting & Sharing – Envisioning the Futures of Visual Literacy

Visual literacy is a vital part of pedagogical, artistic and research practices of various kinds. For over five decades, the concept of visual literacy has been used across disciplines, most prominently in education, art, museum studies, information design, photography, and new literacies research. In recent years, visual imagery, image creation and analysis have received considerable attention in research methodologies in social sciences, psychology, education, and applied linguistics. As a truly multidisciplinary area, visual literacy is present in many contexts that focus on visual cultures. By acknowledging the rich diversity in research and praxis of visual literacy, this conference aims to initiate a dialog between educators, practitioners, researchers, artists, and all those whose work is connected to the visual, and to visual literacy in particular. In the current unpredictable times, we aim for the impossible – to envision the futures of visual literacy/ies.
We invite scholars, educators, students, and practitioners from all over the world to discuss theoretical insights and to share research, artistic, and educational practices around the concept of visual literacy. We search to (re)build and (re)discover the (new) connections between the variety of theories, disciplinary traditions and educational practices in visual literacy and beyond.