The Photographic Memory Workshop and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale are pleased to announce the program for “Photographic Proofs,” an international and interdisciplinary graduate student conference to be held at Yale University on April 4-5, 2008.

The Yale University Photographic Memory Workshop is a working group consisting of faculty, students, and staff that fosters sustained cross-disciplinary conversation about the important relationship between photography and individual and collective memory. In this, our ninth consecutive year, the group has teamed with the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to organize its first graduate student conference. Through this event, we hope to facilitate the sharing and discussion of current photography-related research and sources, to encourage networking and community development around this subject, and to build a vocabulary and bibliography on the topic of photography and memory.

The broad conference theme is “Photographic Proofs.” In opening and closing keynote talks by John Tagg (Binghamton University) and professional photographer Marion Belanger and four faculty-moderated graduate student panels of three papers each, presenters will investigate photography and evidence through theoretical, historical, critical, and/or artistic explorations based on one photograph or a collection of photographs. Our speakers ground their investigations in diverse disciplines (e.g., African American Studies, American Studies, Art, English, History, History of Art, Theater and Performance Studies, Urban Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) and work across the U.S. and around the world. Emergent conference sub-themes include the intersections of photographic evidence with memory, biopolitics, urban place and space, performance, and public humanities.

The general schedule for the entire conference is below:

FRIDAY, APRIL 4

5:30p "File Photos: Documents, Terror, Truth and Style," Opening Keynote Lecture, Professor John Tagg (Binghamton University) – Linsly-Chittenden Hall (LC) 101

SATURDAY, APRIL 5

8:30a Conference Registration and Light Breakfast – LC 103
9:00 Panel 1: "Memory, Postmemory, Countermemory" – LC 101
11:00 Panel 2: "Biopolitics of Images" – LC 101
2:00p Panel 3: "Urban Place and Space" – LC 101
4:00 Panel 4: "Intersections of Photography and Performance" – LC 101
6:00 "Outside and Within: Boundary, Border, Edge," Closing Keynote Lecture, Marion Belanger, professional photographer – LC 101
7:15 Public Dinner Reception for all conference attendees – Beinecke Mezzanine

For more information on individual papers and speakers, and to register for this free, public conference, please visit: www.photographicproofs.com.