UQ students and alumni will be able to put their photography skills to good use and engage with the world around them when a new competition opens next month.
Run by the School of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS), the competition aims to engage the UQ community on important political and global issues.
“The idea of a photography competition is to encourage our students to reflect on the way images shape our understanding of politics, global events and cross-cultural encounters, and thus enrich the student experience in the School of Political Science and International Studies,” said the Head of POLSIS Associate Professor Gillian Whitehouse.
“The theme of the competition – the world in focus – encourages students not only to ‘look closer’ at the world but also to reflect on the role visual images play in shaping knowledge and understanding.”
Entries open in March with the closing date for submission being July 1. The event is open to all students and alumni of The University of Queensland who are not professional photographers.
Winners of the competition will receive a book voucher from the Co-Op Bookshop and have the opportunity to have their work displayed in POLSIS and showcased on the school website.
Dr Whitehouse said politics, international relations and cross-cultural encounters have long been a rich vein for photojournalists and amateur photographers, often enabling others to view a different perspective on the world or interpret events, cultures and encounters.
In related news, several POLSIS scholars are conducting exciting research on the role of photography and visual culture including Professor Roland Bleiker, whose new book Aesthetics and World Politics will be released by Palgrave later this year.
Professor Bleiker has also co-authored a study with a former Rotary Peace scholar, Amy Kay, examining how photographic representations of HIV/AIDS in Africa have generated both prejudices and innovative political responses to the pandemic.
Colleague Dr Emma Hutchison has also recently completed a PhD thesis in which she examined photographic depictions of the Boxing Day tsunami of December 2004.
“These photographs created a substantial amount of empathy and global solidarity,” Dr Hutchison said.
“They played a key role in generating the unprecedented level of aid that was pledged to help the victims and to reconstruct traumatised communities.”
For further information or to download an entry form, visit www.polsis.uq.edu.au
Media: Naomi Smith (07 3365 1524, naomi.smith@uq.edu.au) or Cameron Pegg at UQ Communications (07 3365 2049, c.pegg@uq.edu.au)
