As part of Wheaton's commitment to using the latest technology in the classroom, the sociology department increasingly encourages students to use visual imagery in their research and analysis. The production and interpretation of visual images -- whether produced by the student or as a by-product of the culture -- join ethnographic observation, systematic interviewing, survey research and other techniques of data-gathering as key approaches to exploring how people organize and experience their lives and worlds. Students learn to analyze the messages and the imagery in videos and photographs that they and others have produced in many of the department's courses. In addition, students learn how manipulate imagery digitally, whether to create photo archives or for illustrative purposes in classroom presentation; and digitall ISTH editing of video material. While an interest in the social and cultural meanings of visual imagery is integrated into most courses in the sociology and anthropology programs at Wheaton, the department has the largest number of course offerings that explicitly focus on visual sociology in the country. These courses are taught by John Grady, Past President of the International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA) and include: a freshman seminar on film and society; an introduction to visual sociology, and a production course in making sociological movies. Bruce Owens in the Anthropology program makes extensive use of photography as a research method in his own work and advises students who use photographic techniques in their independent research projects. Outside the department, students may take courses in film taught by the English department and photography in the art department that are offered by Andy Howard, a well-known documentary photographer. Students are also encouraged to do a semester’s study at the Salt Institute for Documentary Field Research in Portland, Maine, where they can concentrate in documentary photography, writing, or radio production.

Last update 06/02