Arts, Humanities, Media & Culture

IAFOR promotes and facilitates interdisciplinary approaches to the many modes of expression that fall under the sometimes distinct and sometimes overlapping domains of the arts, humanities, media, film, and related cultural studies. Through its conferences, research ventures, publications, and other fora, it encourages critical analysis of the many modes of cultural production, the audiences for which they are intended, the ways in which cultural ideologies are reflected and refracted in cultural forms, and the ways both dominant and marginalised groups see themselves and are seen through those forms.

While recognising the wealth of knowledge and useful analytical tools provided by the diverse disciplines of media studies, film studies, religion studies, philosophy, art history, literary analysis, historical analysis, musicology, and theatre studies (to name only a few), IAFOR is committed to supple analysis that crosses disciplinary boundaries and brings scholars from various backgrounds into active dialogue with each other. Only by probing the limitations of our own disciplinary perspectives can we better understand the complexity of the world around us, and discover how different disciplinary approaches can enrich others and contribute to a more multi-faceted understanding of culture.

IAFOR recognises as useful the many theoretical approaches to the study of culture — from feminist and queer modes of analysis, to materialist critique, to semiotic and post-structuralist analysis, to historicist analysis and close textual reading. Our varied human channels of communication and aesthetic production – from films, to novels, to journalistic reporting, to online gaming and blogging — are all worthy subjects of scrutiny. We welcome a variety of interests, approaches, and subjects of analysis. Our only requirement is that participants seek to learn from each other and treat others with respect. We all speak out of limited knowledge bases. IAFOR sponsors venues that allow us to fill in each other’s blank spots.