Preconference

Decolonizing the Visual: Community, Memory, and Resistance

#ICA26 Preconference | 4 June 2026 | Cape Town, South Africa

PDF version   ●   #CfP Deadline: 15 March 2026

Co-sponsored by: Activism, Communication and Social Justice Division; Communication History (CH) Division; Ethnicity and Race in Communication (ERIC) Division; Intercultural Communication Division; Philosophy, Theory and Critique (PTC) Division; Popular Media & Culture (PMC) Division; and Visual Communication Studies Division (VCSD)

Communication is a site where histories are written, contested, and reimagined. In a world where visual media circulates with unprecedented speed, the legacies of colonialism remain deeply embedded in how people, places, and struggles are represented, erased, and remembered. This preconference invites critical engagement with the project of decolonizing the visual—a task that calls not only for the interrogation of representational practices, but for the centering of community-based epistemologies, memory-making, and resistance in visual communication. (READ MORE)

In this preconference, we ask: How do communities deploy visuals to reclaim history, assert presence, and resist ongoing forms of visual coloniality? What methodologies can help scholars, artists, and activists engage in ethical, grounded, and justice-oriented visual research? And how might the Global South lead this epistemic reorientation? We welcome scholars, artists, activists, and community practitioners to help us rethink the politics of seeing, the infrastructures of memory, and the aesthetics of refusal.

We seek contributions that:

  • Examine how communities use visual practices to challenge colonial frameworks and reclaim narrative authority.
  • Explore the role of visuals in preserving and contesting cultural memory in contexts of erasure, conflict, and displacement.
  • Analyze visual activism, art, and journalism as forms of resistance, vernacular witnessing, and counter-archiving.
  • Critically engage with platform infrastructures, algorithms, and media logics that shape visibility, legibility, and exclusion.
  • Reflect on ethical and methodological approaches to decolonial visual research, including questions of consent, care, and community collaboration

Formats:

  • Traditional Research Presentations (extended abstracts, max 1,000 words)
  • Research Escalator (work-in-progress abstracts, max 500 words; mentees paired with mentors for feedback)
  • Interactive Roundtable on Decolonizing Visual Communication Methods and Practices

Submission Details:

  • Deadline: 15 March 2026 (EXTENDED DEADLINE)
  • Notification of Acceptance: March 26, 2026
  • Submission: ashley.stewart@uniport.edu.ng & tom.divon@mail.huji.ac.il
  • Abstracts should be anonymized for peer review.
  • Registration is by invitation to ensure thematic coherence and active participation.