IVLA 2026 Charleston: Full Schedule

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9:00am EDT

Lasting spiritual and religious visual legacies rendered in Latinx-themed picturebooks created by Latinx artists

Thursday October 8, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am EDT

This presentation outlines the findings of a study on the visual representation of spirituality and religion in Latinx-themed picturebooks illustrated by Latinx artists and published in the US from 1932 to 2026. It specifically examines how their illustrators strategically place iconic religious images into their visual narratives, creating well-rounded, believable Latinx protagonists and settings. Although most of these picturebooks are not religious-themed or focused, the incorporation of tangible and familiar faith-based visual references, when examined as a whole, can be seen to have established a 90+-year visual legacy of the faith traditions, spiritual beliefs, and values of Latinxs living across the United States.

Speakers

Ruth E. Quiroa

Thursday October 8, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am EDT
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9:30am EDT

Illuminating Women’s Impact Through Illustration and Design in Nonfiction Biographical Picturebooks

Thursday October 8, 2026 9:30am - 10:00am EDT

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Nonfiction biographical picturebooks for young people that center individuals who have made a difference across a wide range of fields are being published in notable numbers today. Reading and viewing these texts offers an engaging and meaningful way for young people to learn about the people whose ideas, creativity, and courage have shaped our world, made our lives easier and healthier, more expressive, and served as role models.

Historically, nonfiction picturebooks have overwhelmingly centered on men and their accomplishments. A growing body of contemporary titles is giving long overdue attention to women who have influenced society in impactful ways. This shift offers a significant opportunity for young people to examine how women’s lives and contributions are being visually represented in picturebooks designed for them.

What makes multimodal picturebooks especially powerful tools for enjoyment and learning is the combination of the narrative and the visual elements. The illustrations carry significant weight in representing the ideas, stories, and people at the center. Through design and imagery choices, these books construct meaning that extends well beyond the written text and invite readers to see women’s contributions through intentional visual design.

This session presents a visual content analysis of nonfiction biographical picturebooks about women who have impacted society. It highlights emerging visual patterns, representational choices, and visual strategies in recently published titles, offering insights into how illustration shapes young people’s understanding and celebration of women’s roles in culture, history, and community life.

Speakers

Dr. Geri Chesner

Professor, Strategic Educational Leadership, National Louis University

Geri has focused on the power of children's literature and visual texts as catalysts for literacy development, with particular emphasis on visual and critical literacy. She serves as a professor at National Louis University in Chicago, IL, and has been an active member of IVLA for... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 9:30am - 10:00am EDT
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10:30am EDT

Learning to teach with images: Examining preservice teachers’ emergent practices

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT

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There is a growing recognition of the need to include diverse literacies in schools that support the informational and technological challenges students face today. Despite this goal, images in classrooms still typically function mainly as overlooked textbooks illustrations or as decoration. This study investigates a unit in a university social studies methods course in which preservice teachers learned to conduct image-based discussions. Utilizing a case study design, video records and written reflections are used to examine 26 preservice teachers’ enactment of a complex discussion strategy aimed at fostering visual literacy. Image-based discussion involves the teacher posing an intentional sequence of questions that guide students to analyze iconic photographs of historically significant events. The study is based on a theoretical perspective that treats images as texts to be closely read for meaning by considering their unique composition and the questions they raise about truth and representation. Instruction for the unit on image-based discussion took place over the final five weeks of the course. Findings revealed that pre-service teachers were able to apply fundamental principles of inquiry-oriented discussion by asking open-ended questions to guide the analysis. Although they were generally successful at adopting inquiry teaching principles, their discussion facilitation inconsistently applied visual analysis strategies that addressed the image’s composition. Collectively, the results of this study together add to our understanding of the ways that preservice teachers learn to enact a discussion strategy supporting visual literacy and the challenges they faced during rehearsal teaching.

Speakers

John Myers

Associate Professor, Florida State University

John Myers is an Associate Professor of Social Science Education at Florida State University. He completed doctoral studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. He is particularly interested in the intersection of photography with civic education... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT
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11:00am EDT

“Visual thinking” without the visual: Aphantasia and implications for visual literacy

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am EDT

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Aphantasia, clinically defined just over a decade ago, is a neurodivergence that results in a person having little to no ability to internally visualize. The intertwining of visual literacy with visual thinking, often an assumed pairing, thus demands reconsideration with the knowledge that, , for some individuals, visual thinking simply does not exist. This presentation will define and explore the current research on congenital aphantasia, meaning a diagnosis of aphantasia from birth, based on the results of a scoping review, and discuss potential concerns for visual literacy practitioners and researchers going forward.

Speakers

Shawn McCann

Associate Professor, Oakland University

Shawn is an Associate Professor at Oakland University.

Katie Greer

Professor, Oakland University

Katie is the VP of IVLA

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am EDT
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Paper

11:00am EDT

Architecture as Visual Text: Interpreting Institutional Identity at The Brick City

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am EDT

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Architecture and campus design function as visual texts that communicate institutional identity, cultural values, and collective memory. This paper examines the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) campus through a visual literacy framework, exploring how its built environment reflects changing educational and societal priorities. Constructed in the late 1960s, RIT emerged during a modernist era characterized by efficiency, technological progress, and industrial rationality. The brick façades, geometric forms, and post-brutalist aesthetic symbolized professional preparation and organizational effectiveness. Over the years it became known as “The Brick City”. As higher education has evolved, there has been a shift toward creativity, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and community. Recent campus developments reveal a corresponding transformation in architectural design, softening the original industrial character while fostering interaction and innovation. Viewed through a visual literacy lens, the RIT campus serves as a living narrative that preserves institutional memory while adapting to contemporary cultural values and future aspirations.

Speakers

David Neumann

Professor of Communication, Rochester Institute of Technology

David Neumann is a Professor of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology. For over 40 years his teaching and scholarship has centered on visual communication, group dynamics, strategic communication, and the intersections of technology and pedagogy.

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am EDT
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1:00pm EDT

Family, Culture, and Place: Cultural Leisure Activities in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT

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The frequency of contact with art and the degree of intergenerational transmission of cultural habits within the family environment represent key determinants in shaping pupils’ relationship to culture. This paper focuses on the analysis of families’ cultural leisure activities in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic as one of the crucial factors in the development of relationships to diverse forms of cultural expression.

The study draws on a questionnaire-based sub-study conducted among parents of primary school pupils in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic (N = 676) as part of the REFRESH project. The examination of families’ leisure activities forms part of a broader research framework focused on the visual literacy of pupils in primary education.

The findings indicate that family patterns of leisure-time behaviour constitute an important context for cultural participation in a post-industrial region. They suggest that shared cultural experiences within the family form an important part of pupils’ broader cultural environment and should be taken into account in research on the relationship between culture, place, and visual representation. In this way, the paper contributes to the current discussion on the relationship between place, memory, and visual representation in contemporary education.

Speakers

Tomáš Koudela

assistant professor and vice-dean, University of Ostrava

Tomáš Koudela is an assistant professor and Vice-Dean for Communication and Creative Activities at the Faculty of Education, University of Ostrava. He serves as the head of the Visual Studies Centre and leads the interdisciplinary Visual Literacy Research Team. His research focuses... Read More →

Timotej Blažek

postdoctoral researcher, University of Ostrava

Mgr. Timotej Blažek, Ph.D. (*1989) is an art educator and theorist in the field of art education. Since 2022, he has been working at the National Institute of Education and Youth, focusing on research and development in the educational area of Art and Culture, particularly art education... Read More →

Tereza Čapandová

researcher assistant, University of Ostrava

Tereza Čapandová is a research assistant at the Faculty of Education, University of Ostrava, and a member of the Visual Literacy Research Team. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Art Education, focusing on the concept of originality in the context of post-production theory... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT
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1:30pm EDT

Seeing the Moon Through Time: Cultural Memory and Science Meaning-Making in Children’s Picturebooks

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT

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Research in science and visual literacy shows that visual images are central to how learners construct scientific meanings and images of who does science, and that thoughtfully designed visual work can particularly support underrepresented students’ confidence and participation, making classrooms more inclusive and identity‑affirming (Christidou et al., 2023; Duque‑Arellano, 2018). This session explores how picturebooks set in diverse cultural contexts represent the moon and its phases, positioning these visual narratives as sites where cultural memory and scientific meaning-making intersect. Across time and communities, the moon has functioned as a powerful symbolic and narrative element, shaping how cultures remember, interpret, and explain natural phenomena through stories, traditions, lived experiences, and imaginations. By examining a curated set of picturebooks from different cultural traditions, this session analyzes how visual and textual elements construct culturally situated understandings of the moon.
While these representations may not always align with scientific explanations, they serve as cultural artifacts that reflect how knowledge is shaped through memory, imagination, and community-based ways of knowing. Drawing on visual literacy, we examine how images act as carriers of cultural memory while also mediating children’s meaning-making about scientific concepts.
The session also provides implications for science teacher education. We argue that culturally grounded picturebooks can support students’ science meaning-making by connecting disciplinary concepts with cultural narratives and prior knowledge. By situating representations of the moon within broader temporal and cultural contexts, this session highlights how images shape understandings of science, culture, and identity, and how educators can leverage these resources to foster more inclusive and meaningful learning experiences.

References
Christidou, V., Kallery, M., Pnevmatikos, D., & Valanides, N. (2023). Editorial: Visual images in science education. Frontiers in Education, 8, 1181754. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1181754
Duque-Arellano, F. (2018, January 3). Visual interpretation in science – Strategies for English language learners. Intercultural Development Research Association. https://www.idra.org/resource-center/visual-interpretation-in-science/

Speakers

Dr. Xiaoning Chen

Associate Professor, ESL/Bilingual Education, National Louis University

Xiaoning Chen, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of ESL/Bilingual Education at National Louis University. Dr. Chen has two decades of experience in language teacher education in the U.S. and internationally. Her research focuses on visual literacy, multicultural children’s literature... Read More →

Eun Kyung Ko

Professor, National Louis University

Eun Kyung Ko, Ph.D. is an educator and researcher committed to justice-focused, community-based, and culturally responsive teaching. Her work centers on preparing teachers to design meaningful, inclusive STEAM learning experiences for multilingual learners. She integrates AI as a... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT
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Paper

2:30pm EDT

From the Same Soil: Collage, Oral History, and Place-Based Visual Literacy on Ohio’s Century Farms

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm EDT

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This campfire session shares one element of my larger on-going project documenting Ohio Century Farms — properties held by the same families for one hundred years or more — through oral history and digital collage. Century Farms represent endangered ways of seeing and inhabiting land amid converging threats: dwindling profit margins, generational crisis, and pressures from developers and data center corporations bringing environmental concerns including strain on local water supplies.
The session focuses on translating Alice Herrick's oral account from rural Metamora, Ohio into visual forms. During World War II, German and Italian POWs from the nearby Blissfield, Michigan camp were granted work release to labor alongside her family — Czech sugar beet farmers — in the fields. Despite profound cultural differences and wartime bitterness, shared labor produced mutual respect and genuine friendship. Tragedy deepened community bonds when a railroad accident killed POWs returning to barracks after their jeep stalled on tracks. Upon release, several prisoners became U.S. citizens and married local women — a remarkable arc from enemy combatant to neighbor.
I will share three to four original digital collages created from the Herrick family's photographs, recombining images of Alice's childhood, sugar beet harvest, and ceremonial life — including the Sugar Beet Queen — with historic land survey maps and contemporary views. Grounded in Aldo Leopold's ethic of attentive seeing, these compositions engage ACRL visual literacy competencies: interpreting images within contextual settings, critically evaluating visual sources, and creating meaningful media contributing to shared knowledge.
The second portion invites audience participation: What visual archives — family photographs, land records, vernacular objects — lie dormant in your communities? How can layered images make hidden histories visible? What ethical responsibilities accompany visualizing aging neighbors' stories? How might visual literacy practices serve communities facing loss of both land and stories?

Speakers

Ashley Pryor

Associate Professor, University of Toledo

Ashley Pryor (Geiger) is a collage artist and Associate Professor of Philosophy & Religious Studies and Honors affiliated faculty at The University of Toledo. Her collage work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and appears in Kolaj Magazine, The Raw Art Review... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:30pm - 3:30pm EDT
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Campfire