GESTURE AND AFFECT
On April 10th and 11th, 2025, the Institut d'études avancées de Nantes will host the research workshop led by former fellows Florence Ninitte and Patricia Hayes. This workshop will explore the question of gesture through its photographic, performative, political, social, psychological, and philosophical manifestations. It will focus on the gesture as an end in itself, rather than merely a means of action, and its role in shaping visions of the future between consensus and disintegration.
The main goal is to promote a careful reading of visual and literary artifacts, while linking the attention given to the gesture with conceptual, political, and ethical issues. Drawing on the work of Georges Didi-Huberman, particularly his project Soulèvements, the workshop will examine the connection between gesture and emotions or the absence of discourse, especially in the context of colonial photographs.
The gesture will also be analyzed in medieval representations, where it appears codified, allowing for an understanding of its social and ideological uses. Finally, the workshop will bring together participants from various disciplines to create connections beyond traditional academic boundaries.
Online registration: https://forms.gle/m2oLR1SkL2JMR8jc6
April 10th: 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM
April 11th: 8:45 AM - 12:30 PM
Institut d'études avancées in Nantes
Auditorium Simone Weil
Completely in person
In English and French, without interpretation
Open to the public with online registration: https://forms.gle/m2oLR1SkL2JMR8jc6
Programme du premier jour
Jeudi 10 avril
13h35 : Introduction
14h00-15h20 : Panel I
14h : Florence Ninitte. Figurer l’autorité par les mots et les gestes. A propos de quelques manuscrits de la version française du Devisement du monde de Marco Polo
14h25 : Patricia Hayes. Gesture and the unfinished in southern African history
14h50 : Discussion
15h20-15h40 : Coffee Break
15h40-17h : Panel II
15h40 : Rinaldo Walcott. The Art of Black Affect and Black Gesture in the Time of Reparations
16h05 : Valeria Guzmán Verri. Sidelong glances
16h30 : Discussion
Programme du second jour
Vendredi 11 avril
8h45-10h40 : Panel III
8h45 : Kass Banning. Stillness in Motion: Temporality and the Enactment of Gesture
9h10 : Sandrine Colard. A Collection of Gestures: Photography and Fabrics in Black Women’s Hands
9h35 : Emma Minkley. The Thinking Hand – Hands at Play and Work
10h : Discussion
10h40-11h : Coffee Break
11h-12h20 : Panel IV
11h : Laetitia Saintes. Être et se dire femme et polémiste, de l’écritoire à l’espace public
Du geste polémique au féminin de la Révolution française à la Deuxième République
(1789-1850)
11h25 : Tanja Petrovic. Repetition as a Gesture: Yugoslav Partisan Doctors and their Memoirs and Memories
11h50 : Discussion
12h20 : Concluding discussion
With the support of the National Research Foundation of South Africa (National Research Foundation)
