The USC Center for Visual Anthropology (CVA) is a center located at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. It is dedicated to the field of

visual anthropology Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science an ...

, incorporating visual modes of expression in the academic discipline of anthropology. It does so in conjunction with faculty in the anthropology department through five types of activities: training, research and analysis of visual culture, production of visual projects, archiving and collecting, and the sponsorship of conferences and film festivals. It offers a B.A. and an MVA in Visual Anthropology.

History

The CVA was founded and directed by Ira Abrams in collaboration with Barbara Myerhoff.Legends Asch and Myerhoff Inspire A New Generation of Visual Anthropologists > News > USC College
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Tim Asch Timothy Asch (July 16, 1932 – October 3, 1994) was an American anthropologist, photographer, and ethnographic filmmaker. Along with John Marshall and Robert Gardner, Asch played an important role in the development of visual anthropology. He i ...

took over as director of the CVA in 1983. In 1984, he collaborated with the

USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

to create the MAVA degree (Master of Arts in Visual Anthropology), a 2-3 year terminal Masters program unique in its emphasis on both textual and visual media (film and photography) as components of an academically grounded research project. Asch served as director of the CVA until his death in 1994. In 2001, the MAVA program was merged into a ''Certificate in Visual Anthropology'' given alongside the Ph.D. in Anthropology. For a number of years, the CVA served as the west coast venue for the

Margaret Mead Film Festival The Margaret Mead Film Festival is an annual film festival held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It is the longest-running, premiere showcase for international documentaries in the United States, encompassing a broad spe ...

. A new one year version of the Masters of Arts in Visual Anthropology was established in 2008, which focuses on the production of a half-hour ethnographic documentary over a twelve-month period.Andrews, Susan 2009 "Legends Asch and Myerhoff Inspire A New Generation of Visual Anthropologists", Daily Trojan Over thirty new ethnographic documentaries (including the Oscar nominee ''

Gang Cops ''Gang Cops'' is a 1988 American short documentary film directed by Thomas B. Fleming following the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's special gang unit in South Central Los Angeles. It was produced in collaboration with the USC Center f ...

'') have already been produced in this new program, and many of them are now in distribution and shown at film festivals.

References

External links

Official website of the Center for Visual Anthropology
* https://dornsife.usc.edu/anth/degree-programs/Website of the Masters in Visual Anthropology program {{DEFAULTSORT:Usc Center For Visual Anthropology Anthropological research institutes Center for Visual Anthropology Film schools in California Visual anthropology

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links