This workshop introduces participants to methods, and core debates, in visual anthropology, with a focus on film and the politics of collaboration. Through lectures, discussions, and hands-on sessions, participants will explore the use of visual methods as tools for ethnographic research and knowledge production/dissemination. Special attention will be given to the applications of visual methods in research with Deaf communities, highlighting the potential of visual media to represent diverse lived experiences. Participants will practice collecting photographic and audiovisual data using mobile phones, creating visual research objects. In this workshop, participants will gain both conceptual and practical understandings of ethnography, approaches to collaborative visual research, and best practices in the production and dissemination of knowledge.
Bio: Dr. Erin Moriarty Harrelson
Erin Moriarty’s scholarly work focuses on deaf linguistic practices and transnational mobility, with a regional specialization in Southeast Asia. Her research engages critically with sign language documentation, language ideologies, and the socio-cultural dimensions of deaf communities, drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Cambodia and Indonesia. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from American University. Dr. Moriarty is the co-editor of the 2025 volume, The Crip Linguistics Reader (Gallaudet University Press), as well as Deaf Mobility Studies (Gallaudet University Press). Moriarty holds an appointment as assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia.