Charlotte Bigg will present the collaborative project PhotIFAN, which aimed at exploring and studying the photographic collections of the Institut Français d’Afrique Noire, a research institute operating in colonial West Africa between 1936 and 1960. Patterned on the Parisian Natural History Museum, it carried out and supported research and exploration in the natural, human and social sciences. One major activity was the production of photographs that are now disseminated across a wide range of locations. The project involved a collaboration between research institutions and museums in France and West Africa to explore some of the practical, epistemological and ethical questions raised by this kind of postcolonial scientific heritage.

Please email vsri@usc.edu to RSVP and receive readings. This event is presented through the NEH/VSRI Images Out of Time Seminar.

About the USC Dornsife-EHESS Partnership: USC Dornsife has a multi-year scholarly cooperation agreement with the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS; School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences). The Dornsife-EHESS Partnership, housed in the Levan Institute for the Humanities, aims to build ties between scholars at the two institutions and to support collaborations in research and teaching. It involves a program for doctoral students and another for tenured faculty with primary appointments in Dornsife. The program director is Nathan Perl-Rosenthal (Professor of History, Spatial Sciences, and Law). Queries can be directed to him at ehesspartnership@usc.edu. For more information on the Dornsife-EHESS partnership, click here.