Interdisciplinary Doctoral Symposium (Venice, 14-16 Apr 26) (In)visibility: Seeing, Making Visible, Keeping Hidden Deadline: Dec 1, 2025

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Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Apr 14–16, 2026Deadline: Dec 1, 2025

Students in the 40th PhD programme at Ca'Foscari University of Venice

Interdisciplinary Doctoral Symposium.

Accessing and producing knowledge is never neutral. From the erasure of certain voices in historical narratives to the strategic visibility of bodies, choices are constantly made about what can be seen and believed — and, consequently, what must remain hidden and invisible. Two main forces reflecting underlying hierarchies of power are at play: on the one hand, the partial and ideologically inflected nature of the sources; on the other hand, the situated position of the scholar. Crucially, they can result in the exclusion, marginalisation, misunderstanding or invisibilisation of voices endowed with less power, socially and/or historically.

This symposium questions how presence and absence are constructed, how certain topics or agents are rendered peripheral, and how historiographical, disciplinary, ethical, methodological, but also institutional choices reinforce (or challenge) patterns of invisibilisation. How do our ways of seeing and not seeing shape the contours of knowledge?

Harnessing (in)visibility as a lens on knowledge, this symposium explores three interrelated dynamics: seeing, making visible, keeping hidden.

Seeing: seeing (in)visibility means questioning the limits of our perceptions and moving beyond prima facie classifications to understand how presence and absence are actively negotiated.

Making visible: making (in)visibility visible means spotlighting and ethically responding to what and who is marginalised, unlocking their emancipatory power.

Keeping hidden: keeping hidden means tracing the deliberate practices of concealment that shape what is (in)visible to reveal their underpinning politics of erasure.

Who can apply

Open to all, with preference for early-career scholars (Master’s, PhD, post-doc). We also welcome contributions from art practitioners and activists.

Submission guidelines

We welcome submissions aligned with the symposium theme including, but not limited to, the following fields:

- Heritage, Memory and Material Culture.

- Media and Performance Studies, Art and Visual Culture

.- Literary and Narrative Studies.

- Language and Translation Studies.

- Historical and Classical Studies.

- Religious Studies.

- Gender, Sexuality, Disability, and Intersectionality Studies

.- Critical Theory, Pedagogy and Epistemology.

- Spatial Studies.

- Migration and Diaspora Studies

.- Environmental Humanities (EH)

.- Digital Humanities (DH).

Submit your abstract in the format of a .doc or pdf document (max 300 words, size 12, double-spaced) to in.visibility@unive.it by 1 December 2025.The abstract should also include a title and three to five keywords. At the top of the document, indicate your name, email address, and institutional affiliation (if any).