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Updates from The International Visual Literacy Association
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IVLA 2025: Pre-Conference Keynote Speakers Announced
First Live Stream: August 13, 2025
Dear Visual Literacy Colleague,
We are thrilled to announce the first keynote speakers for the IVLA 2025 Conference, hosted by The University of Aguascalientes. Although our conference sessions will take place on the ground in Aguascalientes, Mexico. from October 31-November 2, we will be featuring speakers and events through online offerings leading up to the in-person conference dates.
This year, we have an exceptional lineup of thought leaders and innovators who will share their insights and expertise in visual literacy, focused around this year's theme, "The Power of Images in Sacred and Festive Spaces".
We hope you can join us online for our first keynote speaker, Dr. Melissa Ballesteros-Mejía on August 13, 2025. Read more about our upcoming speakers below.
Don’t miss out on this chance to connect with peers, learn from industry leaders, and stay updated on the latest advancements in visual literacy. Details on conference registration can be found below.
With gratitude,
Justin Baker-Rojas, M.S., CSMP
Director of Communications
International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA)
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SAVE THE DATE
AUGUST 13, 2025 at 11:00 AM (US CENTRAL TIME) (UTC -5)
Melissa Ballesteros-Mejía is a Colombian researcher, educator, and product designer with a PhD in Economics and Business. Her interdisciplinary work explores the intersections between visual communication, research-creation, and knowledge transfer, with a strong emphasis on how images contribute to learning, critical thinking, and innovation across diverse contexts. She is an Associate Professor at Universidad El Bosque and director of the Design, Image and Communication research group, where she leads projects that integrate visual literacy, participatory methodologies, and intercultural approaches to foster collaborative knowledge production. Melissa advocates for recognizing visual and creative forms of inquiry within academic research systems and promotes visual literacy as a catalyst for educational transformation and social engagement.
ABOUT THE TALK
Visual Literacy and Research-Creation: Toward a Configurative Paradigm of Knowledge
This conversation proposes that research-creation enables the emergence of a configurative paradigm of knowledge—one that remains under-recognized within traditional research frameworks. Unlike descriptive or explanatory paradigms, the configurative paradigm does not aim to represent or decode reality, but to intervene in it through visual, material, and sensorial composition. From this perspective, the image is not merely a tool for communication or illustration, but an active agent in the configuration of meaning and in the transformation of what is being explored. Drawing from my recent work on visual-based methods and visual literacy, and in dialogue with interdisciplinary approaches, I will reflect on how practices involving the visual allow us not only to produce knowledge but to inhabit, embody, and reshape it through the senses. Visual literacy thus emerges as a critical and creative path for exploring and transforming the world through what we choose to make visible.
AUGUST 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM (US CENTRAL TIME) (UTC -5)
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WATCH THE TALK LIVE
AUGUST 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM (US CENTRAL TIME) (UTC -5)
Marita Ibañez Sandoval is a researcher and image-maker from Lima, Peru, based in Ibaraki, Japan. She works at the intersection of photomedia, landscapes, and visual literacy, using visual participatory methods to study migration and landscape transformation. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Photomedia at the University of Tsukuba, where she also earned an M.Sc. in Kansei Design. Her work with Latin American migrant communities in Japan has been presented in academic and artistic contexts across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. She manages the photographic studio and darkrooms at the University of Tsukuba.
ABOUT THE TALK
Mending Landscapes: Collaborative Practices for Visual Inquiry
This work examines how Latin American migrants in the city of Jōsō, Japan, negotiate identity and belonging through photomediated participatory methods, including photowalks, photoelicitation, and photomontage. From a practice-led approach, the study engages with photomedia to reflect on the relationships between migrant communities and the landscape, transcultural identities, and everyday presence. The idea of mending, both as a concept and as a method, offers a way to work with disconnection, absence, and recomposition in the context of migration. Photomontage (as a form of mending) is approached as both a technique and a mode of inquiry, especially with topics that are difficult to engage in conversation. The resulting photomontages do not aim to resolve or unify, but rather to hold together the diverse perspectives and dynamics of migrant life in Japan; contributing to broader debates on how participatory research can address questions of representation, visual literacy, and intercultural dialogue in contexts marked by mobility and unequal access.
AUGUST 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM (US CENTRAL TIME) (UTC -5)
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WATCH THE TALK LIVE
SEPTEMBER 8, 2025 at 11:00 AM (US CENTRAL TIME) (UTC -5)
Lourdes Adriana Paredes Quiroz is a historian and sociocultural researcher based in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociocultural Studies, an M.A. in Social and Humanistic Research, and a B.A. in History from the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. A member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers, her work explores funerary art, public health, and visual culture in 19th-century Mexico, with a focus on civil cemeteries, hygiene, and representations of death during the Porfiriato.
She teaches at the University of the Arts of the Cultural Institute of Aguascalientes and the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, offering courses on iconography, art history, ethnochoreology, and research methods. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges historical analysis with visual interpretation. In 2018, she received the Best Paper Award in Art and Culture at the Eighth International Congress of Postgraduate Research for her contributions to cultural history.
ABOUT THE TALK
Funerary Monuments in the State of Aguascalientes, 1875–1930. Visual discourses of life after death.
This conference will present the iconographic types of funerary monuments in Aguascalientes cemeteries built between 1875 and 1930. The erection of a monument was the final stage of 19th-century funerary rituals. These works captured the beliefs about life after death, the virtues that the deceased demonstrated in life, and the sacred images that accompanied their remains until the day of final judgment. Funerary monuments allow us to understand the artistic styles of the Porfirian period, the influence of the foreign community on the production and manufacture of funerary art, which today forms part of the state's cultural heritage.
AUGUST 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM (US CENTRAL TIME) (UTC -5)
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REGISTRATION
IVLA 2025: Aguascalientes, Mexico
DATES
Join us for the 57th Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association, set to be held in person from October 31 - November 2.
CONFERENCE HOST AND THEME:
This year’s conference, hosted by The Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, revolves around the theme “The Power of Images in Sacred and Festive Spaces.”
REGISTRATION OPTIONS:
- Regular member: $400
- Regular non-member: $475
SESSION SCHEDULE
We've accepted some great proposals for this year's conference. Take a look at the complete schedule here.
TRAVEL AND HOTEL INFORMATION:
Visit the official conference page for expanded information on this year's conference, including conference rates on local hotels and travel advisories.
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