Visual Studies in and on Southeastern Europe

Over the past few decades, visual studies have emerged as a vibrant interdisciplinary field,deeply influenced by the media and technological revolutions of recent years. The latestvolume of Ethnologia Balkanica, published for the first time in an online format as a guestissue in Contemporary Southeastern Europe (CSE), focuses on visual culture withinSoutheastern Europe. This issue explores the role of visual media (ranging from photographyto film and documentary) in shaping and reflecting questions of power, representation, gender,identity, and memory in Southeast Europe. The focus is specifically on images—both staticand moving—with attention divided between their representational power (content analysis)and broader considerations such as their materiality, social biographies, and the ways in whichthey function as carriers of memory. Despite the growing prominence of visual studies,Southeast European scholarship has often lagged in fully embracing visual methodologies,still relying heavily on textual sources. This issue aims to bridge that gap, offering diverseperspectives on how visual culture informs the understanding of identity, history, and powerin the region.