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{Home > About > Centers & Programs > IAP > Fellowships : Cristina Bresch}

Cristina Bresch

Cristina Bresch is a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric Department. She received the Medtronic Fellowship for 2003-2004.

Abstract:
This project is based on the premise that images are never innocent, that they create meaning, have power to do things in the world, and as such have important social consequences. Taking as a starting point methodologies of visual analysis outlined by Gillian Rose and Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, I will analyze a set of images that are pervading psychopharmaceutical discourse in order to gain a better understanding of the "cultural technologies" and ideologies at work in contemporary portrayal of sanity vs. insanity. I will look at specialized as well as popular publications in the US and Britain to contrast and compare different ways of building visual messages for different audiences. Hopefully, such an analysis can enrich the discussion over medical discourse in advertising in general and can be categorized as a study in the public understanding of science.