CFP: “The New Native American Art History” @ Int’l Congress of Americanists

“The New Native American Art History”

International Congress of Americanists
Vienna, Austria
July 15-20, 2012

Session Conveners:
Bill Anthes, Pitzer College
Carolyn Kastner, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Kate Morris, Santa Clara University

The symposium session “The New Native American Art History” has been accepted for inclusion at the 54^th International Congress of Americanists, to be held in Vienna in July of 2012 (see http://ica2012.univie.ac.at/ for more information on the Congress.)  This session explores the ways in which the field of Native American art history has been transformed since 1992, the “Year of Indigenous Peoples”.  In this watershed year, a number of “Columbian Quincentennial Response Shows” were mounted, bringing Native American art and culture to a new degree of public attention, and placing it in the context of a worldwide discourse on the legacies of European colonialism. Additionally, 1992 saw the publication of Janet Catherine Berlo’s The Early Years of Native American Art History. Compiled and published during a time of rapid change in the larger field of cultural studies, Berlo’s volume was reflective of a growing tendency toward disciplinary critique.

Today the study and display of Native American art has been transformed by the introduction of new theories of visual culture; post-colonial, global, and media studies; and by an emerging interest in indigenous epistemologies.  “The New Native American Art History” seeks to explore in detail some of these developments, incursions, and conflicts, and assess their impact in the development of a “new” history. We are interested in papers that address the theoretical, methodological and institutional changes and challenges of the past two decades.  These might include discussion and analysis of the passage in the United States of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act; the founding of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian; the formation of alternative spaces of exhibition such as tribal museums; the emergence of an “aboriginal curatorial perspective”; or consideration of the increasing visibility of Native American contemporary art provided by International Biennales.

Please submit a paper title and a 200-word abstract to  bill_anthes@pitzer.edu.

Deadline for submissions is August 15, 2011.

Author: Camara Dia Holloway

I am an art historian specializing in early twentieth century American art with particular focus on the history of photography, race and representation, and transatlantic modernist networks. I earned my PhD at Yale University in the History of Art Department. Besides my leadership role as the Founding Co-Director of the Association for Critical Race Art History (ACRAH), I am recognized for my expertise on African American Art, particularly African American Photography, and as a seasoned consultant for exhibitions, museum collections, and symposia/lectures planning. View all posts by Camara Dia Holloway