Category: call for participation

CFP: Annual Graduate Student Conference in African-American History @ UMemphis

The Graduate Association for African-American History (GAAAH) at The
University of Memphis invites graduate students at all levels to submit
proposals for its 14th Annual Graduate Student Conference in
African-American History, to be held October 31-November 2, 2012, in
Memphis, Tennessee. We welcome the submission of individual papers,
complete sessions, workshops, and roundtables on all topics relating to the
scholarship and teaching of African-American/African Diaspora histories and
cultures. We encourage the participation of graduate students who represent
a broad range of disciplinary and methodological approaches.

Individual paper proposals should include a 300-word abstract, including a
paper title; author contact information; postal address and e-mail address;
and a brief curriculum vitae. The organizers of complete sessions should
send, in a single submission, abstracts and cvs for each of the paper
presenters; 200-word description of the session; and contact information
for all participants. Please list audio-visual requirements, if any.

This year’s conference will feature a keynote address from Dr. Deborah Gray
White, Professor of History at Rutgers University and the author of Ar’n’t
I A Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South (1985 and 1999), the
groundbreaking gendered analysis of the institution of slavery.
Additionally, she is the author of Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in
Defense of Themselves, 1984-1994 (1999) and Let My People Go:
African-Americans, 1804-1860 (1996).  Professors from area institutions
will serve as panel commentators and participate in a workshop on
professional development and the job market.

The submission deadline for proposals is September 22, 2012. A committee
of University of Memphis professors will consider all papers for the
“Memphis State Eight Paper Prize” which is awarded to the conference’s best
paper. The first place prize includes a monetary award. Second and third place
papers will also receive recognition.

Participants will be notified of acceptance by October 1, 2012, and
completed 10-12 page papers must be received no later than October 15,
2012.

Please submit all proposals by e-mail to GAAAH President Micki Kaleta.
gaaah.memphis@gmail.com or mykaleta@memphis.edu.

For questions, you also may call Ms. Kaleta at (901) 678-3395 or contact
GAAAH faculty advisors Dr. Arvin Smallwood at (901) 678-3869 and
asmallwd@memphis.edu or Dr. Ernestine Jenkins at
eljenkins@memphis.edu and ( 901) 678-3450.

CFP: The Last Generation of Black People @ The Liberator Magazine

 

http://weblog.liberatormagazine.com/2012/06/call-for-rigorous-pieces-that-are-or.html

CFP: Blk Art Group Research Project 30th Anniversary Conference @ Wolverhampton University

Blk Art Group Research Project

30th Anniversary Conference

Wolverhampton University

Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th October 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS

The conference aims to enable and share scholarship and research into the ‘Black Art Movement’, it’s core debates, precursors and legacies.

By bringing together artists, curators, historians and scholars we hope to add to the pool of knowledge surrounding the ‘black art movement’; to encourage those scholars already active in this field to further develop and share their work and to uncover work that may have gone unpublished or remain obscured.

This is a call for papers that contribute to the debate through the detailed and critical examination of a single work, body of work or group of works.  Whilst the conference aims to focus on the 80s, papers may include works that were produced prior to the 80s or later as long as there is a clear rationale for their consideration in this context.

Finished papers should be suitable for a presentation of approximately 20 minutes. We ask that abstracts of up to 300 words and a brief biography should reach us at blkartgroupresearchproject@gmail.com by Friday 20th July.

Continue reading “CFP: Blk Art Group Research Project 30th Anniversary Conference @ Wolverhampton University”

CFP: Journal of Art Historiography Special Issue on African Art

The *Journal of Art Historiography*, a peer reviewed journal (http://arthistoriography.wordpress.com),
is interested in producing a special issue on African art.

The discursive practice of African art history is at a crucial juncture, in which rising interest in African art from a global perspective intersects with a possible fragmentation of the field into divergent disciplines each with its own focus. The historiography of African visual arts itself confronts an cross-disciplinary problem identified by *Journal of Art Historiography* as a concern that “contemporary scholarship will forget its earlier legacy and neglect the urgency and rigour with which those early debates were conducted. The journal is therefore committed to studying art historical scholarship, in its institutional and conceptual foundations, from the past to the present in all areas and all periods”.

African art history is particularly in need of this historiographical examination, given the increasing distance between early scholarship and contemporary discourses. The last significant historiography of the field was carried out by the venerable Monni Adams in a classical essay titled “African Visual Arts from an Art Historical Perspective (*African Studies Review*, 32/2, 1989: 55-103), which formed a two part overview of African Studies published in journal, the other written by Paula Ben Amos.

Although African Arts has engaged the issue of African art’s discourse in various presentations in the journal to date, the kind of comprehensive analysis carried out by Monni Adams has largely been absent and is in dire need of
being updated, given how much has happened in the field in the two and half decades since the article was published. The *Journal of Historiography*’s special issue on African arts therefore provides a unique opportunity to revisit the history of art writing on the subject of African visual culture and create a critical dialogue between various generations of African art historians, which will ideally allow foundational research and writing to be subjected to contemporary knowledge practices.

I have been asked to serve as guest editor this proposed issue. I will like to invite proposals for articles on the subject and also appeal to the field to suggest important texts and documents that might be included in this special issue. Previous editions of the journal can be viewed on its website (http://arthistoriography.wordpress.com) for guidance on the Journal of Art Historiography’s focus and submission guidelines.

Please send proposals and suggestions to:

Prof. Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie
ogbechie@gmail.com
Guest Editor, *Journal of Art Historiography* Special Issue on African art

CFP: (In)appropriated Bodies Graduate Student Symposium @ Cornell

(In)appropriated Bodies
Cornell University Annual History of Art Graduate Student Symposium
Keynote Speaker: Amelia Jones, Art History & Communication Studies, McGill University
November 16-17, 2012
Ithaca, New York
Merriam-Webster defines appropriation as taking exclusive possession of something; setting it apart; assigning it to a particular purpose or use; and taking or making use of it without authority or right. This definition begs the question of whether it is inappropriate to appropriate, particularly when it comes to bodies.
This symposium aims to address how bodies have been appropriated in seemingly inappropriate ways. We are interested in improper, incorrect, perverse, and unsuitable uses of bodies that figure as unexpectedly apt creative strategies and political interventions. Artists have appropriated bodies, visual and corporeal, as a strategy to subvert established norms and meanings. Curators have categorized, displayed, and reconfigured imagery of bodies.  Furthermore, scholars have appropriated concepts of race, gender, nation or culture onto bodies to develop the socio-political discourses that surround them. In all of these cases, questions of inappropriateness often arise. However, these (in)appropriations also reveal themselves to be alternative forms of inquiry or representation that encourage new ways of seeing and speaking about bodies.
We invite graduate students of all disciplines to present papers on the appropriation of bodies by artists, curators, scholars which have been (or could be) considered inappropriate, and how this aspect of their work proves useful in expanding the ways we look at art and understand its significance and purpose in culture, society, politics and history. Possible approaches to the topic include, but are not limited to:
● Negotiation of identities (race, gender, class, and so on) through appropriation
● Subversion of power dynamics by appropriating identities
● Grafting of theoretical approaches on to bodies
● Past or present collections and displays of bodies
● Loss or theft of corporeal identity, ownership or originality
● Reenactments and portrayals of bodies in film, dance, video and performance
● Caricatures, stereotypes, and other visual misrepresentations in art or performance
● Reuse/revision of ignored, avoided or dismissed theoretical approaches to bodies
● Mimicry, quotation, or allusion as a creative strategy or concept
● Political and governmental co-optation of figural forms
Presentations for this two-day conference should be in English and 20 minutes in length. For those interested in participating, please email a 200-300 word abstract and c.v. by August 15, 2012 to cornellgradsymposium@gmail.com.

CFP: Inaugural Issue: Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies

“Emerging Paradigms in Critical Mixed Race Studies”
The Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies (JCMRS) is a peer-reviewed online journal dedicated to Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS). Launched in 2011, it is the first academic journal explicitly focused on Critical Mixed Race Studies. Sponsored by UC Santa Barbara’s Sociology Department, JCMRS is hosted on the eScholarship Repository, which is part of the eScholarship initiative of the California Digital Library. JCMRS functions as an open-access forum for critical mixed race studies scholars and will be available without cost to anyone with access to the Internet.
JCMRS is transracial, transdisciplinary, and transnational in focus and emphasizes the critical analysis of the institutionalization of social, cultural, and political orders based on dominant conceptions and constructions of race.
JCMRS emphasizes the constructed nature and thus mutability of race and the porosity of racial boundaries in order to critique processes of racialization and social stratification based on race. JCMRS addresses local and global systemic injustices rooted in systems of racialization.
Some questions to consider:
• Why Critical Mixed Race Studies rather than mixed ethnicity or mixed heritage?
• How does CMRS transform Ethnic Studies?
• What does CMRS mean in transnational contexts?
• What are some ways that CMRS can be institutionalized?
• How do foundational articles or books in CMRS resonate today?
• How does CMRS relate to the Multiracial Movement or social activism around mixed heritage identities?
• How does post-racial discourse factor into the development of CMRS?
• How is CMRS transdisciplinary or interdisciplinary?
Papers that were presented at the Inaugural Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference in 2010 are invited for revision and submission. JCMRS encourages both established and emerging scholars to submit articles throughout the year. Articles will be considered for publication on the basis of their contributions to important and current discussions in mixed race studies, and their scholarly competence and originality.
Submission Deadline: July 1, 2012
Submission Guidelines: Article manuscripts should range between 15-30 double-spaced pages, Times New Roman 12-point font, including notes and works cited, must follow the Chicago Manual of Style, and include an abstract (not to exceed 250 words).
Visit our website for complete submission guidelines and to submit an article:
http://escholarship.org/uc/ucsb_soc_jcmrs
Please address all inquiries to: socjcmrs@soc.ucsb.edu

CFP: African and its diasporas @ n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal

CALL FOR PAPERS
n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal
Volume 31: Africa and its diasporas (Jan 2013)
Guest Editor: Bisi Silva, independent curator and Director CCA, Lagos
(Copy deadline: 15 October 2012, to be published Jan 2013)

In the last two decades, there has been an exponential growth in the visibility of a new generation of women visual artists on or from the continent of Africa as well as a diversification not only in the medium but also in the breadth and complexity of the themes and issues with which they engage, which include the body, sexuality as well as questions of history, culture, patriarchy and post-colonialism. The aim of the volume is to look at women artists’ production across the over 50 countries that make up the continent of Africa as well as at African women artists working in Europe, South and North America and the Caribbean.  The African diaspora is diverse stretching across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, the Americas and across Europe.

Women artists from Africa, and of African descent, have been producing work which questions and challenges both their contemporary situation and their complex histories. This special volume will publish work which addresses these concerns and focuses on the cultural production of women artists who define themselves as black/African/Afro-Caribbean/Afro-American across the globe as well as first/second/third/and even fourth generations of immigrants in different countries. Contributions about contemporary art produced by women which reflect on the effects of the migration of African people around the world – during and after slavery – during and after Colonialism –pre- and post-1960s Independence – will be welcomed.

Critical essays as well as in-depth interviews offering a pan- or trans-African perspective on contemporary women artists (visual arts only, post-1970) will be welcomed from women artists or writers (art historians, critics and curators). We invite 300-400 words abstract by the 11th of June 2012 (Final contributions by Oct 15th 2012)

For more information about how to contribute please email Bisi Silva labisi22@gmail.com

About n.paradoxa
international feminist art journal
Founded in 1998, n.paradoxa publishes scholarly and critical articles written by women critics, art historians and artists on the work of contemporary women artists post-1970 (visual arts only) working anywhere in the world. Each thematic volume in print contains artists and authors from more than 10 countries in the world and explores their work in relation to feminist theory.

n.paradoxa is published bi-annually (January and July) in print as volume numbers (ISSN: 1461-0424). n.paradoxa is now available for sale in print and electronic forms by subscription. KT press is the publisher of n.paradoxa and operates as a not-for-profit publishing company whose aim is to promote understanding of women artists and their work.
Website: www.ktpress.co.uk

CFP: Subaltern Rising: Racialization and Visual Culture in the Wake of Independence @ CAA/ACRAH 2013

CFP: Subaltern Rising: Racialization and Visual Culture in the Wake of Independence
Association for Critical Race Art History (ACRAH) Sponsored Session
College Art Association Annual Conference
New York, February 13-16, 2013

Chair: José Esteban Muñoz, New York University

The years 2012 and 2013 mark fifty years of independence for dozens of former colonies across the globe. This panel is dedicated to the consideration of art and other forms of expressive culture at the moment of historical transition, especially as it was evident in the reconfigured  racialization of citizens, economies, geographies, and political systems.

Key regions of post-coloniality include the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Commissioned public monuments and state architecture; redrawn cities, renamed streets and other public spaces; and the establishment of cultural institutions—including national museums and libraries—were acts of autonomy in newly independent Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Algeria, and Western Samoa (all 1962), and elsewhere.

How was the burst of creativity among artists producing work for the state, reorganized marketplaces and other commercial venues, performance, and national pageants inevitably informed by the preceding colonial order? Which post-colonial strategies reflect symbolic and stylistic borrowings from the language of European modernism in general?

What comparisons and contrasts can be made with post-colonial art produced earlier in short India and Pakistan (1947); Sri Lanka (1948); Laos (1949); Cambodia (1953); Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, and Sudan (1956)? How do all these mid-twentieth century breaks from colonial and imperial rule influence subsequent visual and cultural programs in the Bahamas (1971), Suriname (1973), Papua New Guinea (1975), the Panama Canal Zone (1979), Australia and New Zealand (1986), and Eritrea (1993)?

Please submit a 350-word preliminary abstract and short CV (2 page maximum) in one MSWord or PDF file attachment to: acrah@ymail.com by May 11, 2012. Email submissions with one attachment only.

CAA membership is NOT required to participate in or attend the session.

CFP: African-American Popular Culture Area @ MPCA/ACA Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS
AFRICAN-AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE AREA CALL:

The African-American Popular Culture Area of the Midwest Popular Culture
Association/American Culture Association is seeking panel sessions,
papers, and proposals examining historical and/or contemporary aspects
of African-American popular culture including African American
stereotypes, icons, personas, artifacts, rituals, genres, holidays,
art forms (music, orature, dance, literature, visual art, television,
film, comic art, etc.), festivals, foodways, folklore and folklife,
practices, religion, and etc.

The 2012 MPCA/ACA Conference will be held in Columbus, Ohio
Friday, October 12 through Sunday, October 14, 2012 at the Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel

PROPOSAL INFORMATION: Submissions should be made electronically via
our online submission system at <http://mpcaaca.org/columbus-2012/2012-cfp/>.

(1) Complete/key-in your Contact Information as requested

followed by a (2) full Title.

(3) Select the African-American Popular Culture area
from the drop-down menu.

(4) Key-in (or cut-and-paste) a 250-word (or less) Abstract in the space provided. You may also attach a document with the .doc, .pdf, or .rtf extensions, if desired.

(5) You must indicate if you need a TV/DVD player for your presentation.

Also, if necessary, you may (6) indicate dates or times you are UNABLE to present.

NOTE: (a) The only audio-visual equipment available from the
Association will be a DVD player and monitor, and you must ask for it
at the time you submit your proposal. With appropriate preparation, a
DVD player can play audio, video, and still images.

(b) You must include the name, affiliation, and email address of each
author/participant.

(c) If you do not include an email address, you must include a postal address.

(d) If you wish your presentation to be listed as MACA (rather than MPCA), please include this request with your submission.

Deadline for receipt of proposals is Monday, April 30, 2012.

REGISTRATION AND MEMBERSHIP: All conference participants must be
members of the Midwest Popular Culture Association/Midwest American
Culture Association.

CONFERENCE INFORMATION: Conference panel sessions will run at the
following approximate times:
–Friday 2:30pm-7:30pm
–Saturday 8:30am-6:15pm
–Sunday 8:00am-1:00pm.

(The conference may begin at 12:45pm on Friday, if demand so dictates).

Special events will include two featured speakers and a cash-bar reception on Friday, October 12 and a luncheon which is scheduled on Saturday, October 13 from 12:00pm–1:30pm. These events, plus continental breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, will be free for conference registrants.

CFP: 2012 MESDA CONFERENCE on American Material Culture

CALL FOR PAPERS: 2012 MESDA CONFERENCE on American Material Culture
Deadline: May 15, 2012

The seventh biennial MESDA Conference for recent research in the field of early American material culture and decorative arts will take place on October 25-27, 2012 at the East Tennessee Historical Society in Knoxville, Tennessee. The conference provides the only major forum for scholarly presentation and interaction on American material culture and decorative arts with specific emphasis on the South. The MESDA Conference includes the Gordon Seminar, a day of presentations on a variety of topics in American material culture. The conference also includes a day of field trips to regional material culture sites and decorative arts collections in east Tennessee. Scholars and graduate students in American studies, southern studies, decorative arts and other fields as they relate to early southern material culture are invited to submit proposals. Papers are to be twenty minutes in length. Subjects with an interdisciplinary approach and with emphasis on the study of southern decorative arts and material culture are highly encouraged.

Proposals will be accepted for individual papers or for panel sessions. Paper proposals must include the author’s name, the paper title, a one‐page abstract, and the author’s curriculum vitae. Session proposals must include a chair, list of presenters, cover letter, a one‐page summary of the session theme, presenter curriculum vitae, and abstracts for all papers.

Deadline for proposals: May 15, 2012

Notification of acceptance will be received by June 15, 2012.

Accepted papers must be submitted in full by September 15, 2010.

Electronic submission in Word format is preferred. Submit emailed proposals to Sally Gant : sgant@oldsalem.org

Or send hard copies to:
Sally Gant, MESDA Conference
924 South Main Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27101

Phone: 336-721-7361 Fax: 336-721-7367

For conference information, visit MESDA.org/conference

Conference registrar Martha Ashley: 336-721-7360 or email MESDAPrograms@oldsalem.org