Category: conferences & symposia

CFP: “Colour Me Queer” Session @ AAH Conference, London

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Colour Me Queer

Association of Art Historians (AAH) 40th Annual Conference
Royal College of Art, London
​April 10-​12, 2014

While art history as a discipline has adopted a queer postcolonial gaze to trouble the canon, most ground-breaking scholarship on art and visual culture from queer racialized perspectives has been accomplished outside its borders—albeit with some notable exceptions, such as work by Kobena Mercer and Amelia Jones.

This session specifically aims to explore how art history might develop a vocabulary and methodology that speaks to better understand transnational, diasporic, indigenous and decolonial bodies alongside their gendered and sexualized lived experiences. Colo u​r Me Queer does not signify fixed/specific otherness, but rather functions as a politics that interrogates epistemological limits of race, gender and sexuality.

If art history has been largely resistant to exploring queer racialized visualities, what are the tools necessary to dismantle the conventions of knowledge production around art? How can a queer racialized gaze affect the relationship between visual analysis and knowledge production? Do newer forms of art such as performance, film, video, and installation (rather than older forms more burdened by western art history like painting and sculpture) lend themselves more easily to queer racialized visualities?

Overall, this session considers the stakes involved in queer racialized methodologies in visual analysis as well as the opportunity to interrogate canonical formation. Papers will not only assess what a queer racialized lens affords art history but correspondingly, what visual analysis provides queer racialized lived experiences.  What tropes and themes are incited when queer racialized visualities come to the fore? And finally, what might a queer racialized lens still occlude from critical analysis?

By November 11, please email a 250 word abstract of a proposed paper of 30 minutes, including your name and affiliation, to co-chairs:

  • Natasha Bissonauth, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, nb337@cornell.edu
  • Alpesh Kantilal Patel, Florida International University, Miami, alpesh.patel@fiu.edu.

 

SYMP: “American Art in Dialogue with Africa and its Diaspora” @ Smithsonian American Art Museum, Oct. 4 & 5, 2013

“American Art in Dialogue with Africa and its Diaspora”
Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and G Streets NW, McEvoy Auditorium, Washington, D.C.

Friday, October 4, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 5, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

This two-day symposium examines the role of Africa and its diaspora in the development of art of the United States, from nineteenth-century portraiture to American modernism; from the Harlem Renaissance to the contemporary art world. Speakers include Chika Okeke-Agulu of Princeton University, Krista Thompson of Northwestern University, Jeffrey Stewart of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Celeste-Marie Bernier of the University of Nottingham, James Smalls of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and artist and distinguished scholar David C. Driskell.

The full schedule is available at AmericanArt.si.edu/research/symposia/2013/terra.

Register at www.America-Africa.eventbrite.com.

This is the fourth of five Terra Symposia on American Art in a Global Context, which are supported by a generous grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

CFP: African Diasporas: Old and New @ University of Texas 2014

The University of Texas Africa Conference
African Diasporas: Old and New
April 3-6, 2014

We are now inviting scholars to submit conference papers and full panel
proposals for the 2014 conference on African Diasporas: Old and New. The
goal of this conference is to create an interdisciplinary dialogue
concerning Africa and Africans throughout the world from both historical
and contemporary approaches. This conference seeks to bring together a vast
array of scholars on a variety of academic levels to discuss the complex
experiences of African descended peoples across the globe.

What is the African Diaspora? How are old and new diasporas discussed in a
variety of disciplines? How can we conceptualize the African Diaspora? What
is the role of the African Diaspora in modern politics? How do various
groups within old and new African diasporas conceptualize themselves in
relation to others? How do diasporic voices shape conceptualizations of
individual and collective identities? What will the African diaspora look
like in the future?

Some potential topics may include:****

  • Human rights in the African Diaspora
  • Identity politics in the African Diaspora****
  • Conceptualizations of Diaspora****
  • The concept of homeland****
  • Reverse migrations****
  • Transnationalism, immigration, and citizenship****
  • Expressive culture in the African Diaspora****
  • Historiographical debates on the African Diaspora****
  • Religion, traditional culture, and creolization in the African Diaspora****
  • New Media and social media in the African Diaspora****
  • Slavery and the African Diaspora****
  • Kinship****
  • Indian Ocean networks****
  • Trans Saharan Trade****
  • Colonialism, labor, and the African Diaspora****
  • New Diaspora history****
  • Migration and memory****
  • International politics in the African diaspora****
  • Cultural expressions of political realities, including political protest in the forms of music, literature, film, art, etc., both in Africa and throughout the Diaspora
  • Forms of transnational political protest in the African Diaspora

As with all our previous conferences, participants will be drawn from
different parts of the world. Submitted papers will be assigned to
particular panels according to similarities in theme, topic, discipline, or
geographical location. Papers can also be submitted together as a panel.
Additionally, selected papers will be published in book form.

This conference also has a commitment to professional development which
will be fostered through workshops in writing, publishing, and conference
presentation. The conference will also provide ample time for professionals
from various disciplines and geographical locations to interact, exchange
ideas, and receive feedback. Graduate students are especially encouraged to
attend and present papers and will be partnered with a senior scholar to
encourage their own growth as scholars.

The deadline for submitting paper proposals is November 31, 2013. Proposals
should include a 250-word abstract and title, as well as the author’s name,
address, telephone number, email address, and institutional affiliation.

Please submit all abstracts to Cacee Hoyer/Danielle Sanchez:
africaconference2014@gmail.com

A mandatory non-refundable registration fee of $150 for scholars and $100
for graduate students must be paid immediately upon the acceptance of the
abstract. This conference fee includes admission to the panels, workshops,
and special events, as well as transportation to and from the conference
from the hotel, breakfast for three days, dinner on Friday night, lunch on
Saturday, and a banquet on Saturday evening.

The University of Texas at Austin does not provide participants with any
form of funding support, travel expenses, or boarding expenses. If the
conference obtains outside funding this will be used to help subsidize
graduate students’ accommodations on a competitive basis but it is not
guaranteed.

Convened by Dr. Toyin Falola****
Coordinated by Cacee Hoyer and Danielle Sanchez

CFP: “Making Art In/About/For Cities in Crisis” Session @ Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Making Art In/About/For Cities in Crisis
45th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 3-6, 2014
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Host: Susquehanna University

This session seeks to promote cross-disciplinary discussion of the roles
verbal and visual art might play in the 21st-century American city. On the
heels of the Great Recession, cities are undergoing massive
transformations, with some gaining new prominence by attracting
what Richard Florida calls “creative class” workers while others,
particularly in the industrial Midwest and overbuilt South and Southwest,
seem to be in irreversible decline. In collaboration with government and
business leaders, architects and urban designers are arranging the physical
environments of cities on the rise to further accelerate and intensify
economic growth. At the same time, writers and artists are flocking to
cities at the other end of the spectrum—Detroit, most prominently—creating
collectives and workshops reminiscent of the 1960s poetry and art scenes in
cities like Los Angeles and New York. Are we, as Sarah Schulman argues in
The Gentrification of the Mind, on the leading edge of another wave of
appropriation and displacement, with writers and artists merely leading the
way? Can anything save cities from capitalism’s tendency toward creative
destruction? Do they need to be saved? Is there a critique from art or
aesthetic theory that might be put in productive dialogue with economic and
cultural approaches to urban problems? When will the new generation of
urban artists break through and in which media?

Send 250-word abstracts with contact and affiliation information to Nate Mickelson,
mickelsonjn@yahoo.com by September 30, 2013.

About the Conference:

The 2014 NeMLA convention continues the Association’s tradition of sharing
innovative scholarship in an engaging and generative location. This capitol
city set on the Susquehanna River is known for its vibrant restaurant
scene, historical sites, the National Civil War museum, and nearby Amish
Country, antique shops and Hershey Park.  NeMLA has arranged low hotel
rates of $104-$124.

The 2014 event will include guest speakers, literary readings, professional
events, and workshops. A reading by George Saunders will open the
Convention. His 2013 collection of short fiction, The Tenth of
December, has been acclaimed by the New York Times as: “the best
book you’ll read this year.” NeMLA’s Keynote Speaker will be David Staller,
Producer and Director of Project Shaw. Mr. Staller presents monthly
script-in-hand performances of Bernard Shaw’s plays at the Players Club in
New York City.

Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA
session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar).
Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at
a creative session or participate in a roundtable.

http://www.nemla.org/convention/2014/cfp.html

 

SYMP: American Art in Dialogue with Africa and its Diaspora @ Smithsonian American Art Museum, October 4-5, 2013

American Art in Dialogue with Africa and its Diaspora

Smithsonian American Art Museum | Eighth and G Streets NW, Washington, D.C.

October 4-5, 2013

This symposium examines the role of Africa and the African Diaspora in the development of art of the United States, from nineteenth-century portraiture to American modernism; from the Harlem Renaissance to the contemporary art world. Speakers include Chika Okeke-Agulu of Princeton University, Krista Thompson of Northwestern University, Jeffrey Stewart of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Celeste-Marie Bernier of the University of Nottingham, James Smalls of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and artist and distinguished scholar David C. Driskell. A full schedule is listed below. For more information, visit AmericanArt.si.edu/research/symposia/2013/terra/.

The event is free, but registration is required at www.America-Africa.eventbrite.com. The symposium will be available through a simultaneous webcast; an archived version will remain online indefinitely. Recordings of past symposia including “Encuentros: Artistic Exchange between the U.S. and Latin America” and “East-West Interchanges in American Art” are now available on the museum’s website, ArtBabble, YouTube, and iTunes U.

Continue reading “SYMP: American Art in Dialogue with Africa and its Diaspora @ Smithsonian American Art Museum, October 4-5, 2013”

First Exposure Symposium at Northeastern University, Friday, April 26, 2013

nikkigphd's avatarNikki G Ph.D.

Image

I am very excited about presenting another installment on my ruminations on FUNK at the inaugural symposium of First Exposure, the culmination of a full academic year of reading, meeting, and discussing scholarship in The Dark Room: A Faculty Seminar on Race and Visual Culture, primarily convened at Northeastern University through the rigorous efforts of Assistant Professor of English, Kimberly Juanita Brown. My paper is titled, “Personifying Funk: Lessons Learned from Adrian Piper and Renée Stout,” wherein I will discuss how both artists embodied funk, physically and philosophically in such a way as to resist the limitations of the “triple negation of colored women artists.” I will consider Piper’s Funk Lessons and Renée Stout’s Fetish #2 and her personas, in particular.

There are so many brilliant topics by scholars from across the country with keynote addresses by María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Saidiya Hartman. This symposium will be invigorating and enlightening…

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Conference: Encounters, Affinities, Legacies – the 18th Century in the Present Day

CONF: Black Collectivities @ Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

May 3–4, 2013

How do collaboratives created by cultural practitioners of African descent provide new perceptions, understandings, and forms of practice? This conference brings together key individuals from around the globe, including Otolith Group cofounder Kodwo Eshun, artists Theaster Gates and Rick Lowe, musician George Lewis, and Tate Gallery curator Elvira Dyangani Ose, among others, to broach this timely question. Organized by Huey Copeland, Associate Professor at Northwestern, and Naomi Beckwith at the MCA.

On Friday at the Block Museum, Kodwo Eshun and Rick Lowe provide the keynote conversation, moderated by Naomi Beckwith. All other speakers listed below are featured in conversations on Saturday at the MCA, along with a conference wrap up panel moderated by Huey Copeland.

Conference participants include:

http://www2.mcachicago.org/event/event-past-10/

SYMP: Women in American Art @ PAFA

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013

In conjunction with The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World │ November 17, 2012 – April 7, 2013

PAFA Graduate Student  Symposium: Women in American Art


10:00 am – 4:00 pm, Auditorium in the Historic Landmark Building
This graduate symposium offers an opportunity for area graduate students to present new research on a particular artist or group of artists in American Art. Featuring original papers presented by graduate-level students at the University of Delaware, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Princeton University, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Temple University, the program will conclude with a panel discussion by illustrious scholars of American Art. (Act 48 credit available for educators.)

Registration: $15 (includes admission). Free for members.

Register online

http://www.pafa.org/museum/Education/General-Adult-Audiences/Symposia/1286/

 

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

10:00 a.m.       Welcome and Opening Remarks, Dr. Robert Cozzolino

10:30 a.m.       Interior Exposures:Women and the Practice of Home Portraiture, 1885-1920 (Marina Isgro, University of Pennsylvania)

10:55 a.m.       Super Housekeeping? Dorothy C. Miller’s Curatorial Career at MoMA (Karli Wurzelbacher, University of Delaware)

11:20 a.m.       Circulating Abstraction: The Portability and Commercial Success of Women Artists’ Abstract Expressionist Prints (Christina Weyl, Rutgers University)

11:45 a.m.       Q & A, Moderated by Curator of Historical American Art at PAFA, Dr. Anna O. Marley

12:15 p.m.       Lunch Break

1:00 p.m.         Curators and Educators available for conversation in PAFA’s Historic Cast Hall, the Permanent Collection, and The Female Gaze exhibition

 

2:00 p.m.         The ‘Dumb’ Objects of Vija Celmins (Frances Jacobus-Parker, Princeton University)

2:25 p.m.         Where It Was, I Shall Come To Be: Shadows and Absences in The Female Gaze Show (Abby King, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts)

2:50 p.m.         She Works Hard for the Money: Flashy Patterns and Glittering Surfaces by Mickalene Thomas (Sophie Sanders, Tyler School of Art, Temple University)

3:15 p.m.         Q & A, moderated by Senior Curator and Curator of Modern Art at PAFA, Dr. Robert Cozzolino

 

3:45 p.m.         Faculty Roundtable Response  including Michael Leja (University of Pennsylvania), Camara Holloway (University of Delaware), Joan Marter (Rutgers University), Rachael DeLue (Princeton University), Jennifer Zwilling (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts) and Susanna Gold (Tyler School of Art, Temple University).

CONF: Mapping: Geography, Power, and the Imagination in the Art of the Americas @ NYU

March 7-8, 2013

Focusing on the North and South American landscape in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the conference will explore mapping as a conceptual and artistic practice from a hemispheric perspective. While scholarship has generally used the date of 1900 and the border between the United States and Mexico to mark distinct fields, this event seeks to foster a dialogue between disciplines traditionally separated by such temporal and geographic boundaries. How can the “map” as an intellectual model both unite diverse cultures and modes of knowledge as well as highlight their differences? Though maps are often taken as straightforward, objective configurations, they can also expose deeply subjective frameworks with social, political, and economic significance. Whether considering mapping as a traditional cartographic system representing the land or as a contemporary scientific approach to visualizing the body, maps allow for the unique diagramming of relationships between people and spaces, objects and time, vision and knowledge. The conference will use the concept of map-making as “world-making” in order to examine the ways in which power, place, and cultural traditions intersect and come into conflict.

Organized by Jennifer Raab (IFA/Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, 2011 – 2013) with Kara Fiedorek and Elizabeth Frasco (IFA Ph.D. students)

For a detailed conference agenda with abstracts:
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/research/mellon/mellon-mapping.htm

This event will be streamed live on:
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/events/livestream.htm

PARTICIPANTS:

Keynote Speakers:
Jennifer L. Roberts (Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University)
Irene V. Small (Assistant Professor of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University)

Curatorial Roundtable:
Richard Aste (Curator of European Art, Brooklyn Museum)
Peter John Brownlee (Associate Curator, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago)
Dennis Carr (Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Deborah Cullen (Director and Chief Curator, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University)
Georgiana Uhlyarik (Assistant Curator, Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Ontario)

Graduate Student Speakers:
Cabelle Ahn (Courtauld Institute of Art)
Layla Bermeo (Harvard University)
Lauren Jacks Gamble (Yale University)
Sean Nesselrode (Institute of Fine Arts, New York University)
Gabriela Piñero (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City)
D. Jacob Rabinowitz (Institute of Fine Arts, New York University)
Caroline Riley (Boston University)
Oliver Shultz (Stanford University)
Catalina Valdés Echenique (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris)

RSVP
This event is open to the public, but an RSVP is required. To make a reservation for this event, please click here:
http://tinyurl.com/IFAmapping
Your RSVP will apply to both days of the conference. Please note that seating in the Lecture Hall is on a first-come first-served basis with RSVP. A reservation does not guarantee a seat in the lecture hall. We will provide a simulcast in an adjacent room to accommodate overflow. This event will also be streamed online.

This conference is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.