“Triumph in My Song: 18th & 19th Century African Atlantic Culture, History, & Performance” being held at the University of Maryland from May 31-June 2, 2012. Information about the conference, including the daily schedule, transportation and lodging recommendations, roommate-finding opportunities, and conference registration forms, is available at: http://www.wix.com/hnathans/sea2012conference
If you have questions about the conference or any trouble with the registration forms, please email us at: seaconference2012@gmail.com.
The conference features a range of national and international scholars and artists. Our line-up includes a colloquy with 2010 Hubbell Medal winner, Frances Smith Foster, on her recent study, ‘Til Death or Distance Do Us Part: Love and Marriage in African America. We will also present several performance events, including the award-winning DC-area company, Theatre J in The Whipping Man. Matthew Lopez’s The Whipping Man is the winner of the 2011 John Gassner Playwriting Award by the NY Outer Critics Circle and has been described by the New York Times as “Emotionally potent…surreal in the layers of meaning…a quiet force.”
This conference is being supported by the Society of Early Americanists, the American Society for Theatre Research, the School of Theatre Dance, and Performance Studies and the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland, and the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora.
POLO S: Reorienting the Visual Culture of the Early Americas
Friday & Saturday, April 13-14, 2012
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies
University of Pennsylvania
3355 Woodland Walk Philadelphia, PA 19104
Organized by Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, History of Art, University of Pennsylvania.
In 1936 and 1943, the Uruguayan artist Joaquin Torres García made two related
drawings both of which depict the continent of South America from a southern
perspective. With the cardinal direction of “Polo S” written across the top of
the continent, the artist implored his modernist contemporaries in the Southern
Cone to reconsider their perspective on the geographic location of the
contemporary avant garde impulse. By invoking Torres García’s radical move,
this international and interdisciplinary conference takes as its mission an
exploration of the theoretical, regional, methodological, and subjective
problems encountered by scholars who are currently working on the “early”
visual and material culture of the southern United States, the Caribbean, and
South America. It is therefore an attempt to identify the shared challenges
that researching and writing about objects produced in these locations prior to
1850 might present in a moment of de-centered intellectual discourse, not unlike
the one that Torres García critiqued in the middle of the last century.
Schedule:
***
Friday, April 13, McNeil Center for Early American Studies
3:30pm – 5:00pm
Keynote:
Marcus Wood, University of Sussex
“Exploding Archives: Slavery in the Americas and the Limits of Recoverability, Some Thoughts Outside the Box”
5:00pm – 7:00pm, Reception, Arthur Ross Gallery, 34th Street, Inside the Fisher
Fine Arts Library.
***
Saturday, April 14, McNeil Center for Early American Studies
9:00am – 9:30am: COFFEE
9:30am – 11:00am: SESSION ONE
Dennis Carr, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Asia and the New World: Global Exchange and Artistic Influence in the Colonial Americas”
Mónica Domínguez Torres, University of Delaware
“Visualizing the Americas Upside Down and Inside Out: The Indigenous Subject as Agent”
11:00am – 11:15am: COFFEE
11:15am – 1:00pm: SESSION TWO
Regina Root, College of William & Mary
“Beautiful Fragments: Women, Space and Presence in Postcolonial Argentina”
Tamara J. Walker, University of Pennsylvania
“Pancho Fierro and the Color of Elegance in Nineteenth-Century Lima, Peru.”
1:00pm – 2:30pm: LUNCH
2:30pm – 4:30pm SESSION THREE
Maurie McInnis, University of Virginia
“The High Price of Virginian Luxuries”
Charmaine Nelson, McGill University
“Sugar Cane, Slaves and Ships: Nineteenth-century Landscape Art as Pro-Slavery Discourse”
Amanda Bagneris, Tulane University
“Ambiguous Bodies and the Reading of Race in the Paintings of Agostino Brunias”
4:30pm – 6:00pm: RECEPTION
*****
The symposium is funded by grants from the University of Pennsylvania’s Mellon
Initiative for Cross-Cultural Contacts and the Terra Foundation for American
Art and is supported by the History of Art Department, Africana Studies, Latin
American and Latino Studies, and the Arthur Ross Gallery.
Session Chair: Julia R. Myers Ph.D., Eastern Michigan University
Email: jmyers@emich.edu
While American art history tends to be fairly parochial with its emphasis on East Coast artists, African American art history seems to suffer even more strongly from this bias. This session will be devoted to African-American artists or art institutions in the Midwest. The Great Migration from 1913-1949 brought hundreds of thousands of black Americans to Midwest industrial cities like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. And some of these people and their descendents made art. Indeed on a trip to Detroit in 1964, Langston Hughes said, “Harlem used to be the Negro cultural center of America. If Detroit has not already become so, it is well on its way to becoming it.” Literary historians have frequently taken up the topic of Midwestern African-American writers, but this is far less true in the case of black visual artists. In line with the conference’s content session of Community and Collaboration, papers treating African American mural projects in the Midwest are especially encouraged, as are papers dealing with the educational outreach activities of artists and art institutions. However, all papers dealing with Midwestern African-American art from all time periods, colonial to the present, are welcomed for consideration.
As I mentioned in my post on Thinking About the Country House, there has been a great deal of interest in this subject area over the last two years or so. Present excitement is reflected in television shows like Downton Abbey which portray upstairs/downstairs divides and socio-economic themes of Britain in the early twentieth century. Such is public interest in these elements of country house living, that many houses open to the public feel the need to show their ‘secret’ rooms and dark domestic quarters for a short time each year.
There has also been a flourish of interest in the grander apartments, perhaps to counterbalance the austere or the uncharacteristic calm of the kitchens, pantries and nurseries. Restored pieces of furniture are celebrated and entire rooms have been in receipt of funding in order to return them to a key moment in their history. This sort of activity has eventually led a few British academic institutions to consider the thought processes of country house owners in creating their homes. This has in turn prompted debate on the wider position of the country house, in Britain particularly, through themes of trade, politics and even military presence.
The University of Warwick’s three year project on The East India Company at Home, 1757-1857 is one of these resulting debates. The main purpose of the project is to explore the significance of the country house in an imperial and global context by uniting relevant houses, families, and material culture by means of one detailed study. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust and led by Professor Margot Finn, in the Department of History at Warwick, the project ‘seeks to work in collaboration with family and local historians, curators, academics and other researchers to illuminate Britain’s global material culture from the eighteenth century to the present.’
It has become quite a large undertaking, and so far the project team have amassed a great deal of material to present on their website. Arguably, some of it is rather more general country house reference material, but nonetheless, for anyone interested in British country houses, this is a must-see.
The project has five main objectives:
i) to produce a series of interlinked case studies,
ii) to situate the Asian goods that furnished Georgian and Victorian homes,
iii) to illuminate the ways in which material culture helped to mediate wider historical processes,
iv) to assess the ways in which Asian luxuries incorporated within British country houses expressed regional, national and global identities,
v) and to integrate academic and museum-based research on the global genealogies of British country house interiors.
It does sound very long-winded for anyone outside academic study, or with a general interest. What the website for the project can do, however, is provide a platform for further reading. For example, over the term of the project there will be a series of published studies on individual houses. The first ‘went live’ this week – Swallowfield Park, Berkshire. With separate sections to leaf through, and a full PDF of the case study to download, there is plenty to get into. Crucially, the study is comprehensive enough to include histories of architecture, family, design, and fine art. There are several pages to navigate through, and the illustrations are wonderful! Especially as the house is now owned by Sunley Heritage, a company which converts country houses into luxury apartments.
Swallowfield Park, Berkshire. (From the East India Company at Home project website)
Clearly there are a lot of minds working on this project, and a lot of thought has gone into making this fully accessible. It may be academic, but this has not made it exclusive or entirely high-brow. I would even suggest that many more academic institutions could take heed of this method of promoting similar research, as it would definitely benefit those hungry to discover more about specialist areas of heritage study.
POLO S: Reorienting the Visual Culture of the Early Americas
Friday & Saturday, April 13-14, 2012
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies
University of Pennsylvania 3355 Woodland Walk Philadelphia, PA 19104
Organized by Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, History of Art, University of
Pennsylvania.
In 1936 and 1943, the Uruguayan artist Joaquin Torres García made
two related drawings both of which depict the continent of South America
from a southern perspective. With the cardinal direction of “Polo S”
written across the top of the continent, the artist implored his
modernist contemporaries in the Southern Cone to reconsider their
perspective on the geographic location of the contemporary avant garde
impulse. By invoking Torres García’s radical move, this international and
interdisciplinary conference takes as its mission an exploration of the
theoretical, regional, methodological, and subjective problems encountered
by scholars who are currently working on the “early” visual and material
culture of the southern United States, the Caribbean, and South America. It
is therefore an attempt to identify the shared challenges that researching
and writing about objects produced in these locations prior to 1850 might
present in a moment of de-centered intellectual discourse, not unlike the
one that Torres García critiqued in the middle of the last century.
Keynote:
Marcus Wood, University of Sussex
Participants:
Amanda Bagneris, Tulane University
Dennis Carr, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mónica Domínguez Torres, University of Delaware
Maurie McInnis, University of Virginia
Charmaine Nelson, McGill University
Regina Root, College of William & Mary
Tamara J. Walker, University of Pennsylvania
The symposium is funded by grants from the University of Pennsylvania’s
Mellon Initiative for Cross-Cultural Contacts and the Terra Foundation for
American Art, and is supported by the History of Art Department, Africana
Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, and the Arthur Ross Gallery.
Faith, Identity, and History: Representations of Christianity in Modern and Contemporary African American Art
Although sometimes overlooked, Christian symbols, themes, and narratives have been employed in complex and divergent ways in works of art by African Americans. Coinciding with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ exhibition, Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, this symposium focuses on intersections of faith, identity, and history in a broad range of works created by modern and contemporary African American artists. Scholarly papers explore artists’ uses of Christian symbols, themes, and motifs relating to issues of family and community and to the negotiation of race and class.
Friday March 23, 2012
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Saturday March 24, 2012
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Early Registration (received before March 14) $55
Late/Day of Registration $65
Students with valid Institutional ID $45
Registration at http://christianityhistoryart.org
Symposium co-chairs: Nikki A. Greene, Emily Hage, James Romaine
CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR ACASA-SPONSORED PANELS
ASA 56th Annual Meeting
Philadelphia
November 29-December 2, 2012
DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 1, 2012
ADDRESS: Send proposals electronically to Steven Nelson, ACASA President nelsons@humnet.ucla.edu
Conference Theme: “Research Frontiers in the Study of Africa”
ACASA sponsors two panels at ASA’s annual meeting. We invite proposals for panels in all areas of the study of the arts of Africa, and we welcome submissions from professionals and scholars at all stages of their careers. Proposals are particularly encouraged that focus on this year’s theme of “Research Frontiers in the Study of Africa,” which is expanded upon below:
Studying Africa often comes with an acute consciousness of challenges both in the societies we study and in the immediate institutional contexts in which we do our work. That consciousness is justified, but it often consigns us to only muted joys when we in fact ought to allow ourselves more. Africa continues to be compelling as both subject and object of knowledge, thanks to the composite of the profound transformations currently going on, the immense creativity of the people, and the innumerable challenges of diverse local and global origins that frame those developments. This dynamism has tasked and frayed our theories, not because the continent is strange or abnormal but because our theories and methods could be much more supple, more vibrant, and more educated. This situation calls for thinking at the limits, at the frontiers, and beyond, and here are some questions to start with: Where are the research frontiers in our different fields today? Which frontiers have only just been opened and will soon emerge as major research fields? What is a research frontier and under what academic, funding, social, and political contexts is it created? How are research frontiers consolidated, made hegemonic or subordinate, and disarticulated? By which means are we advancing the frontiers in developing our methods of data collection and analysis? How do we work, and thrive, at the frontier at a time of diminishing resources? Let us collectively begin to explore these issues and many more at the 2012 ASA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
REQUIREMENTS:
A panel typically has a chair, three or four paper presenters, and a discussant. A panel proposal consists of the panel title, the panel abstract, and titles and abstracts for each paper presenter, including their contact information (institutional affiliation, email address, telephone number, and address). The panel abstract should consist of a statement about the topic and a brief summary of the main argument(s) to be explored (no more than 250 words). The quality of the panel abstracts is the main criterion for acceptance; a panel with a weak abstract or with two or more weak paper abstracts is unlikely to be accepted.
Please note that all participants on a panel must be members of BOTH ACASA and ASA. For those panels accepted by ACASA, panelists must be preregistered for the annual meeting before the panel proposal can be submitted, including the panel chair and discussant.
AUDIO VISUAL EQUIPMENT:
Due to the rapidly increasing costs charged by hotels for AV equipment, the ASA is unable to provide projection or sound equipment. However, each meeting room will have a screen and presenters are welcome to bring their own equipment. The ASA understands the importance of AV support for many presenters and the Association is working to develop strategies to facilitate AV support for future conferences.
Black (Inter)Nationalism, Identity, and Art at ASA 2012
The ASA’s 2012 annual meeting will be held November 15-18 in San Juan,
Puerto Rico. We are seeking PANELISTS and a CHAIRPERSON/COMMENTER to join
in an exploration of the manner in which arts, letters, and activism have
communicated various ideas of black identity across global/local
trajectories. In keeping with the American Studies Association’s 2012
theme, “Dimensions of Empire and Resistance,” we wish to probe the use of
cultural production and racial identity toward political ends—whether to
project regional racial issues onto the global stage on the one hand or to
harness transnational racial identities to local struggles on the other.
Through this conversation, we hope to further an investigation of the role
of art and race in both perpetuating and resisting manifestations of
empire, capitalism, and white supremacy at the global and local levels.
This call is open to projects which explore black self-fashioning of racial
identity as well as investigations of the manner in which others have
sought to thrust identity upon black Americans. We invite submissions
examining art, cultural production/practice, and all modes of
expression—whether aural, visual, or written. Additionally, while we are
particularly interested in the global/local transmission of racial identity
during the Jim Crow-era, we are open to projects dealing with any
historical time period.
Panelists: please send a 1 page CV and brief project proposal by December
27, 2011.
Chairperson/Commenter: please send a 1 page CV by December 27, 2011.
All proposals and inquiries should be sent to Robert Hawkins at rlhawkins@bradley.edu
Notifications will be made before the 1st of the year.
Call for Participation: Visual Culture Studies, American Studies Association
Deadline: January 10, 2012
The Visual Culture Caucus of the American Studies Association (ASA) invites
individuals and groups to participate in the 2012 ASA meeting on November
15-18, 2012 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
For paper abstracts and session proposals sent by January 10, the
Programming Committee of the Visual Culture Caucus can offer critical
feedback and facilitate networking among scholars who are looking for
session participants, chairs, or commentators. The committee will
subsequently select complete session(s) from those accepted by ASA for
official caucus sponsorship.
Session proposals should explore historical, theoretical, and/or
methodological issues in American visual culture, which includes (but is
not limited to) prints, photography, painting, sculpture, comics/graphic
novels, illustrated books, film, television, digital media, and a wide
range of practices of looking. They must address the 2012 meeting theme,
"Dimensions of Empire and Resistance: Past, Present, and Future (see <
http://www.theasa.net/annual_meeting/page/submitting_a_proposal/>).
We encourage scholars to submit their proposals for meeting participation
to our new Works in Progress webpage, accessible through our caucus blog (
http://www.theasa.net/caucus_visual/). Any ASA member may join the caucus
by clicking on the registration column on the blog homepage (requires ASA
username and password).
Individuals wishing feedback or networking assistance for their abstracts
and session proposals may also contact Robin Veder, Vice-Chair of the
Visual Culture Caucus, and co-chair of the Visual Culture Caucus
Programming Committee, at rmv10@psu.edu.
Symposium – Encuentros: Artistic Exchange between the U.S. and Latin America
This symposium examines artistic encounters between Latin America and the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present. Speakers include, among others: Deborah Cullen of El Museo del Barrio; Katherine Manthorne of the City University of New York Graduate Center; Edward Sullivan of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; independent scholar Itala Schmelz; Valerie Fraser of the University of Essex; and artist Luis Camnitzer.
We also welcome your feedback on the symposium! You can add your comments to the discussion board on our webcast page or email us directly at AmericanArtSymposium@si.edu.
Encuentros: Artistic Exchange between the U.S. and Latin America is the third 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.
ACRAH 