The Grapevine

“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.

“Radical Aesthetics and Politics: Intersections in Music, Art and Critical Social Theory”
9 December 2011
Hunter College, CUNY

http://chreculture.blogspot.com/
In the past few decades, the study of sonic, visual, textual, and other media practices have emerged as productive areas of cultural analysis and critique. Often constitutive of paradoxes and tensions within society, these aesthetic practices have prompted critical engagements with structures of power and knowledge. Researchers and artists have sought to deconstruct particular relationships between aesthetics and power, creating renewed and emergent questions with which current social theory must engage. For instance, how might we think about the “public sphere” in terms of nodes of encounters with the sonic, the visual, and the textual? What forms of political action and sociality emerge from civic engagements with visual, sonic, and textual culture? How are sonic and material landscapes engaged with as embodied practices? What might this imply about the corporeality of the political, the ethical, and the technological? What are the disjunctures and syntheses between artists’ and scholars’ concept-driven productions and the ways in which audiences interpret and construct life-worlds with these productions?

Continue reading “CFP: Radical Aesthetics and Politics @ Hunter College”

A Conference
On Television
Yale University
February 3-4, 2012

http://ontelevision.commons.yale.edu/

We all watch television. But in this moment of dispersed and fragmented viewership, we all engage with television differently: as an entertainment medium, a home appliance, a range of program content, a description of viewing behavior, a set of technologies, a media industry, and a means for collective social experiences. Both technological platform and cultural form, television sits at the intersection of a number of humanities and social science disciplines. As observers of — and participants in — this contemporary moment, we are compelled to ask: What makes television television?

This conference will address contemporary trends in the field of television studies and reconsider the historical currents that inform our understandings of the present and prospective future of the medium.

Institute of African Studies
CALL FOR PAPERS
Culture and Society in Post-Colonial Nigeria in honor of ULLI BEIER.
November 28 – 30, 2011

The conference is being organised in honour of Ulli Beier, not only to invoke his memorable role in the cultural production in Nigeria from the years immediately before and after the independence, but also to incite robust discussion on his entire oeuvre as a cultural interventionist. In literature, in performance and in Visual Arts, the long list of artists that Ulli Beier’s many fora (Black Opheus, Mbari, Mbari Mbayo) fostered is a proof of his sterling contribution to African culture.

Culture itself encapsulates the dialogic production of meaning and aesthetics through a variety of practices. It also captures discourses associated with a mix of public and private institutions such as cinemas, the media, museums and other sites of socio-historical production. Discourses around such issues expose the mindset of a people; they mirror where a nation is coming from and the direction in which it is moving. After fifty years of independence, Nigeria requires looking back to assess itself.  The project of evolving a new Nigeria has placed emphasis on political and economic factors rather than developing cultural potential for sustainable development. This is a huge lacuna given the fact that culture plays a significant role in the life of a nation.

The conference is intended to stimulate new dimensions of assessing the predicament of pre-colonial Nigeria, privileging cultural history and production. More specifically, we anticipate an interrogation of the double-bind of fusion and rupture of politics and culture. In an attempt to answer many questions that emanate from this, we expect that the conference will generate theses from a wide range of perspectives such as economics, art and science, among others.

Sub-themes include but  are not limited to the following:
* Culture Theory
* Culture, Gender and (Wo)Men’s rights
* Culture, Democracy and Governance
* Globalization, Mass Culture and the New Media
* Material Culture and Cultural Performance
* Culture and Ecology
* Traditional Medicine and Spirituality
* Conflict Prevention and Management
* Social Movements and Ethics

Keynote speaker 1:
Professor Akin Ogundiran, Chair, Africana Studies Department,
University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC.
Topic: Crises of Culture and Consciousness in the Postcolony: What is the Future for Nigeria?

Keynote Speaker 2:
Professor Wole Ogundele, Director Centre for Black culture and International Understanding, Osogbo, Osun State.
Topic: He Lived among the Orisha: Ulli Beier and the Yoruba Cultural Revival.

Conference Venue: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
An abstract of not more than 250 words is expected to reach the conference organizers through the following e-mail addresses: Ohioma Pogoson <tellohio@yahoo.com<mailto:tellohio@yahoo.com> >; Ayo Adeduntan <grandeekay@yahoo.com<mailto:grandeekay@yahoo.com> > not later than August 15, 2011.

Participants shall be notified of the acceptance of their abstracts by August 31, 2011.

Coinciding with PAFA’s exhibition, Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, this March 24, 2012 symposium focuses on intersections of faith, identity, and history in a broad range of works created by modern and contemporary African American artists with special interest in Christian symbols, themes, and motifs relating to issues of faith, family, and community and the struggle for freedom, equality, and justice.

We seek 20-minute papers that examine specific examples of art from the turn of the 20th century to today, exploring such aspects with special interest in art historical methodology.

Paper proposals of no more than two pages double-spaced should be submitted along with a cover letter and c.v. to ALL symposium co-chairs, Dr. Nikki A. Greene nikki.a.greene@gmail.com, Dr. Emily Hage ehage@sju.edu, and Dr. James Romaine drjamesromaine@gmail.com.

Deadline for submission is October 1, 2011.

See the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA) website: http://christianityhistoryart.org.

Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage
Editor, Christopher C. Fennell, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage provides a focal point for peer-reviewed publications in interdisciplinary studies in archaeology, history, material culture, and heritage dynamics concerning African descendant populations and cultures across the globe. The Journal invites articles on broad topics, including the historical processes of culture, economics, gender, power, and racialization operating within and upon African descendant communities. We seek to engage scholarly, professional, and community perspectives on the social dynamics and historical legacies of African descendant cultures and communities worldwide. The Journal publishes research articles and essays that review developments in these interdisciplinary fields.

Submitting a Manuscript to the Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage Manuscripts should typically be no longer than 35 double-spaced pages, or approximately 8,750 words, in length. Submissions should include a cover letter, an original manuscript, and any illustrations. All manuscripts should be submitted electronically in MS Word format for the manuscript text and accompanying illustrations should be embedded in the manuscript in low-resolution format. Illustrations should also be provided in separate .tiff format digital files in higher resolution of at least 300 dpi. On the cover page of the manuscript, please include the title, your name, your affiliation, postal address, telephone number, and email address, and a one-paragraph abstract of no more than 200 words, followed by 4 keyword terms for potential use by indexing services. At the end of the manuscript, provide a biographical note of not more than 50 words about each author.

Submissions should be sent to: Editor Christopher Fennell at cfennell@illinois.edu.
An author should contact the editor if unable to submit an electronic version of the manuscript.

More information about the journal, subscriptions, and the full submission guidelines can be found at:
http://lcoastpress.com/journal.php?id=15