Resources in Art History for Graduate Students

SYMPOSIA OF INTEREST TO GRADUATE STUDENTS OUTSIDE OF NORTH AMERICA

N.B.: This page includes symposia and conferences for graduate students and those not solely for graduate students that seem to be either of special interest or are especially welcoming to you. Also note that while a regrettable number of sites below have not updated their information many of the events listed below are annual events. Contact them if you have any questions.

Rationale: the gold star is used to mark new postings accepting proposals until the date in bold type. After that date has passed, the gold star is removed and the conference becomes "to attend." After the the conference is over, I usually leave up a brief notice if it is an annual event. Please note that these conferences are sorted by location of the conference.

All Other Topics: British Isles, ANZAC, Europe, and Everywhere Else

ART WORK BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND NATURE

21-23 January 2010. International conference at Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. "Occasioned by the exhibitions Nature Strikes Back! and Impact: Living in the age of climate change, running in parallel to the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, this art historical conference will explore the relationship between art, nature and technology. The present climatic crisis foregrounds the observation that during the last century human technology has come to play a crucial role in the overall behaviour of nature, both as a disturber of ecological balances and as a potential healer of them. Parallel to this development, art seems to have become more closely involved with both nature and technology, challenging on the one hand conceptions of art contemplating nature as a distant landscape and, on the other, art as being foreign to the social interaction and physical dynamics of technology...Contact: Professor Jacob Wamberg (kunjw@hum.au.dk). Deadline for abstracts was 4 September 2009.

ASSOCIATION OF ART HISTORIANS CONFERENCE [UK]

15-17 April 2010. University of Glasgow. Go to the link to find the list of Calls for Papers. Always includes a Student Session. Deadline for submission of paper abstracts is 9 November 2009. Check the Web site for details.

ASSOCIATION OF THE HISTORY OF GLASS

Not exactly annual, but apparently at least every now and then. Plus, a unique society. Check the Web site for more information about several conferences upcoming for 2010.

AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION (ANZASA)

1-4 July 2010. "ANZASA brings together scholars from Australia and New Zealand with colleagues who specialise in American Studies from around the world for a major conference held every two years.." Abstracts due 17 December 2009. Check the Web site.

CENTER FOR ICELANDIC ART

Just had to post this--lots of stuff going on, including the link to "Iceland's first and only online art magazine".

CENTRE FOR STUDIES OF SURREALISM PhD CONFERENCE

4 December 2009. Annual Postgraduate Symposium, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich., UK. "Theme: Subversive Spaces: Surrealism and Contemporary Art. Please see the Web site for more information.

COUNCIL FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES : CONFERENCES

Links to conferences in all areas of European studies.

ELECTRONIC VISUALISATION AND THE ARTS

5-7 July 20106. Annual? London, UK. "We invite proposals of papers, demonstrations or short performances, workshops or panel discussions. A brief summary only is required for the selection process. This should be submitted electronically to (easychair.org), an automated online submission system by 15 January 2010.

EMBROIDERY AND STORY-TELLING

10-11 December 2009 Rouen, France. This is "The second international conference on "Text, Texture, Textile"... Using the Bayeux tapestry as a reference, considering its influence on the Overlord Embroidery exhibited in Portsmouth, Britain or the Ros Tapestry in Ireland, we address the question of the choice of textile as a medium adapted to writing or rewriting history. We will see that the appropriation of a feminine or popular form of art can give birth to a new form of propaganda but can also open official channels to new voices. The exhibition "Pricked, Extreme Embroidery" at the Museum of Arts and Design in New-York [sic] offers a range of contemporary creations that question cliches about this minor form of art and open perspectives towards new fields such as medecine or economics. The purpose of this conference is to bring together curators, artists and academics who specialise in history, sociology, arts, cultural studies or literature. Papers of no more than 25 minutes are welcome on the following topics:

- The analysis of a specific embroidery, how it was produced, 
how it fits in history, its capacity to shape history.
- The metaphor of embroidery in literature, the staging of the 
Embroiderer as a character, the pertinence of the vocabulary of 
embroidery to analyse a text as a form of embroidery.
- The role of embroidery in the economy, its pertinence in 
projects dealing with the reinsertion of women in some 
communities.
- The place of embroidery in haute-couture.

Most of the papers will be given in English so as to facilitate the debate with our international guests from the United States, Britain, Ireland or India. Contact:

• Professor Nicole Terrien or emerfahy@eircom.net
• Universite de Rouen
• 76821 Mont Saint Aignan Cedex
• France
• nicole.terrien@free.fr
• [No due date for proposals given]

EVERYDAY OBJECTS: ART AND EXPERIENCE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE

21 November 2009. Courtauld Institute of Art, London. "We invite proposals for papers that explore the theme of the everyday object in all forms of visual and material culture from the early modern period (c.1580-1850) including painting, sculpture, architecture, decorative arts, fashion, performance, print media, graphic arts, and the intersections between them...Proposals were due 8 May 2009 to (edward.payne@courtauld.ac.uk) and (hannah.williams@courtauld.ac.uk).

FUTURISMS : PRECURSORS, PROTAGONISTS, LEGACIES

1-3 December 2009. Utrecht University, Netherlands. Verrry long posting on this: basically go with the title above and check the Web site. Will include performance events. "Proposals are invited for 20 minute-papers. Deadline for submission was June 15, 2009. A selection of the conference papers is eligible for inclusion in an edited volume on the conference topic, to be published with a major international academic publisher. Deadline for submission of the selected and reworked papers was June 1, 2010.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE ARTS IN SOCIETY

22-25 July 2010. University of Sydney, Australia. "The purpose of the annual Arts Conference is to create an intellectual platform for the arts and arts practices, and to create an interdisciplinary conversation on the role of the arts in society. It is intended as a place for critical engagement, examination and experimentation of ideas that connect the arts to their contexts in the world - on stage, in studios and theaters, in classrooms, in museums and galleries, on the streets and in communities." 12 November 2009 deadline

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEDITERRANEAN STUDIES

Held 9-12 APRIL 2009. Annual? ATHENS, GREECE. Organized by the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). "The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars, researchers and students from all areas of Mediterranean Studies, such as history, arts, archaeology, philosophy, culture, sociology, politics, international relations, economics, business, sports etc. Special sessions will be devoted to Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean Countries. Panel organizers are encouraged to submit their proposals by inviting other scholars that do research in the area.

INTERNATIONAL GOTHIC ASSOCIATION

Held 21-24 July 2009. Lancaster University, England. Biennial. "promotes the study and dissemination of information on gothic culture from the mid eighteenth century to the contemporary moment...The topic of the conference is 'Monstrous Media/Spectral Subjects.' Abstracts to Dr Catherine Spooner and Prof. Fred Botting at monstrousmedia@lancaster.ac.uk were due 5 January 2009. See the Web site for more information.

INTERNATIONAL VISUAL SOCIOLOGY ASSOCIATION

22-24 July 2009. University of Cumbria, UK. Theme: "Appreciating the views: how we're looking at the social and visual landscape.". For additional information, please see the Web site. Proposals were due April 15, 2009.

MODERN INTERIORS RESEARCH CENTRE (MIRC)

Conference last held 14-15 May 2009. Hosted by the Modern Interiors Research Centre (MIRC), Kingston University, London. See the Web site for more information.

NEW APPROACHES TO BRITISH ART

4 -5 June 2010. The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN. "British art has benefited from an extraordinary growth in scholarly studies over the last decade but the rich history of the years between 1939 and 1969 remains relatively underexplored. Despite the buoyancy of the market, the large audiences for modern art internationally, and the significance of monographic exhibitions devoted to a few select names (Nicholson, Caro, Bacon, Freud), there is still a dearth of younger scholars working in this period and little thematic and analytic study in comparison to scholarship on the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries. This conference is intended both to stimulate further study of the art of these years and to provide a forum in which new work and fresh approaches can be discussed and developed. We encourage proposals on sculpture; on art and photography; on trans-nationalism and immigration; on austerity and Americanisation; on the institutional field including art education, cultural policy, exhibitions, criticism and the market; and especially on topics that lie outside or cut across categories already established in histories of the period. Proposals, of 300 words in the first instance, to both organisers, were due 7 August 2009: Prof. David Peters Corbett, dmpc1@york.ac.uk; and Prof. Lisa Tickner, lisa.tickner@courtauld.ac.uk.

PLASTER AND PLASTER CASTS: MATERIALITY AND PRACTICE

12-13 March 2010. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. "The conference seeks to address plaster and plaster casts in terms of material, process and the status of the model. Why and when do artists and/or architects choose to employ plaster or plaster casts? How have these been read and referred to? What associations does the material evoke? How do plaster and plaster casts fit into the wider field of reproductive materials, such as wax, drawings, prints or photography? What is their place in the context of architecture and t he study of architectural history? Papers are invited that address these and other related issues. While it is anticipated that a majority of papers will address European and American themes from the eighteenth century to the present, the organisers do not want to impose any restrictions on periods and/or geographical areas under discussion. Proposals (300 words maximum) were due to Eckart.Marchand@sas.ac.uk (mailto:Eckart.Marchand@sas.ac.uk) no later than 29 March 2009. For enquiries and further information please contact one of the organisers: Eckart Marchand (The Warburg Institute, London; Eckart.marchand@sas.ac.uk) Marjorie Trusted (Victoria & Albert Museum, London; m.trusted@vam.ac.uk (mailto:m.trusted@vam.ac.uk) ) or, for architecture, Charles Hind (Victoria and Albert Museum, London / Royal Institute of British Architects; c.hind@vam.ac.uk)

THE SEMIOTICS OF SHIPWRECK: A Symposium on the Representation and Resonance of Maritime Disaster

19th-20th November, 2010. To be held at the National Maritime Museum, London. "Ever since human beings first began seafaring, they have been fascinated, and haunted, by shipwrecks. For maritime societies especially, these tragedies at sea have been a constant source of anxiety, since they are disasters that potentially devastate not only individuals but also the community or nation as a whole. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that shipwreck is also one of the oldest motifs in art and literature...To this end, we invite papers that address the question of the representation of shipwreck from any disciplinary angle, and with regard to any time period or culture. We are especially interested in papers that address the following themes (to supplement papers that have already been confirmed):

-    The shipwreck poem (eg Falconer, Hopkins etc)
-    Shipwrecks in classical literature and art
-    Shipwrecks in non-Western cultures (eg Chinese and Japanese culture, or
in traditional, tribal cultures).
-    Shipwrecks in popular culture and in oral traditions
-    Shipwreck in the visual arts

For more information, or to offer a paper, please contact Dr Carl Thompson
at the Centre for Travel Writing Studies, Nottingham Trent University
(e-mail: carl.thompson@ntu.ac.uk).
The closing date for paper proposals was August 15th 2009.

SOUTH AFRICAN VISUAL ARTS HISTORIANS (SAVAH) CONFERENCE

12-15 January 2011. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. "The theme of the conference is: Art History in (South) Africa and the Global South...." Deadline: NOT LISTED. Ask them Please contact them for more information on themes and formats.

Black Moon Japanese art and culture.