The Art History Association of the University of Oregon welcomes submissions for its 8th annual Student Symposium:

Art & Politics

The Art History Association of the University of Oregon is hosting its 8th annual interdisciplinary student symposium, Art & Politics, on Thursday and Friday April 12-13, 2012, at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Oregon. The symposium will focus on the range of intersections between visual culture and politics, from state-sanctioned art, to political propaganda, to art as a medium for political activism. Likewise, the symposium will investigate the practice, production, and reception of these moments of intersection, allowing for an exploration of the political life of artwork as a dynamic process. Finally, the symposium will raise the question: how can our work as scholars of art function as a tool for political change? We encourage paper submissions from both undergraduate and graduate students that address all eras of art history and visual culture studies, from ancient to contemporary, as well as work on Non-Western topics.

We are delighted to have Professor Jennifer Doyle from the Department of English at the University of California River side scheduled to deliver this year’s keynote address. She is author of the book Sex Objects: Art and the Dialectics of Desire and a forthcoming book, which will explore the relationship between the cultural politics of emotion and the limits of art criticism.

Possible topics may include:
-archaeological visual material and its relationship to historical cultures
-state-sanctioned or official art
-monuments and/or memorials
-banned art (e.g. “degenerate art”)
-the aesthetics of political propaganda
-the politics of popular visual culture (e.g. cartoons, illustrations, film and television)
-art exploring the politics of identity (e.g. gender, sexuality, or ethnic identity)
-the construction of race in visual culture
-the visual culture of commemoration
-the visual culture of colonization/the impact of colonialism on modern art
-the politics of verbal/visual representation in literary texts
-performance and installation as political intervention
-issues of sustainability, environmentalism, or the Ecocriticism of art and architecture
-the politicization of artwork by historians or critics

Potential participants should submit a 250-word abstract and current curriculum vitae by December 1, 2011. Selected presenters will be notified by January 15, 2012 and will be asked to submit a completed draft of the paper by February 29, 2012. Following the symposium, a prize will be awarded to the top paper. We welcome submissions from both undergraduate and graduate students in Art History, as well as students in other disciplines within the humanities. Electronic submissions are preferred, but hard copies will be accepted as well.

Electronic submissions:
(send to both addresses)
ditilliouoregon.edu
jlevetonuoregon.edu

Hard-copy submissions:
Department of Art History
School of Architecture and Allied Arts
5229 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-5229
Attn. Jessi DiTillio and Jacob Leveton