“Gender Politics and the Art of European Socialist States,” is a new project launched with the support of the Getty Foundation as part of its Connecting Art Histories initiative. Doctorate students from East-Central Europe are encouraged to apply for this travelling research seminar that will take place during the academic year 2019/2020 and will consist of three one-week seminars organized in Poznań, Zagreb and Timișoara.

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION
The project aims to provide a space for established researchers and scholars at a very early stage of their careers to network academically on a topic of mutual interest. This course structure not only enables the dissemination of new knowledge gained through the participants’ research and exchange of information relevant to the seminar’s theme (available resources, events, etc.), but also creates the potential for joint projects in the future.

The “Gender Politics and the Art of Eastern Socialist States” research seminar will cover the period between 1945–1989. The “Gender Politics and Art” formulation refers to our interest in relationships between the visual arts and various discourses related to gender that circulated in socialist states, including debates about education, sexuality, architecture, health, state security, etc., all of which contributed to how gender roles were conceptualized. The seminar will focus on the way artists addressed, examined, and questioned the socio-political construction of gender (masculinity and femininity) and heteronormativity. It will also examine how private lives and intimacy were regulated by communist governments as well as the ideas of home and family propagated by communist governments, but also supported by national and religious traditions, along with gender relations in education and the workplace. It will also offer a study on the way feminist art (history) discourse functioned in communist countries and how it manifested itself in individual works and women’s collective action.

The seminar will consist of three one-week meetings—September 2019 in Poznań at the Adam Mickiewicz University, January 2020 in Zagreb at the Institute of Art History, and May 2020 in Timișoara at the West University of Timișoara. All these seminar meetings will be co-taught by three senior researchers—Agata Jakubowska (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland), Ljiljana Kolešnik (Institute of Art History, Zagreb), Ileana Pintilie Teleagă (West University of Timișoara), with the help of their teaching assistants.
Each one-week meeting will comprise a varied set of activities: lectures, discussions of the readings (and, possibly, documentary films), presentations of the participants’ research, meetings with faculties from the host institutions and study visits to galleries, museums, and artists’ studios. Guest speakers from countries other than those of the senior researchers will be invited for single lectures. Each guest session will consist of presentations by two guest speakers, one from East-Central Europe and one from South America/Asia/Africa
The research seminar will maintain an interactive e-learning site where each participant and faculty member can create a personal profile, post learning materials, and circulate information relevant to the subject of the seminar before and during the course.

PARTICIPATION
The seminar will gather a group of graduate students working on various aspects of “Gender Politics in the Art of European Socialist States”. Graduate students from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet republics are encouraged to apply. Mainly PhD candidates are expected to participate, but the seminar is also be open to MA students conducting advanced research.

Travel, accommodation and meals will be arranged and covered by the organizing institution.

APPLICATION
To apply, please submit:
1. 1. Your name, email address, institutional affiliation, and postal address;
2. a curriculum vitae, including a list of publications, if any;
3. a statement of purpose, which should describe how the seminar is relevant to your research and in what way you expect to benefit from it (approximately 2-3 pages)
4. the names and contact details of two faculty members or thesis supervisors who can attest to your academic performance.
Optional attachment - a copy of an article in English published recently (if available) and/or a master’s/doctoral research project (up to 5 pages)

Please email the documents specified above (as a single PDF document to cahamu.edu.pl by March 31, 2019.

ORGANIZER
Department of Art History and the Piotr Piotrowski Research Center on East-Central European Art History, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland

For enquiries, please contact Maryna Płuchator (Program administrative assistant) cahamu.edu.pl or Agata Jakubowska (Program director) jagataamu.edu.pl

This program is made possible with support from the Getty Foundation through its Connecting Art Histories initiative.