[1] Race and Representation in the French Colonial Empire

From: Stephanie O'Rourke, so38st-andrews.ac.uk

Co-convenors: Susannah Blair (Columbia University) and Dr Stephanie O’Rourke (University of St Andrews)

Abstract:
This panel will consolidate new research on the visual culture of race in France and its colonies during the ‘long’ eighteenth century. It will be oriented around two key terms, ‘representation’ and ‘possession’, and their many resonances­­ – artistic, political, legal, and relational. We invite papers to explore how art objects articulated, contested, and disseminated changing notions of racial identity and citizenship in France and its global networks.

Over the past several years, scholars have examined the role of pictorial representation in shaping ideas of race, identity, indigeneity, and slavery in the context of the eighteenth-century British empire. However, as Anne Lafont observes in her recent book (L’Art et la race, 2019), the French case has received relatively less sustained attention. Bringing together new scholarship that builds upon these precedents, we aim to address a deliberately expansive geographical notion of French visual culture, one that includes the Caribbean, New France, Canada, and the Indian Ocean in addition to sites within the ‘metropole’ such as Paris and Nantes. Fostering a dialogue between art history, indigenous studies, and critical race theory, our panel will provide a crucial scholarly platform for research that can inform pedagogy, curatorial practice, and future scholarship.

How to Submit a Proposal:
We invite proposals for 25-minute papers. At present AAH is planning a hybrid event that will involve a physical conference as well as a digital participation option for those who cannot or would prefer not to attend in person. We encourage submissions from those who intend to participate in a digital-only capacity as well as from those interested in attending in person. To submit a paper proposal, please fill out the proposal form (https://bit.ly/3eVYWZu) and send it to seb2210columbia.edu and so38st-andrews.ac.uk by 19 October 2020. Please provide a title and abstract (250 words max), and a CV. For more information, visit https://forarthistory.org.uk/our-work/conference/2021-annual-conference/

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[2] Art History, Theory and Practice for an Ecological Emergency

From: Lucy Whelan, lwwhelangooglemail.com

Andrew Patrizio, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
Lucy Whelan, Cambridge University

How can we align art theory, history and practice with an ontology that refuses to see human life as fundamentally set apart from nature? Art historians have recently started to respond to global environmental concerns with eco-critical approaches. Yet, with the effects of abrupt climate breakdown already apparent, art history can afford neither to repeat the theoretical debates over the representation of nature explored in literary studies since the 1990s, nor to conceive the ecological as a transitory ‘turn’ or an additional category of analysis. Instead, a global existential crisis demands a wholescale rethinking of how art historians and practitioners write, curate, make and teach. This interdisciplinary session builds on recent work across the environmental humanities, in moving towards an integrated ecological art history that is oriented towards the future, even as it examines the past. Key questions we will explore include:

-How might the reality of environmental breakdown provoke us to rethink our traditional aesthetic categories?
-How might artworks enable their beholder to imagine more-than-human ways of seeing?
-How do different artistic media offer crucial sites for thinking in, and with, the environment?
-While some museums have recently divested from fossil fuels, how can art institutions go further in resisting norms that are damaging the planet?

Deadline for submissions: Monday 19 October 2020
To submit, please go to: https://eu.eventscloud.com/website/2065/sessions-2021/

The conference may be a "hybrid" digital and in-person event, with the possibility of going all-online. For more information about the Association for Art History Annual Conference, please visit: https://eu.eventscloud.com/website/2065/about/

If you have any questions, please just contact the session co-convenor Lucy Whelan at lucy.whelandurham.ac.uk / lww23cam.ac.uk after 1 October