AAH Annual Conference

CONTENTS. DISCONTENTS. MALCONTENTS

University of Leeds, 5 - 7 April 2006

Session:

An Over-Sexed History of Art? Art History at the Intersection of Gender
and Sexuality

We are coming upon the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Michel
Foucault’s first volume of The History of Sexuality, a text that – among
other things – synthesized a number of emerging ideas on the topic of
queer sexuality. It has been even longer since a related, though
distinct, revolution overturned notions of femininity and gender: art
history has never been the same. This is a call for papers that seeks to
broadly re-examine the status of gender studies in art history across all
periods with the hope of understanding “what – if anything – is next?”
While we may feel proud of the accomplishments and advancements that have
been made toward a de-centred, non- heterocentric, non-patriarchal
engagement with the histories of art, scholars, both emerging and
established, approaching the topic of gender and art history may feel as
though it is a mine-field, theorized beyond comprehension, seething with
discontent and the bruises of past (and current) political and social
inequalities. Nonetheless, there still remain countless topics in the
field of gender and art history that remain unexamined; histories of
‘sub-alterns’ operating within the realm of visual culture but
overshadowed by the looming presence of dominant narratives, and new ways
of reading those narratives that are situated outside of the centre. In
the wake of these problems and possibilities, how are art historians
continuing to work critically in, and through, sexuality as a discursive
construct? In the spirit of this conference which seeks to prioritize the
art historian’s agenda, this session ultimately asks “when and how are
theories of gender and sexuality useful or not useful to art historians?”

Please send an abstract of your proposed contribution in no more than 250
words, your name, organisational affiliation (if any) and contact details,
no later than 11 November 2005, to:

Steven Stowell, steven.stowellballiol.ox.ac.uk
or
Kristy A. Holmes, 1kah1qlink.queensu.ca