CALL FOR PAPERS

Transgressions

Symposium on Visual Culture
Department of Art History, York University
Toronto, Canada
March 17, 2006

The Art History Graduate Students Association of York University cordially
invites proposals for academic and creative contributions to its fifth
annual symposium on visual culture, this year with the theme of
“Transgressions.”

Transgression is regularly associated with the rupture in artistic forms
and discourse that emerged in the 1960s and 70s, yet the concept applies
to many facets of art and visual culture from all periods. Literally
meaning to “step across” boundaries, we relate transgression to an
expanded discourse within art history, extending to interdisciplinarity
and visual culture, and beyond canonicity and traditional artistic
practices and privileges. While we hope to reflect on this expansion of
the field, we welcome research on a variety of modes of transgression in
representation. These transgressions may relate to:

-The Body: crossing lines of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity;
(dis)abilities; cyborgs and automatons; abjection; hybridity;
interior/exterior boundaries.
-Ideologies: transgressive politics;“truth” and its fictions; shifting
paradigms; theoretical trespassing; feminist, queer, and postcolonial
revisions.
-Space and Place: architectural transgressions; interstitial spaces;
transnationalism; the atopic.
-Discipline: interdisciplinarity in art and its histories; transgressions
of the archive; intertextuality; political/apolitical dimensions of the
medium; deterritorialization.
-The Object: transformation of the art object and its venues; art after
dematerialization; the challenges of objecthood.
-Exhibition: personal and cultural modes of collection and display; public
vs. private space; institutional upsets; historical diversions; new
directions.

We invite proposals for 15-minute presentations from interested graduate
students of all disciplines. Formats may include presentations of academic
papers or artist talks accompanied by images or screenings. Panel entries
are also encouraged. Please submit abstracts or artist statements of 250
words to

yorkarthistoryyahoo.ca by FEBRUARY 13, 2006.