I'm writing to inform you of the many sessions and events related to art
history and visual culture studies at the upcoming Annual Meeting of the
American Studies Association, which will be held in Albuquerque, NM,
October 16-19, 2008. For a description of the meeting theme and the
program schedule see: http://www.theasa.net/annual_meeting/.

The Visual Culture / Art History Caucus will hold its annual business
meeting on Friday, October 17, 3-4:45pm. Current and prospective members
of the caucus are encouraged to attend; they include teachers, museum
curators, librarians, and others who research a variety of visual forms
and media, such as painting, photography, sculpture, film, television,
advertisements, cartoons, visual ethnographies, and the Internet. Further
information about this group and how to join can be found at:
http://www.theasa.net/caucus_visual/. Following its business meeting,
the VC / AH Caucus will host a joint reception with the Material Culture
Caucus, 5-7pm. Refreshments will be served, compliments of Boston
University.

The VC / AH Caucus is also sponsoring a session on Friday, October 17,
10-11:45am, on "The State of Comix: Cultural Identity, the Nation, and
the Visual Politics of American Comics." Organized by Ramzi Fawaz
(George Washington University), the papers in this session will engage
with the methods of visual studies, cultural studies, and political
theory to suggest ways in which American comic books, comic strips, and
graphic novels "implode the lines delimiting physical bodies, cultural
subjectivities, and national borders."

Below is a list of the many other sessions on the 2008 ASA meeting
program with paper(s) that engage with visual culture studies.

If you have any questions about the VC / AH Caucus or the events it is
planning, feel free to contact me at tsheehanrci.rutgers.edu. I look
forward to seeing you in Albuquerque!

Tanya Sheehan
Chair of the VC / AH Programming Committee
Assistant Professor of American Art and Visual Culture, Rutgers University

THURSDAY, OCT 16

10-11:45am
King of the Crossroads: Theorizing the Art and Impact of Jean-Michel
Basquiat

12-1:45pm
Latino/a Resistance in L.A.

12-1:45pm
Three Ways of Looking at Bodies

2-3:45pm
9/11 Vernaculars

2-3:45pm
The Animal Nature of Human Social Relations

4-5:45pm
Bodies and Spirits: Reconsidering the American Occult

FRIDAY, OCT 17

8-9:45am
Debating Public Art in New Mexico

8-9:45am
No Laughing Matter: Race and American Visual Humor

10-11:45am
The State of Comix: Cultural Identity, the Nation, and the Visual Politics
of American Comics (Sponsored by the Visual Culture Caucus)

10-11:45am
Coloniality and Imperialism in the Philippines

10-11:45am
Teaching at the Crossroads: American Studies and Film Studies

10-11:45am
Thinking Big about American Studies: From Case Studies to Field Imaginaries

12-1:45pm
The Counterintuitive Whitman

12-1:45pm
Craft at the Crossroads Roundtable (Sponsored by the Material Culture
Caucus)

12-1:45pm
Photography in Print

2-3:45pm
Innovative Interpretations of Nineteenth-Century Western Imagery

2-3:45pm
Art, Craft, and Film in Native America

2-3:45pm
Mutual Contamination at the Limits: Becoming Human/Artist

2-3:45pm
On Location: Film Histories

SATURDAY, OCT 18

8-9:30am
Breakfast Forum: Framing Visual Evidence: The Position of Visual and
Popular Culture in American Studies (Sponsored by the Students' Committee)

8-9:45am
Remembrance and Re-vision: Alternative Genealogies of Race

8-9:45am
Public Art and Historic Preservation

10-11:45am
Picturing Culture: The Politics of Image and Illustration

10-11:45am
Trafficking in Folklore

4-5:45pm
Transpacific Cultural Production

SUNDAY, OCT 19

8-9:45am
Photography, Power, and the Body

8-9:45am
Queering Modernist Regionalism: Taos, Santa Fe, and Seattle

8-9:45am
Saints, Sacrifice, and Sovereignty

10-11:45am
Kinesthetics Visualized: Posture, Gesture, and Movement in
Twentieth-Century Visual Culture