Rethinking race and representation in art history and material culture of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Francosphere

H-France Salon invites contributions for a Salon series addressing the theme of “Rethinking race and representation in art history and material culture of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Francosphere.” This Salon builds on the H-France Salons Series entitled “Race, Racism & the Study of France and the Francophone World Today,” and seeks to offer new ways and tools for thinking specifically about constructions of race in history, art history, and material culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The editors are open to many directions, but possible angles may include:
- What overlooked artists or artwork should we include to shift our understanding--or what well-known works should we reconsider in the light of new narratives and questions? We welcome essays that focus either on one artist or representation, or on a set.
- What approaches are particularly thought-provoking or effective pedagogically?
- What methods can help us recover the agency of the people who modeled for, or were depicted in, artworks?
- How can we use objects or aspects of material culture?
- How do choices for representing eighteenth and nineteenth century works, i.e. museum displays and curation, renaming or questioning the titles of artworks, decisions about where and how art is displayed in urban and national settings, etc, shape our understanding of those works?
- How do modern ways of representing the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (from graphic histories to public murals to video ) affect our understanding of the past?
- How do we engage contemporary debates, like French debates around race as an “American” category”?

Interested contributors should e-mail an abstract (max.1000 words) and CV to the editors Jennifer Heuer (heuerhistory.umass.edu), Gülru Çakmak (gcakmakumass.edu), and Robin Mitchell (robin.mitchellcsuci.edu) by August 15, 2021. Papers (2500-4000 words) will be submitted by February 1, 2022.

As H-France Salon supports multi-media resources, we welcome possibilities that take advantage of the platform. Please contact us with any questions or ideas!