[1] Visualizing Comparative Antiquities
From: Emily K. Monty
Date: 18 Jul 22
Deadline: 10 Aug 22

This panel explores how artists, humanists, and collectors around the globe visualized relationships between Classical antiquity and cultures beyond Europe – both as they were encountered in the present and as they were imagined to be in the past. Scholars of literature, history, linguistics, and religion, such as Anthony Grafton and Sabine MacCormack, have studied how European encounters with non-European societies prompted a reckoning with antiquarian, and even foundational epistemic, knowledge. Recent work by Andrew Laird, among others, stresses the reciprocal nature of this discourse, analyzing how humanist pursuits took hold across the Atlantic. This session seeks to understand how comparative antiquities were expressed and framed in visual arguments. Extending the line of thinking begun by Lia Markey in her foundational study about images of the Americas in Medici Florence, we ask how images of non-European peoples, objects, and rituals were incorporated into humanist and antiquarian projects ranging from antiquity to the present. Crucially, we hope that this discussion will not just focus on cases from Europe, but will also shed light on Indigenous and colonial examples.

Papers may address questions that include, but are not limited to, the following: How do early modern collections of knowledge, made visible in inventories, cabinets of curiosities, manuscripts, and books, present the comparison between classical antiquity and Indigenous cultures? What kinds of knowledge did antiquarians hope to recover through studying the visual cultures of non-European societies that they imagined to be closer to a Greco-Roman past? How were these comparative attempts to contextualize Indigenous cultures visualized in works of art? How did Greco-Roman antiquity serve as a foil for images of the past outside of Europe?

Please send titles of proposed papers along with an abstract of 250 words and a 2-page CV to emilykmontygmail.com and emily.woodu.northwestern.edu by August 10th, 2022.
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[2] Self-care in Early Modern Art
From: Ashley D. West
Date: 18 Jul 22
Deadline: 1 Aug 22

As we begin to recover from a global pandemic, making time for self-care—actions that improve our physical and psychological well-being—has become increasingly critical. Though this discourse of self-care is considered a modern one, according to Michel Foucault, ancient Greeks understood the term epimeleia heautou, or care for the self, as developing self-awareness with the goal of becoming a more ethical being. This session probes early modern notions of self-care explored in any medium. It considers how artists created, and users consumed, images and objects focused on aspects of body, mind, and soul toward a form of self-care in art during a period in which modern notions of self-hood and artistic identity were still forming. Building on recent interest in ‘therapeutic’ images (where therapeia encompasses healing and care, but also ‘attention’), such as Dürer’s Melencolia I engraving, we seek renewed discussion of all manners of early modern notions of self-care and the role of material objects or images in defining those practices, spaces, or remedies of care. One might consider the role of print—its imagery, materiality, mobility, and centrality in the history of privacy and subjectivity—or other types of media in prescribing attention to the well-being of the self. Papers might consider the healing potentia of images of the Crucifix and blood of Christ, the curative power of landscape, the role of print in contemplation, meditation, or healing, but also the restorative potential of memory and imagination, sleeping and dreaming, food and nutrition, emotion, mental stimulation, or ethics. This session encourages proposals that cross disciplinary and geographic boundaries.

Please send the following materials to both session organizers, Ashley West (ashley.westtemple.edu) and Suzanne Willever (suzanne.willevertemple.edu) by August 1, 2022 (notification of acceptance by August 8th):
· paper title (15-word maximum)
· paper abstract (150-word maximum)
· short resume (.pdf or .doc upload)
· PhD or other terminal degree completion year (past or expected)
· full name, current affiliation, and email address
· primary discipline ( list of RSA disciplines)
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[3] Ecologies and the Making of Place in Early Modern Visual and Material Cultures
From: Lunarita Sterpetti
Date: 23 Jul 22
Deadline: 4 Aug 22

Papers focusing on the entanglements between visual and material culture, ecosystems, and the notion and making of ‘places’ are invited for a session at the Renaissance Society of America conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 9-11, 2023.

The analysis of human impact within natural ecosystems has become a key avenue of inquiry in the study of early modern cultures. The session intends to further contribute to this discussion by problematizing the interaction between ecosystems and objects, images, architectures, and landscapes. From this particular viewpoint, special attention will be afforded to case studies in which ‘places’ (architectural sites, monuments, cities, regions, islands, coastlines, mountains, etc.) emerge as complex geographical, social, and cultural constructs.

Papers may consider (but are not limited to) the following topics: the relationship between natural forces and the built environment (architecture and urban planning; energy engineering; material cultures of knowledge and technology); the visualization and representation of real and imaginary landscapes; geo-politics (borders and borderlands, contested territories, etc.); devotional practices and their relationship with nature (miraculous and holy sites, pilgrimage routes, etc.); processes of landscape creation, transformation, and destruction (in the aftermath of natural catastrophes, wars, climate change, etc.).

Proposals for 15- to 20-minute papers should be sent to Davide Ferri (davide.ferriunibe.ch) and Lunarita Sterpetti (lunarita.sterpettikhi.fi.it) by August 4th, 2022 and should include the author’s full name, professional affiliation, and contact information; the paper title (15-word maximum); a brief abstract (200-word maximum); a resume; PhD or other terminal degree completion year (past or expected). Papers can be given in any language; please submit your title and abstract in the language you wish to use. Per RSA guidelines, speakers must be RSA members and can only present one paper at the conference. Co-authored submissions are also welcome.

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[4] Understanding the New, the Novel, and the Natural in the Global Early Modern Period
From: Allison Kim and Kristi Peterson
Date: 25 Jul 22
Deadline: 11 Aug 22

This session seeks to explore the myriad ways Early Modern cultures processed and attempted to understand a rapidly expanding and changing world through visual, material, and textual objects. The ways that people process the encountering of other cultures, the natural world, scientific discoveries, and narratives of exploration express global commonalities and differences. These experiences reveal trends in intellectual curiosity and an interest in understanding the new, the novel, and the natural.

We seek a variety of papers that collectively encompass a global scope, a range of media, varying methodologies, and interdisciplinary engagement. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, syncretic visual languages, materials, and ideas, indigenous memories of European contact, fumi-e, discovery treatises, and naturalia texts. We invite proposals for papers of no more than 250 words until Thursday, August 11. Please send with your proposal the following information to both Allison Kim (allisonrkimutexas.edu) and Kristi Peterson (kpeters4skidmore.edu):

- Full name, current affiliation, and email address
- Discipline area
- Paper title (15-word maximum)
- Abstract text (150-word maximum)
- Curriculum vitae, no more than two pages (.pdf or .doc format)
- PhD completion date (past or expected)

Please note that the conference is in-person and that all participants are required to be members of RSA at the time of the conference. Any questions may be directed to the emails listed above.
Organizers: Allison Kim (The University of Texas at Austin) and Kristi Peterson (Skidmore College)