The Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences cordially invites you to participate in an international interdisciplinary conference focused on funerary culture, which will take place on 5 and 6 November 2025 in Prague. This conference builds upon a long-standing tradition of International Sessions on the Issue of Sepulchral Monuments, aiming to expand both the thematic and methodological scope of the discussion. This year’s theme is Cemeteries as Part of the Landscape Through the Centuries, focusing on the role of burial grounds in social, urban, and natural environments. The conference seeks to create a space for scholars from various academic fields and methodological backgrounds and to offer a platform for discussing cemeteries’ historical, anthropological, artistic, and social aspects.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Cemeteries as part of the anthropological landscape – the role of cemeteries in collective memory and social identity
• Cemeteries as part of the cultural landscape – the role of burial sites in urban and natural environments, their preservation and transformation
• Cemeteries as part of the social landscape – the social role of burial grounds and their place within human communities
• The “sepulchralization” of public space – from individual graves to family chapels, from churchyards to large cemeteries and memorial complexes, their development and functions across different cultural contexts

Contributions may address all aspects of the above topics, with a preference for materials or methodological approaches relating to Central Europe. We especially welcome contributions by early-career researchers, as well as studies on Jewish or Muslim sepulchral monuments, which may be included in a dedicated conference session.

Conference languages: Czech, Slovak, German, and English

No conference fee will be charged.

Presentation formats:
• Individual papers (20 minutes)
• Research reports (10 minutes)
• Panel presentations (including student panels)

Publication:
Selected papers will be published in a collective volume within the Epigraphica & Sepulcralia – monographia series by Artefactum, the publishing house of the Institute of Art History, CAS. Other papers may be considered for publication in the journals Historie–Otázky–Problémy, Archivní časopis, or Studia historica et archivistica. The organizing committee reserves the right to select which papers will be published.

Important dates and submission guidelines:
Please submit an abstract (max. 200 words) along with a short academic bio by 31 May 2025 to founovaudu.cas.cz

Authors will be notified of the acceptance or rejection of their papers by June 15, 2025.

The conference will take place on the 5th and 6th of November 2025, at the Academic Conference Center, Husova 4a, Prague.

We look forward to your contributions and engaging discussions!

On behalf of the organizing committee,
Vanda Fouňová, Eva Jarošová, Kristina Uhlíková
Institute of Art History, the Czech Academy of Sciences