Critical Biographies: Personal History as Method and Matter.
Cambridge History of Art Postgraduate Research Seminar.

The History of Art Postgraduate Research Seminar taking place in Lent Term 2026 explores the theme ‘Critical Biographies: Personal History as Method and Matter’. The transhistorical seminar series brings together scholars, curators, and artists to take stock of the long-standing tensions surrounding art historical life-writing. The sessions will examine how biography can function as a critical tool to expand established historical narratives by recentering marginalised artists and makers as well as generating new readings of established subjects.

Wednesday 4th of February
Dr François Quiviger (The Warburg Institute, London): 'Senses, Languages and Lives of Bernard Palissy (1510–1590)'

Thursday 12th of February
Dr Naomi Pearce (Aberystwyth University): 'Between Love and Work: Bisexual Perspectives in the Art of Roberta M. Graham and Helen Chadwick'

Wednesday 18th of February
Dr Cassie Davies-Strodder (Victoria and Albert Museum, London): 'Wardrobes and Biographies'

Wednesday 25th of February
Dr Jessica Barker (The Courtauld Institute of Art, London): 'Medieval Monuments and the Art-History of Emotion'

Wednesday 4th of March
Prof Emerita Griselda Pollock (University of Leeds): 'Situated Lives: Analytical Concepts: Historical Inquiry: Biography as a Critical Resource in Art History'

Wednesday 11th of March
Dr Serena Dyer (De Montfort University, Leicester): 'Material Life Writing: Women, Making, and Material Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Britain'

Wednesday 18th of March
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (Berlin and London) in conversation with Dr Kareem Estefan (University of Cambridge): 'Understanding the Audience as a Medium'

For more information visit: https://www.hoart.cam.ac.uk/seminars/history-art-postgraduate-research-seminar-critical-biographies-personal-history-method-and

Seminars will take place in person from 5–6pm in Lecture Room 1 (except on the 25th of February, taking place in the Classroom) at the Department of History of Art, 1–5 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge
CB2 1PX

All are warmly invited to join and there is no need to register!

The seminar is made possible by generous support from the Department of History of Art, The Welland Family Trust at St Catharine’s College, and Pembroke College

Organised by Miguel Arrais Pacheco, Molly Judd, and Henriette Marsden