World Art Histories in Dialogue – Distinguished WAI Lecture Series 2026/27.

The World Art History Institute (WAI) at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) presents its second Distinguished Lecture Series to celebrate its 6th anniversary. Established as a leading research institution closely affiliated with the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA), the WAI’s primary mission is to promote World Art Studies in China and foster collaboration within the global network of art history institutions, museums, archives, and libraries.

The annual program 2026–27 will feature twelve world-leading scholars who have made significant contributions to various fields intersecting art history, archaeology, anthropology, ecology, provenance research, and science. These contributions will be presented through a variety of academic activities, including public lectures, roundtable discussions, collaborative workshops, book launch events, translation initiatives, and publication projects. The lecture series will take place in person at WAI Shanghai in collaboration with four partner universities across Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, and Xi’an. Please refer below for details of the annual program.

On 30 May 2026, WAI will inaugurate the Lecture Series “World Art Histories in Dialogue” by kicking off with Prof. Dr. Peter J. Schneemann’s (Universität Bern) lecture titled The Ecological Imperatives: Methodological Challenges to a Paradigmatic Shift in Art Historical Research (in collaboration with the Shanghai Library).

Peter J. Schneemann, Universität Bern, 30 May 2026
The Ecological Imperatives. Methodological Challenges to a Paradigmatic Shift in Art Historical Research

Jochen Griesbach, Martin von Wagner Museum, Universität Würzburg, 26 September 2026
Classical Archaeology and the Reception of Antiquity since the Renaissance: The Current State of Research in Germany

Ulrich Pfisterer, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München, 21 November 2026
Michelangelo’s ‘Purgatory’. Dante, the Medici, and the New Sacristy in Florence

Jérémie Koering, Université de Fribourg, 23 January 2027
The Other Side of Renaissance Art History

Thierry Dufrêne, Université Paris-Nanterre, 20 March 2027
Preliminaries to a World History of Sculpture

Bénédicte Savoy, TU Berlin, 10 April 2027
Presence | Absence. Museums, Restitution, and the Temporalities of Cultural Heritage

Andreas Beyer, Universität Basel, 15 May 2027
Art History as History of the Artists. Towards an Anthropological Shift in Art Research

David Ganz, Universität Zürich, 5 June 2027
Scenarios of Revelation. Vision and Art in Medieval Europe

Jaś Elsner, University of Oxford, 7 August 207
Community and Individuality in the Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel

Damian Dombrowski, Martin von Wagner Museum, Universität Würzburg, 11 September 2027
Nature Revealed: The ‘Communicative Turn’ in Bernini’s Portrait Busts and the Scientific Revolution of the Seventeenth Century

Frank Fehrenbach, Universität Hamburg, 16 October 2027
The Invention of Forces in Italian Renaissance Art

Geraldine A. Johnson, University of Oxford, 11 December 2027
Collecting the Globe: Isabella d’Este and the Sensory Worlds of the Renaissance

Annual Guest Convenor: Lianming Wang, City University of Hong Kong

Audiences outside mainland China are welcome to join the Zoom livestream.

Registration: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/BH3M98ggSx

Registered attendees will receive timely email notifications containing Zoom links before each scheduled event.

Institutional Collaborators:
Shanghai International Culture Association; The Commercial Press, Ltd., Shanghai; Wu Zuoren International Foundation of Fine Arts, Beijing; Peking University Image Lab; Central Academy of Art, Beijing; School of Humanities and Art, China Academy of China; Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts; Shanghai Academy of Global Governance & Area Studies; Education Development Foundation, Shanghai International Studies University; The Paper (Peng Pai News); The Shanghai Library; Shanghai Duolun Museum of Art; Paragon Book Gallery; Shanghai Xuhui Library (Zikawei Library)

For general inquiries: waishisu.edu.cn