We write seeking 500-word abstracts for book chapters (~5000 words) for an edited volume entitled "Women and the Economy of Modern Art in the Americas, 1930-1950." Please see book description below and contact editors (Beth Matusoff Merfish, bmerfishuh.edu, and Sandra Zalman, szalmanuh.edu) with questions. Abstracts should be sent via email to both editors by September 1, 2026.

Women and the Economy of Modern Art in the Americas, 1930-1950.
Dr. Beth Matusoff Merfish,
Dr. Sandra Zalman.

This volume explores women’s key roles in developing a market for Modern Art as collectors, patrons, curators and educated audience members during the World War II era across the Americas. While the roles of well-known patrons such as Abbie Aldrich Rockefeller, Dominique de Menil, Inés Amor, and Peggy Guggenheim have begun to be elucidated in recent scholarship, there are scores more women who traveled the Americas, formed generative relationships with artists and collectives, and brought needed attention to Modern Art at the pivotal moments when the centers of art production shifted to the Americas. This book seeks to highlight the often-overlooked women who formed the networks and facilitated the robust markets necessary for the development of American Modernism.

We invite submissions that explore the impact of these women and the challenges they faced as they forged new pathways for Modern Art. This volume is intentionally inclusive of the Americas writ large and seeks to provide new directions for scholarship both in and outside of recognized centers of art production in the Americas. Who were the women behind the advancement of American Modernism, and how should their stories shape our understanding of its development? Who were the great women—often laboring in the shadows—behind the mythically masculine Modern? What new avenues are open to us when we move beyond the assumption that men were the catalysts and audience for Modern Art?