[1] Artist-in-Residence Programmes in Academic Settings

From: Anna Orrghen
Date: Oct 26, 2026

In recent years, it has become increasingly common with artist-researcher collaborations in academic settings, where artist-in-residence programmes are a common format. In addition, government research councils are calling for artistic elements in interdisciplinary calls for proposals. Currently, it thus seems that “everyone” in academia is eager to collaborate with an artist. Why is that? Why now? What expectations does academia place on artists? What does this rapidly growing phenomenon mean to the contemporary research landscape?

The aim of this session is to shed light on the phenomenon of artist-in-residence programmes in academic settings. Although these collaborations are popular, their underlying mechanisms and impact remain largely unexplored. Therefore, there is a pressing need to critically evaluate and understand the phenomenon.

For this session, we are seeking papers that take a critical stance on the phenomenon of artist-in-residence programmes in academic settings. We particularly encourage papers that address fundamental questions regarding the history, nature, purpose and outcomes of artist-in-residence programmes in academia. This international phenomenon spans several disciplines and policy areas and requires an interdisciplinary approach. We therefore welcome contributions from a broad spectrum of academic disciplines, both from researchers studying the phenomenon and from researchers and artists with practical experience of organising and participating in artist-in-residence programmes in academic settings.

This session includes oral presentations of four research papers, followed by questions and an open discussion.

Themes: Artist-in-residence programmes; artist-researcher collaborations; contemporary research landscape

Lead Convenor: Anna Orrghen, Uppsala University, Sweden
Co-convenors: Erika Sigvardsdotter,Uppsala University, Sweden

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.

----

[2] The Album as Archive: photography, materiality and colonialism.

From: Holly O'Farrell
Date: Oct 25, 2026

This session invites papers that explore photographic albums as visual expressions of the cultural politics of colonialism during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Produced across imperial and cross-cultural contexts, photographic albums offer valuable insights into how individuals and communities documented and interpreted experiences of travel and place through the collection and arrangement of photographs. Building on theories of materiality and on the work of scholars such as Elizabeth Edwards and Martha Langford, this session asks what photograph albums can tell us about the visual cultures of colonialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?

More than passive repositories of images, albums reveal layers of meaning through their material form. This session asks what photographic albums can tell us about the visual cultures of colonialism and the ways in which photography contributed to the production and circulation of knowledge about people, places and cultures. It encourages analysis of how photographers, journalists, writers, travellers, collectors, and album compilers used photographic collections to construct narratives, assert authority, preserve memories and reinforce or contest colonial ideologies through visual storytelling. By emphasising the photograph album as both a personal and ideological object, this session seeks to advance conversations about materiality, visuality and the role of photographic albums in producing, preserving and contesting colonial ways of seeing.

Themes: Photography, colonialism, materialism

Lead Convenor: Holly O’Farrell, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland
Co-convenors: Justin Carville, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland

Guidelines for submitting to AAH 2027 panels can be found here; https://forarthistory.org.uk/conference-2027-exeter-aah-2027-call-for-papers/

250-word abstracts for papers are due 25 October 2026 through the AAH 2027 submission form: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/auth?redirect=/stages/82494/submitter

----