Enfilade

Performing Research: Art History Not For Publication
Courtauld Institute, London, 6 May 2011

Proposals due by 10 January 2011

This conference seeks to explore the clarity, diversity, and freedom that can come from presenting art historical research directly to an audience, as opposed to through traditional publishing routes in books or academic journals. Shifting away from more static forms of analysis encouraged by the inevitable limitations of print-based media, the conference will investigate and exploit the evolving technologies at the disposal of researchers. It will give an opportunity for scholars at all stages of their careers to experiment with dynamic, alternative methods of communicating research, allowing and encouraging the format of papers to both reflect and directly comment upon the subject presented.

Building on seminar workshops on Art History and TV, Art History and Radio, and Art History and the Internet, the group invites abstracts for short 15 minute papers from all areas of the discipline. In each case the art historical research presented should be further elucidated through a novel and alternative presentation method, be it visual, aural, or action-based. Joint papers or collaborations between art historians, or between art historians and practitioners from other disciplines (especially the visual arts) are welcome and encouraged. In keeping with this ethos conference recordings will be archived in an open online forum. Possible papers: (more…)

Urban History Group Annual Conference: Leisure, Pleasure, and the Urban Spectacle
Robinson College, University of Cambridge, 31 March — 1 April 2011

Proposals for Sessions and Papers due by 29 October 2010

This conference theme broadly explores the pursuit of pleasure in the context of the history of towns and cities. The conference organisers are interested in investigating the significance of specifically urban forms of pleasure and leisure for understanding the historical dynamics of social, economic and cultural relationships. Towns and cities have historically offered an array of pleasures to cater for ever larger concentrations of people. The types of leisure activities available to urban populations have never remained static; indeed, changing social and economic conditions have transformed popular leisure patterns over time as well as across urban space. The pursuit of pleasure, both licit and illicit, has adapted with the changing relationship between work and leisure. As working hours became increasingly rigid during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, so too did leisure time. The lack of free time was further exacerbated by growing pressures on land use. Thus, the pursuit of pleasure was increasingly set aside for specific buildings (inns, brothels, theatres, music halls and, more recently, fitness centres) or clearly delineated spaces (botanical gardens, public parks, public walks, gated communities and even the internet) where access could, in theory, be carefully managed. Cities, seaside towns and holiday resorts were also developed to specifically cater for a variety of tastes and pleasures. Once it was recognised that there was money to be made out of the pursuit of pleasure, cities became intertwined with the business of leisure and began to market themselves as centres of tourism, heritage and culture. Some issues that the conference seeks to consider include: (more…)

The conference ends where HECAA begins, but this early phase of Orientalism may still be relevant for dixhuitièmistes thinking about the topic. This is, incidentally, the first time I’ve ever seen the following in a CFP: send “a brief cv or a reference to your personal website.” For more information, see the conference website:

The Dialectics of Orientalism in Early Modern Europe, 1492-1700
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 7-8 October 2011

Proposals due by 15 November 2010

In early modern Europe, discourses on and images of the Orient and Islam are inextricably tied to the rise of national consciousness and the formation of a European identity as several Western states were striving for imperial supremacy. The goal of this international and interdisciplinary conference is to explore the dialectical function of early modern Orientalism for the creation of different notions of a collective self: national, European, and/or imperial.

We invite proposals for contributions that analyze the multiple uses of an imaginary Islam and Orient and compare at least two national orientalist discourses and/or the intersection of nation-building and the invention of Europeanness catalyzed through these discourses. Beyond being simplifications, what role do stereotypes play in the complex and often contradictory rhetorical dynamics that served to articulate, implement and promote both internal policies and supranational endeavors of imperial supremacy? To whom are these stereotypical representations addressed and through what media? In what instances does the creation of a fictive homogeneous nation lead to the conceptual “islamization” of minority groups? Is there a competition among European nation-states for the hegemony in the representation of the Oriental, and in which ways does it feed into a transnational rivalry for imperial power? What does the comparison of different national accounts of Orientalism reveal about the supposed homogeneity of the stereotypical Muslim? (more…)