Enfilade

From the BSECS website:

British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference
St Hugh’s College, Oxford, 4-6 January 2012

Proposals due 30 September 2011

The annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe’s largest and most prestigious annual conference dealing with all aspects of the history, literature, and culture of the long eighteenth century. We invite proposals for papers and sessions dealing with any aspect of the long eighteenth century, not only in Britain, but also throughout Europe, North America, and the wider world. Proposals are invited for fully comprised panels of three or four papers, for roundtable sessions of up to five speakers, for individual papers, and for ‘alternative format’ sessions of your devising.

While proposals on all and any eighteenth-century topics are very welcome, this year the conference theme will be Landscapes & Environments. We would thus particularly welcome proposals for panels and papers that address eighteenth-century uses of, and attitudes to, landscapes and environments of all kinds, throughout the long eighteenth century and in any part of the world. These might include, but will not be confined to: changes in the landscape (including urban landscapes) and environment; climate and weather (for example ‘the great storm’ of 1703); ‘greening’ the eighteenth century; landscape gardening; enclosure; pastoral; the picturesque; sacred landscapes; ruins and archaeology; representations of the landscape; and meanings and significance given to landscapes and environments, in all fields from history to the arts, literature, and philosophy.

All enquiries regarding the academic programme of the conference should be addressed to the academic programme co-ordinator, Dr Corinna Wagner (academic@bsecs.org.uk). Proposals are due by Friday 30 September. Registration will be available in September and you will be notified whether your paper has been accepted or not by Friday 21 October. For more information please see the BSECS website.

Alternative Venues: Artists’ Solo Shows and Other Exhibits beyond the Academy and the Salon, 1700-2000

Abstracts due by 1 December 2011

I am putting together a volume of essays devoted to the subject of single-artist, thematic, and single-object exhibitions from the eighteenth century through the twentieth, organized and displayed outside of academic jurisdiction, in most cases by the artist her/himself. It is tentatively called Alternative Venues. Essays will explore the functions, meanings, organizational and visual structures, and/or successes/failures of artists’ solo shows (e.g., Courbet’s Pavilion of Realism), exhibitions of thematically unified work by a single artist (e.g., Fuseli’s Milton Gallery), and displays of single art objects (e.g., David’s Intervention of the Sabine Women). It is my hope that the collection as a whole will highlight the innovation and modernity of such exhibitions, while perhaps setting their motivations and functions into relief against similar displays in the contemporary art world, where the solo show is the benchmark of artistic success for the living artist. Publishing interest has already been expressed by a very reputable press, famed for such volumes of art historical essays. Please send a CV and 3-5 page abstract by December 1, 2011 to Andrew Graciano, Associate Chair and Graduate Director, Department of Art, University of South Carolina, 1615 Senate Street, Columbia, SC 29208; or by email at graciano@mailbox.sc.edu.

Participants will be notified in January 2012. Full drafts of accepted essays are due by March 2012. Projected publication date is early to mid 2013.

The 2011 annual conference for the Universities Art Association of Canada (UAAC/AAUC) will be hosted by Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, from Thursday, October 27th, to Saturday, October 29th. The following list of sessions suggests the possibilities for eighteenth-century papers. A one-page proposal and CV should be sent to the session chair by May 15. Presenters must become members of UAAC. For more information and the full call for papers (including the French), please visit the conference website.

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Drawings from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Day
Chairs: Jen Diorio and Janina M. Knight, 2jmk1@queensu.ca

This session calls for papers that explore topics relating to the important role of drawing in art and architecture. Papers can discuss the role of the drawing as a preparatory step in the artistic process, or how a drawing can be created and exist as a work of art in its own right. How can drawings aid art historians in understanding the true intentions of artists and architects? How can drawings be used to reveal otherwise unknown aspects of an artist’s working process? In what ways can drawings enlighten us as to the meaning of particular works of art or architectural designs? We invite submissions that discuss the role of drawing in European art and architecture from the fifteenth century to the present day.

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“The Barbarous Gaudy Goût”: Encounters between East and West in Early Modern Art
Chairs: Je Eric Weichel, 6ejw@queensu.ca, and Allison Fisher, 1anf@queensu.ca

In 1749, Elizabeth Montagu wrote “we must all seek the barbarous gaudy goût of the Chinese; and fat-headed Pagods and shaking Mandarins bear the prize from the finest works of antiquity.” Montagu’s satirical description of chinoiserie is one of the most famous commentaries on the process of aesthetic and artistic contact between Asia and Europe. This session seeks papers reflecting the cultural communication between East Asia and Western Europe in a range of diverse media, including ceramics, painting, textiles, pattern and lacquer. We are specifically interested in the dialogue between China and Japan and Britain, France and Italy from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Subjects could include: activities of the East India Company or the VOC, chinoiseries, textile trade and conservation, landscape design, architecture, tea drinking and ceremonies, consumption of exotic commodities, food history, portraiture, costume history, mission work, archaeological investigations, and Impressionist japonisme.

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The Global Baroque in Postcolonial Perspective
Chairs: Stephanie Dickey and Gauvin Alexander Bailey, dickeys@queensu.ca

This session seeks papers concerned with visual and material culture around the world in the period ca. 1580- 1750. In this era of colonial and economic expansion, artists and architects frequently traveled outside their home countries for work or inspiration, while paintings and prints functioned as internationally-traded commodities. We are especially interested in case studies that explore the creative dynamic produced by interactions between artists, artworks, and/or consumers of art from divergent cultures. This might include intersections both within the European continent (e.g., Netherlandish artists in Rome or Prague) and between Europe and the wider world (e.g., French architecture in Quebec, European artists in Asia or the Ottoman Empire, etc.).

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Landscape of Ruins
Chairs: Karla McManus, karla.mcmanus@gmail.com, and Luke Nicholson, ld_nicho@alcor.concordia.ca

The ruin is a charged concept, evoking both wreckage and the possibility of renewal. In architectural and landscape painting, drawing and printmaking, the ruin has a long history as an emblem of civilization’s decay, the sublime possibilities of destruction, and a warning against hubris. More recently, ruination has returned to envision the future collapse of contemporary civilization, brought on by ecological, cultural or political disaster. Time-based technologies, such as photography, video and film, have emerged as central in the representation of ruination today. Proposals are invited on any aspect of the landscapes of ruin, in any medium and historical period.

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The Signature of the Artist
Chairs: Franziska Gottwald and David de Witt, franziskagottwald@googlemail.com

Signatures of artists have been known since Antiquity, and are often found as name, monogram, or symbol. In the Renaissance, many signatures were written in Latin and sometimes expanded into an assertion of the artist’s intellectual and manual work. But such inscriptions are not the only kind of authorial signature to be identified in art. The artist’s typified style of painting or etching can also serve as a signature. This panel seeks papers that discuss the different meanings of “signature” from a range of periods and contexts, and addresses questions such as: artistic commentary, self-representation, and the aesthetics of the signature of the artist.

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Prints and Cross-Cultural Encounters, 1600-1850
Chair: Stéphane Roy, stephane_roy@carleton.ca

In recent years, “globalization” has coloured the historian’s practice, leading scholars to widen their scope in order to get a more comprehensive look at modern and early modern societies. Evidence of cross-cultural connections seems indeed to abound, from the propagation of Caravaggio’s style through the paintings of foreign artists to the use of printed text to disseminate ideas during the Enlightenment. But perhaps no other medium can better testify to the vigour of cultural exchanges than printmaking itself. As works of portable dimension, prints had the natural ability of connecting cultures, shaping and fashioning ideas; they could also be reinterpreted and given new meanings in different cultural environments. Preliminary evidence indicates that interactions between European (and, later, North-American) printmakers resulted in cultural transfers that have not been without consequences on the shaping of national identities. Just as with literature and political theory (areas enriched and transformed by “international” dialogue), the effects of cosmopolitism were equally felt in the world of visual arts. Measuring those effects, however, has yet to be done. How did these elements of intercultural connections translate into visual terms? Are there indications pointing to the existence of a common iconographical lexicon based on shared values or ideals? Does the practice of printmaking itself challenge the long-standing tradition of “national schools”?

By using the print medium as a prime vehicle for cross-cultural encounters, this panel welcomes proposals in both English and French dealing with the following issues: circulation of prints in different national contexts; visual recycling of specific visual motifs; existence of recurring themes and common visual codes; advertisement of foreign prints in newspapers; role of print sellers as cross-cultural intermediaries; artists travel and correspondence; development of national styles using “foreign” engraving techniques; dissemination of painters’ work in different national contexts; international art trade; and representation of otherness in prints.

In reviewing the regular call for papers for next year’s CAA conference, please note that HECAA will also be sponsoring a special New Scholars Session. The deadline is slightly later than the regular due date for proposals. Questions should be directed to the session chair, Kevin Chua.

HECAA New Scholars Session at CAA in Los Angeles, 22-25 February 2012
Kevin Chua, Texas Tech University, kchua71@yahoo.com

Proposals due by 1 June 2011

This session seeks papers from new scholars in the field of eighteenth-century art and architecture. The panel will consist of three to four short papers. Each presentation should be about 15-20 minutes. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the delivery of all the papers. Please submit a 300-word abstract and curriculum vitae via email to Dr. Kevin Chua at: kevin.chua@ttu.edu. Session participants should be HECAA members in good standing, and preferably have obtained their PhD degree after 2009, or be ABD.

From the MWCBS:

Midwest Conference on British Studies 57th Annual Meeting
Indiana State University, Terre Haute, 4-6 November 2011

Proposals due by 15 April 2011

The Midwest Conference on British Studies is proud to announce that its fifty-seventh annual meeting will be hosted by Indiana State University in Terre Haute, IN. The plenary speaker will be Paula Backscheider, Phillpott-Stephens Eminent Scholar of English Literature at Auburn University, and author of Eighteenth Century Women Poets and Their Poetry. Peter Bailey, Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, and the author of Leisure and Class in Victorian England, will deliver the keynote address. The program will also include panels honoring the career of Hilda Smith, Professor at the University of Cincinnati, and author of All Men and Both Sexes.

The MWCBS seeks papers from scholars in all fields of British Studies, broadly defined to include those who study England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Britain’s empire. We welcome scholars from the broad spectrum of disciplines, including but not limited to history, literature, political science, gender studies and art history. Proposals for complete sessions are preferred, although proposals for individual papers will be considered. Especially welcome are roundtables and panels that:
* offer cross-disciplinary perspectives on topics in British Studies
* discuss collaborative or innovative learning techniques in the British Studies classroom
* situate the arts, letters, and sciences in a British cultural context
* examine representations of British and imperial/Commonwealth national identities
* consider Anglo-American relations, past and present
* examine new trends in British Studies
* assess a major work or body of work by a scholar (more…)