Enfilade

From H-ArtHist:

Edited Collection of Essays: Equestrian Cultures, 1700–Present
Proposals due by 28 February 2015

Pictured in wonderfully textured shades of sepia, the horses of Roberto Dutesco’s photographic Sable Island series are beautiful, larger than life, and undeniably Other. They come alive on the walls of urban art galleries, and in doing so they both reaffirm and unsettle our conceptions of what it means to be ‘horse’. Liminally situated between rural and urban, domestic and wild, aesthetic object and independent subject, Dutesco’s Sable Island horses are both eminently real beings with their own experiences of worlding, and representations that speak to Western, hegemonic discourses of the nonhuman. What is ‘horse’? How have they been represented within literature and the arts? What is their relationship to humans, and how has their presence altered human society over time? These questions, along with the complex instability of the equine nonhuman, are the subject of this essay collection. We invite papers that explore the role and representation of horses in human culture from 1700 to the present in a wide array of geographies and contexts, and from multiple disciplinary perspectives within the humanities. Papers that explore horses in non-Anglocentric equestrian cultures are especially welcome. (more…)

From the conference website:

Fashion, the 84th Anglo-American Conference of Historians
Senate House, London, 2–3 July 2015

Proposals due by 15 December 2014

In a major collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the IHR is taking Fashion as the theme for its annual conference in summer 2015. Fashion in history is a topic which has come of age in recent years, as scholars have turned to addressing what is chic and what is style over the ages and across different cultures. The history of fashion, and the role of fashion in history, is not just confined to the study of dress and costume, but encompasses design and innovation, taste and zeitgeist, treats as its subjects both people and objects, and crosses over into related disciplines such as the history of art and architecture, consumption, retailing and technology. And across the world, fashion brings together museums, graduate teaching programmes, learned societies and the fashion profession around a common set of interests and concerns. The IHR conference next year we hope will be a perfect showcase and a meeting-point for the wide spectrum of specialists in this exciting field.

Our plenary speakers include Christopher Breward (Edinburgh), Beverly Lemire (Alberta), Ulinka Rublack (Cambridge) and Valerie Steele (Fashion Institute of Technology, New York). Proposals for panels on the themes of dress, imitation and emulation, taste and style, body-art, the fashion-industry and its media, fashionability and trend-setting, catwalks, fairs and exhibitions, innovation in interior design, architecture and public space, fashion education and technology will be accepted down to the middle of December. Individual paper proposals will also be accepted. Panels should comprise three papers and a chair, and proposals must include the name and affiliation of the speakers, the title of the panel and the titles of the individual papers. Please send proposals by 15th December toIHR.Events@sas.ac.uk Decisions will be made known once the Programme Committee has met in early January 2015.

From cfp.english.upenn.edu:

The Many Faces of Slavery: Non-Traditional Slave Experiences in the Atlantic World
University of Montpellier, 21–22 May 2015

Proposals due by 31 January 2015

Plenary speakers: Professor Jacques de Cauna (CNRS/EHESS CIRESC) and Professor Herbert S. Klein (Columbia University)

By the 18th century, racial slavery had matured into a fully-fledged, firmly established, profitable form of labour in the Atlantic World. In slave societies, the development of the plantation unit led both to the geographical concentration of the slave population and to a growing homogenization of the activities bondsmen performed. However, throughout the Atlantic World, the existence of phenomena such as urban slavery, slave self-hiring, quasi-free or nominal slaves, domestic slave concubines, slave vendors, slave sailors, slave preachers, slave overseers, and many other types of “societies with slaves,” broadens our traditional conception of slavery by complicating the slave experience. This conference does not aim to challenge the significance of the plantation system, but, by using it as a paradigm, seeks to assess the extent and nature of non-traditional forms of slavery in the context of the historical evolution of labour in the Atlantic World.

In order to do so, this conference seeks to ask the following questions:
Were certain locations, historical periods and economic conditions more favourable to the diversification of the slave experience? How does the variety of slave experience inform the essence of slavery itself? What strategies did slaves employ to negotiate or manoeuvre themselves into different relationships with their masters or with their societies? Did the privileges that certain slaves benefit from, such as geographic or social mobility, undermine the slave system by subverting the established social and racial order? At what point did slave autonomy develop from an act of the assertion of agency and become an act of rebellion? Could it be argued that the development of non-traditional forms of slavery was the result of deliberate political choices?

The themes this conference endeavours to explore include, but are not limited to:
Urban slavery
Hiring out of slaves and slave self-hire
Industrial slavery
Slave hierarchies within plantation culture
Subsistence slavery
Manumission by self-purchase or by a relative
Nominal or quasi-free slaves
Slaves owned by non-traditional owners (women, free blacks, indigenous people, institutions)
Socialising across legal or racial lines (i.e. between slaves and free people of colour or whites)
Spaces of negotiation
Slave geographic and social mobility
Slaves in the westward migration
Runaway slaves and Maroon communities

Please send proposals of no more than 300 words in English (for papers or panels) and a brief CV mentioning your institutional affiliation to manyfacesofslavery@gmail.com by January 31st, 2015. Notification of acceptance will be sent by February 20th 2015. We welcome papers that cover any region of the Atlantic World as well as proposals for round table discussions.

Conference organisers: Lawrence Aje (University of Montpellier), Catherine Armstrong (Loughborough University), and Lydia Plath (Canterbury Christ Church University).

From the conference website:

Knowing Things: Circulations and Transitions of Objects in Natural History
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany, 23–24 March 2015

Proposals due by 1 December 2014

With this call for papers we invite researchers and young scholars from different fields—including, but not limited to, the history and theory of collections, museum studies, cultural history, art history and aesthetics—to present exemplary moments of transition in the history of natural specimens and to explore the impact of spatial and disciplinary mobility on the history and theory of natural history objects.

The goal of this conference is to contribute to the history and theory of these Wissensdinge (Objects of Knowledge) by reconstructing historical transitions and threshold areas within their institutional contexts, the collection and the museum. Can we identify different phases in the mobility of things of knowledge? How do various spaces of knowledge, such as the laboratory, the collection and the exhibition, influence the ways of handling natural history objects? How do meanings attributed to these objects vary in different contexts? Rather than constructing a ‘biography’ oriented towards the life cycle of the object, should we not instead be telling a history of fractures and shifts? Finally, to what extent does an expanded, multidisciplinary approach impact the use, meaning and presentation of Wissensdinge?

The focus of the conference will be on case studies. These will provide the basis for exploring the degree to which this fundamental characteristic of Wissensdinge—their mobility—can serve as a point of departure for better understanding natural history objects. Using the history of tangible objects within their institutional framework, we want to examine the extent to which Wissensdinge are shaped, not only by their materiality, but rather by their migration through diverse realms of knowledge, through technical settings, and through scientific, political, as well as cultural discourses. Furthermore, we want to ask how these settings and discourses are in turn shaped by things of knowledge. The conference will focus on the time period between the mid-19th century and the present.

The conference is organized by the research department PAN – Perspectives on Nature (Perspektiven auf Natur), Museum für Naturkunde Berlin in cooperation with the scientific collections of the Humboldt-Universität and with the base project “Mobile Objects” in the Cluster of Excellence “Image Knowledge Gestaltung: An interdisciplinary Laboratory.”

The event will take place from March 23rd to 24th, 2015 at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The conference will be held in English. Please include in the application an abstract (max. 500 words) and a short CV. The deadline for submission is December 1st, 2014 at: pan@mfn-berlin.de

Keynote speaker: Lynn K. Nyhart

The complete Call for Papers and additional details are available here»

From H-ArtHist:

The Allure of Rome: João V of Portugal and His Cultural Policy in the European Context
New University, Lisbon, 15–18 July 2015

Proposals due by 19 December 2014

João V (1689–1750) is believed to be the Portuguese Sun King. He not only put Portugal into the European politics raising its prestige to unknown levels but he also developed an ambitious artistic policy supported by huge spending in art, music and luxury items. Considering João V’s transcendence, it is surprising the relatively lack of interest showed by non-Portuguese historians regarding his role in the European cultural context. This panel will deal with the King’s artistic policy in Europe with especial attention to Rome. Rome was the dreamed city of the ‘gentiluomini’ and artists who used to travel to Italy to improve their education and their training. Joao V wanted to spend some time enjoying his own Grand Tour but his political responsibilities didn’t allowed him to take that journey. This ‘viaggio mancato’ was without doubt some kind of frustration and part of his artistic policy can be better understood if we keep that in mind.

The king went through great artistic/cultural investments to display his wealth and power and to achieve a stronger position in Europe, but also because he obviously has a very particular taste. He supported lavish ambassadors entrées, made substantial donations to the Pope and became (in absentia) one of the most generous art patrons in Rome. He commissioned hundreds of masterpieces, namely the magnificent sculptures for his Royal palace in Mafra or the sumptuous San Rocco’s chapel in Lisbon, and he and his courtiers became some of the most influential collectors in the awakening of the Grand Tour. We encourage papers dealing with (but not only):

• Cultural milieu and artistic trade in the Embassies
• The print collection and the Mariettes
• Art market in Rome
• Collectors and diplomats as trade agents for the king

Contact: Pilar Diez del Corral (FCSH, Univ. Nova de Lisboa), pcorral@fcsh.unl.pt

From H-Asia:

Rhetorics of Landscape: Court and Society in the Early Modern World
Proposals due by 21 November 2014

I am seeking targeted contributions for an edited volume exploring the role of landscape in the articulation and expression of imperial and elite identities and the mediation of relationships between courts and their many audiences across the early modern world. Through a series of focused studies from Asia, the Islamic world, and Europe, the volume seeks to illuminate how early modern courts and societies shaped, and were shaped by, the landscape, including both physical sites, such as gardens, palaces, cities and hunting parks, and conceptual ones, such as those of frontiers, idealized polities, and the cosmos. Please see description of the volume rationale below.

Proposals focusing on landscapes from all regions in Asia from the 16th to the 19th century are welcome. Areas of particular interest include, but are by no means limited to, Ming and Qing China; Choson Korea; Tokugawa Japan; pre-colonial Southeast Asia; the Mughal empire; Rajput states; the Ottomans, and Central Asian states. The volume is in preparation for submission to a US-based university press and will be peer-reviewed. Finished essays should be approximately 6,000–9,000 words inclusive of notes.

Potential contributors should plan on submitting a first draft for internal editing and comments by the end of January 2015, with drafts for peer review by 1 April 2015 (there may be some flexibility around deadline; please be in touch if you are interested but need a different schedule). Interested scholars should submit a proposal of 250–500 words and CV by Friday 21 November 2014, to stephen.whiteman@sydney.edu.au. Questions and comments are also welcome.

Stephen Whiteman
Department of Art History & Film Studies
The University of Sydney

(more…)

I’m glad to put in a good word for MAHS, an organization that far exceeds common expectations of a regional society. Particularly because of its commitments to bringing together scholars from both the museum world and the academy, the organization fills a vital need within the field of art history in America. Conference participants will be in for a treat with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ hosting the exhibition Habsburg Splendor: Masterpieces from Vienna’s Imperial Collections during the event. The program will include general sessions on ‘Architecture’, ‘American Art’, ‘Latin American Art’, and ‘Nordic Art’; thematic sessions addressing ‘Midwest Collections’, ‘Representing Non-European Religions in Early Modern Europe’, ‘Clothing, Textiles, and Fiber’, ‘Decorative Arts and Design’, ‘Gender and Sexuality’, and ‘Prints and Drawings’; along with period panels on ‘Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Art’ and ‘Nineteenth-Century Art’. See the newsletter for a full listing. –CH

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Midwest Art History Society Conference
Minneapolis and St. Paul, 26–28 March 2015

Proposals due by 15 December 2014

The University of St. Thomas Department of Art History is pleased to announce that we are co-hosting the 42nd annual Midwest Art History Society Conference with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, with additional support from the Weisman Art Museum and the Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art. The conference will be held in the Twin Cities, March 26–28, 2015. Please consider submitting a proposal to present at the conference. There are a variety of thematic sessions planned, along with open sessions in many fields of the discipline, as well as a panel set aside for research by undergraduates. More information about the event, including descriptions of the sessions and instructions for application, is available in the MAHS newsletter.

From H-ArtHist:

Does your research into architectural history deserve a wider public? The Architectural Review seeks contributors for its new History section, a 1,200-word feature which aims to bring the unexamined to light and open new perspectives on more familiar questions. Any subject relating to architecture or urbanism will be considered, whether it concerns a practice, person, building, exhibition, event, or a wider theme. However, international topics having current relevance for an audience of architects, historians, and non-specialists alike are particularly welcome. The tone should be witty and engaging, but also informed and authoritative.

Forthcoming examples include essays on British architecture on the eve of the First World War, queer Gothic space, Walter Gropius’s Playboy Club in London, and a postwar estate of Scandinavian-style houses for the intelligentsia in Warsaw.

Abstracts of 200 words maximum, plus a short biography, should be sent to the magazine’s History Editor, Tom Wilkinson, tom.wilkinson@emap.com.

From the project website:

Domestic Devotions in the Early Modern World, 1400–1800
St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge, 9–11 July 2015

Proposals due by 7 January 2014

Across faiths and regions and throughout the world, the home was a centre for devotion in the early modern period. Holy books, prayer mats, candlesticks, inscriptions, icons, altars, figurines of saints and deities, paintings, prints and textiles all wove religion into the very fabric of the home. While research into religious practice during this period often focuses on institutions and public ceremonies, it is clear that the home played a profound role in shaping devotional experience, as a place for religious instruction, private prayer and contemplation, communal worship, and the performance of everyday rituals.

The ERC-funded research project Domestic Devotions: The Place of Piety in the Italian Renaissance Home will be hosting this three-day international interdisciplinary conference in July 2015. The project team invites proposals for 20-minute papers that explore domestic devotions in the early modern world. Papers may consider this theme from a variety of perspectives, including material culture studies, art and architectural history, gender studies, theology, religious studies, economic and social history, literary studies, musicology, archaeology and anthropology. Topics may include, though are not limited to

• Religion, ritual and belief in the home
• The use of images, objects or books in private devotion
• Daily life and life cycles
• The relationships between collective (e.g. institutional or non-familial) devotion and private devotion
• The role of the senses in spiritual experience
• The production and ownership of religious objects found in the home
• Gender, race or age and devotional life
• Policing and regulating household religion
• Encounters between different faiths and traditions in domestic context
• Domestic devotional spaces
• Music in domestic devotion
• Devotional literature

Plenary speakers will be Debra Kaplan (Bar-Ilan University), Andrew Morrall (Bard Graduate Center) and Virginia Reinburg (Boston College).

Please email abstracts of no more than 300 words to Maya Corry at mc878@cam.ac.uk, Marco Faini at mf531@cam.ac.uk, and Alessia Meneghin at am2253@cam.ac.uk by 7th January 2015. Along with your abstract please include your name, institution, paper title and a brief biography. Successful applicants will be notified by 7th February 2015.

The conference will take place at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. College accommodation will be bookable nearer the time. Registration fees (tbc) will be kept as low as possible and graduate bursaries will be available to help with costs.