Enfilade

Tracing the Heroic through Gender: 1650, 1750, 1850
Collaborative Research Cente 948, University of Freiburg, 26–28 February 2015

Proposals due by 28 March 2014

In most societies the heroic is in many ways gendered. Attributes of masculinity might first come to mind. Yet, from a historical perspective it becomes apparent that heroizations often also have feminine connotations. The social and cultural production of the heroic cannot be analyzed exclusively in terms of masculinity (and masculinity-studies), nor can we regard women or femininity simply as exceptions in this field. Rather, the relational character of the category gender needs to be taken seriously.

The fundamental relationality, the ‘constructedness’, and the historicity of gender are among the core assumptions in gender studies today. Based on this and by interdisciplinary cooperation the conference will examine forms, mediums and processes of heroization as well as discourses of heroic transgression, exceptionality or veneration for certain periods in time.

In order to give adequate consideration to the complexities of the historical entanglement between gender and heroization, we would like to use gender as an analytical tool in a new way. Speaking metaphorically, one might understand gender as a ‘tracer’ that ‘leads’ us, which way we may uncover new aspects of heroic ideas and concepts.
In today’s natural sciences, a tracer is a substance that helps with the exploration of certain organisms or environments. In experiments, the tracer passes through these environments and reacts to each of them in a different way. Hence, the tracer itself is not the object of study; rather a third element distinguishable from the tracer is explored. Therefore we propose to use gender systematically to ‘trace’ various historical ‘environments’ of the heroic. We are interested in gender relations, men and women as heroes or heroines and their (intersectionally differentiated) construction. Primarily, however, we are interested in

a. the heroic itself,
b. the  historical contexts which shape the heroic,
c. its medial and performative manifestations and
d. its spatiotemporal trends and transformations.

We welcome scholars from all fields of the humanities and social sciences. The conference focusses on areas of European culture at three different points in time—1650, 1750 and 1850—which are to be discussed from the viewpoints of different disciplines. Proposals including an abstract of a maximum 2000 characters and a one-page
CV should be submitted by March 28, 2014 to gender@sfb948.uni-freiburg.de. The conference will be held in English. A collection of essays based on selected presentations from the conference is to be published. An extended version of the call for papers with further conceptual research questions can be found here.

Art as Cultural Diplomacy: (Re)Constructing Notions of Eastern and Western Europe
Berlin, 28–29 March 2014

Proposals due by 25 February 2014

Panel Organizer: Cassandra Sciortino, University of California, Santa Barbara

As part of the Third Euroacademia International Conference Re-Inventing Eastern Europe to be held in Berlin, the panel Art as Cultural Diplomacy seeks papers that explore the function of art (in its broadest definition) as an instrument of cultural diplomacy by the state and, especially, by nongovernmental actors. The main theme of the session is the question of art and diplomacy in Europe before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Papers are welcome that explore issues related to the role of art, diplomacy and the politicization of the European Union and its candidate countries, as are those which consider how the arts have pursued or resisted East-West dichotomies and other narratives of alterity in Europe and worldwide. The panel seeks to combine a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives to explore how art—its various practices, history, and theory—are an important area of inquiry in the expanding field of cultural diplomacy. Selected papers will be invited for publication in a book.

Some examples of topics include:
• How can art serve as a neutral platform for exchange to promote dialogue and understanding between states?
• How can art, including organized festivals (i.e. film, art, music), cultivate transnational identities that undermine dichotomies of East and West, and other narratives of alterity in Europe and beyond it?
• The implications for art as an instrument of diplomacy in a postmodern age where geopolitics and power are increasingly mobilized by image-based structures of persuasion
• How has/can art facilitate cohesion between European Union member states and candidate states that effectively responds to the EU’s efforts to create ‘unity in diversity’?
• The politics of mapping Europe: mental and cartographic
• Community-based art as a social practice to engage issues of European identity
• The difference between art as cultural diplomacy and propaganda
• The digital revolution and the emergence of social media as platforms for art to communicate across social, cultural, and national boundaries?
• Diplomacy in the history of art in Europe and Eastern Europe
• Artists as diplomats
• Art history as diplomacy—exhibitions, post-colonial criticism, global art history, and other revisions to the conventional boundaries of Europe and its history of art
• The international activity of cultural institutes

If interested in participating, please send an abstract (maximum of 300 words) together with the details of your affiliation until 25th of February 2014 to cassandra.sciortino@berkeley.edu and application@euroacademia.eu. More information is available here

Family Patronage in Early Modern Genoa, Rome, and Venice, 1500–1750
Bibliotheca Hertziana—Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome, 8 September 2014

Proposals due by 15 April 2014

Among the increasingly monarchic arena of Early Modern Europe, the powerful Italian cities of Genoa, Rome, and Venice are exceptional. Genoa and Venice, the largest remaining republics in Italy, predominated the financial, mercantile, and military spheres of the Mediterranean. Rome’s religious authority and historical cachet, along with its sizable territory, were the foundations of its leading position. All three of these cities stand out for their oligarchic
power structures; while Genoa and Venice were led by governments elected from a restricted book of families, Rome fostered an aristocracy both parallel to and participating in the electoral principle of the Papal court. Therefore, in the absence of hereditary lords, power and prestige was shared among the ruling families. As a result, in all of these cities, the families could remain powerful even as the government changed.

Central challenges for these cities’ aristocratic families were how to figure their relationships to local power structures and balancing their own interests against those of the communal state. The particular social-political contexts nurtured different forms and strategies of representation than those deployed in monarchic and ducal societies. The oligarchic aristocracy had to submit to an abstract concept shaped by values and virtues such as equality and liberty rather than to a dynastic authority. Each of these societies experienced turning points when their political structures shifted and opened to new families—be they from outside the city or from non-noble stock—and their ruling classes sought new methods of representation and patronage to assert their role in the changed social scene. The reforms of 1576 to Genoa’s oligarchic government, the rising status of papal families in seventeenth-century Rome, and the opening of the Libro d’Oro in the context of Venice’s wars against the Ottoman Turks in the late seventeenth century were all moments from which such changes arose.

Against this background, this study day seeks to compare the demands and strategies of art and architectural patronage among these non-dynastic aristocratic groups. Although Genoa and Venice have often been mentioned in chorus, they have never been directly and critically compared. Because of their diverse political alliances and statuses, the differences in their governmental structures, as well as their differing territorial dispositions, two distinct types of an early modern republic developed. Furthermore, the exemplary role of Rome for the non-monarchic sphere—its permeable system of social ascension—still asks for a more differentiated view. While scholarship often focuses on the Papacy of Rome and likens it to a monarchy, we seek to understand the strategies of the ruling class while not in power.

We invite abstracts from scholars in all stages of their careers addressing key aspects and questions such as the following:
– How did individual families present themselves vis-a-vis rival families or  the state?
– How and when did these representations take place?
– What were the spaces used for representation and how were they marked?
– How did these strategies change or shift through time or across political changes?
– Can we identify instances of collective patronage or patterns of patronage?
– Are there collective representations or patterns of representation?
– Did strategies differ between sacred and secular contexts? If so, how?
– How do we conceive of the dialectic of public / private in these societies?

Proposals for 25-minute papers should include the title of the paper, a 250– to 300-word abstract, the author’s institutional affiliation, a one-page CV, and full contact information. Papers may be submitted in English, French, German, and Italian. Proposals should be sent to both: Benjamin Eldredge (Bibliotheca Hertziana) eldredge@biblhertz.it and Bettina Morlang-Schardon (Bibliotheca Hertziana), morlangschardon@biblhertz.it.

From the conference website:

Enlightenment Senses? Eighteenth-Century Sensorium(s), Theory and Experience
Centre for Enlightenment Studies at King’s, King’s College London, 13–14 June 2014

Proposals due by 8 March 2014

The senses mattered a great deal in the eighteenth century. Sensibility, sympathy, and Lockean subject theory were all overwhelming concerned with the senses, and ‘The Enlightenment’ is often seen as a crucial breaking point in how we have historically understood and used our senses. Historical narratives that stress the increased value placed on the rationality of vision and the primacy of touch over the eighteenth century—gaining prominence over the sense of smell as a method of evaluation—are much contested today. Scholars such as Foucault, Horkheimer and Adorno, and Lucien Febvre have emphasized the manifold changes in the way the senses were thought about and used during the Enlightenment. At a broader level Mark Smith has stated that

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the senses informed the emergence of social classes, race and gender conventions, industrialization, urbanization, colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, ideas concerning selfhood and “other,” to list the most obvious developments typically associated with the “modern” era (Mark Smith, Sensing The Past, Berg, 2007, p.1).

This two-day conference aims to bring together those concerned with the social and cultural history of the senses in the period from 1650 to 1790 as well as those working on literary or intellectual histories of the senses in an attempt to encourage a more active dialogue between these areas. The conference aims to link ‘sensory histories’, concerned with embodied sensory experience and representation, with ‘histories of the senses’ in which the intellectual and medical understandings of the senses are foregrounded. Papers are invited that reflect on the wide variety of issues described above and their connections with notions of ‘Enlightenment’. We particularly welcome papers that seek to critique the utility of the ‘Enlightenment’ for the understanding of the senses in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Proposals are invited from across disciplines for papers of 20 minutes in length. Proposals of up to 300 words should be sent to enlightenmentsenses@kcl.ac.uk with a brief biography attached.

Conference and Edited Volume | A Dialogue of the Arts
The Relationship of Exterior and Interior: Descriptions of Architecture and Interiors
Institute of History of Art, University of Zurich, 23–24 October 2014

Proposals due by 28 February 2014

Keynote Speaker: Cornelia Jöchner (Ruhr-Universität Bochum Kunstgeschichtliches Institut)

The project A Dialogue of the Arts is a long-term concept, which includes Early Modern Times to the present and this for all places, exploring the possibilities of widening and enriching the methods of History of Art. The papers presented at these biannual conferences are subsequently published.

A Dialogue of the Arts: The Relationship of Exterior and Interior: Descriptions of Architecture and Interiors in Literature of Early Modern Times to the Present

During the earlier conferences of 2010 and 2012, which dealt with Descriptions of Architecture in Literature of Early Modern Times to the Present and Descriptions of Interior Design in Literature of Early Modern Times to the Present, the third conference is devoted to the relationship of architectural interior and exterior aspects and this again relying on literature of different languages from Early Modern Times to the present. The first two conferences have shown us that literary descriptions of different times and languages witness the time in which they are written: they are on the one hand an important contribution for understanding the development of methods; on the other hand they can disclose new interdisciplinary dialogues. The presentations and the following publication of the foregoing conference have shown clearly that literary texts of different genres like prose, poetry, travelogues, diaries as well as letters and other categories are door openers not only for new art historian perceptions, but also can give hints to new methods of our discipline. This means not only the breaking up of the periodical conception of history of art, but also the architectural and spatial categories defined by history of art.

These are also the intentions of the third conference, dedicated to the relation of inside and outside of architecture in literary descriptions. How far and how deep literary descriptions can scrutinize the methods of art history and in which extent this will be possible. Furthermore, the conference is interested in papers showing new perspectives for the discipline, being able to engage and continue new dialogues for the different shifts of time and genres. We particularly encourage the submission of proposals that crosscut cultural contexts, present diachronic perspectives or establish relationships between different universes.

Submissions for a 30-minute presentation and edited volume should be forwarded to the Scientific Committee, which will proceed to a peer review. Submissions should be sent by email to barbara.vonorelli@khist.uzh.ch until 28th February 2014, with “CFP Dialogue of the Arts 2014” as the subject. The abstracts should include only title and a maximum of 500 words; the abstract must be accompanied by a separate file with a curriculum vitae (maximum: 1 page), that must include personal identification elements, the submission title, academic affiliation and a selection of a maximum of 5 bibliographic references.

Working Languages: English / German / French / Italian

ABO Public: An Interactive Forum for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830
Proposals due by 15 March 2014; final contributions due by 15 April 2014

ABO: Interactive Journal  for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830 is pleased to announce ABO Public: An Interactive Forum for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830.

Launching in April 2014, ABOPublic is a new public scholarship forum that integrates public and academic interests through intersecting feminist perspectives on gender, sexuality, race, class, privilege, geography, politics, culture, and the arts. Each issue may explore different themes related to eighteenth-century studies. ABOPublic invites submissions that  consider any of the topics below or other topics relating to eighteenth century studies. For our first issue, we are particularly interested in (although not limited to) submissions that explore the nature of public scholarship in the eighteenth century, or public scholarship about the eighteenth century. Consider it our “meta issue.”

Bawdy Houses
Brewing/Alcohol Production
Children’s Literature and Public Scholar Programs
Coffee Houses and Coffee House Culture
Cookery
Faith-Based Furniture
Fashion/Fashion Culture/Material Culture
Female Pirates
Girl’s Education
Gossip/Secret Histories
Midwifery and Medicine
Natural History and Science
Postcolonial Approaches to the Eighteenth Century
Publishing and Print Culture
Queer Approaches to the Eighteenth Century
Religion and Missionary Work
Slavery/Colonialism
The Theater and Performance
Transatlanticism
Women’s Roles in Whaling
Women of Color and the Eighteenth Century
Women and Travel

Submissions should fit into one of the following categories. See the categories below for a more detailed description:

Bluestocking Salon
The Eighteenth Century in Popular Culture
Public Pedagogy/New Media Pedagogy
News and Discoveries

Proposals must be submitted through our online submission form before March 15, 2014. Final contributions must be received by April 15, 2014 for publication in the March issue. Before submitting a proposal, please review our submission guidelines. General inquiries may be sent to abopublic@aphrabehn.org.

The Period Room: Museum, Material, Experience
The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, 19–20 September 2014

Proposals due by 31 March 2014

Since the late 19th century the Period Room has been a consistent presence in the public museum, and yet over the past 25 years the Period Room has become a contentious museum object, leading many museums to question the legitimacy of the Period Room as an effective and appropriate method of display and interpretation. As dislocated fragments, often remodelled to fit the spaces of the museum, the Period Room is, for some, a signifier for the inauthentic, an outmoded method of display and a representation of unfashionable museum interpretation. The problems associated with Period Rooms are exacerbated by the fact that they are large and bulky objects, difficult and expensive to redisplay or reinterpret. Many museums retain their Period Room displays, but the recent changes in the perspectives on Period Rooms have also led a number of museums in the UK, Europe and the USA to reconsider their continued relevance as museum objects, to dismantle and deaccession the displays, and in some cases to repatriate the Period Rooms to their places of origin (if that still exists of course).

This conference, held at the Bowes Museum, which redisplayed its own collection of Period Rooms in 2007–10, aims to consider the Period Room from a wide variety of perspectives in order to address some key questions about Period Rooms and the history of Period Rooms display in Museums: Should Period Rooms be considered objects in their own right, or merely ‘contexts’ for related material? How, and in what ways, did Period Rooms satisfy ideas of museum interpretation, and how and why did these attitudes change? What was the role of the evolving frameworks of national/local heritage in the appearance of Period Rooms in museums? What were/are the theoretical, technical and aesthetic frameworks for the display of Period Rooms in museums? How, and in what ways, is the Period Room different from, or similar to, the Historic Interior?

We invite papers to explore these themes and relationships from a wide range of perspectives and from a wide range of organisations, institutions and disciplines, from academics (historians, art historians, literary and film historians), museum curators and professionals, exhibition designers, technicians and craft-workers):

Themes for consideration may include:
• The processes of the circulation, display and redisplay of Period Rooms
• The dealers, merchants, decorators, collectors, and museum curators and their roles in the changing taste for the Period Room
• Case Studies of Period Rooms—the history of specific displays in museums and other public institutions; their provenance, removal and reconstruction; display and interpretation
• The philosophical history of the Period Room as a particular mode of engagement with the past—as an historical space, as a space of historical empathy, and as an immersive environment
• The material and technical aspects of Period Room display—the challenges of redisplay in museum contexts, what the objects reveal about the history of their making and the history of museum interpretation.
• The ‘Period Room’ in literature, film and visual culture— how was/is the Period Room/Historic Interior imagined, and what can these perspectives tell us about how we engage with the Period Room in the museum?

Please send abstracts of no more than 400 words to the conference organisers:
Dr Mark Westgarth (University of Leeds), m.w.westgarth@leeds.ac.uk
Dr Jane Whittaker (The Bowes Museum), jane.whittaker@thebowesmuseum.org.uk
Dr Howard Coutts (The Bowes Museum), howard.coutts@thebowesmuseum.org.uk

2015 Issue of Horti Hesperidum: Living Images
Proposals due by 28 February 2014; complete papers due by 31 July 2014

The biannual journal Horti Hesperidum intends to devote the first issue of 2015 to ‘Living Images’. Literary texts can serve as a source for documenting an anthropological phenomenon during Classical Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Modern Age: images perceived as living beings, capable of talking, acting and interacting with us. Special attention will be paid to the following topics:
1. The relationship between believers and devotional images;
2. Ekphrastic descriptions of living, talking, ‘real’ images;
3. Iconoclasm, i.e. the desire to ‘kill’ images in each historical age.

The titles of proposed contributions, together with an abstract of not more than 2500 characters (including spaces) and a CV, should be e-mailed to the journal’s editors by 28th February 2014 (horti-hesperidum@libero.it).

Whenever an abstract is accepted, the editorial board will consider the complete paper by 31 July 2014. This should not exceed 65,000 characters, including spaces, and may be accompanied by up to 10 images at a resolution of 300 dpi. If protected by copyright, permission to reproduce images should already have been obtained.

The Sculpture of the Écorché
Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 7 June 2014

Proposals due by 17 February 2014

This one-day conference takes the écorché as its subject, reconsidering the many ways in which it has been understood in relation to sculpture from the sixteenth century to the present day. We are interested in how the écorché has been variously seen and employed:
•    as a teaching tool and as a model for the education of sculptors
•    as a scientific, three-dimensional demonstration model
•    in relation to the idealised forms of classical sculpture
•    as sculpture in its own right, produced, reproduced and circulated in different forms
•    as sculptural process and in relation to the figurative sculptural imagination

The écorché has frequently operated across disciplinary boundaries and registers of respectability. Makers of wax écorchés in the eighteenth century, such as the Florentine Clemente Susini (1754–1814), were highly acclaimed during their lifetimes, with their work sought by prestigious collectors. For instance in 1781 the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II commissioned Susini to make a collection for the Museum of the Medical University of Vienna. From 1799 Susini was engaged as a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, demonstrating the regard in which his work was held for the education of artists.

By the nineteenth century, however, wax came to be seen as a merely preparatory or even a disreputable medium for sculpture, with its capacity for forensic detail and mimetic reproduction of bone, muscle and skin operating against the prevailing neoclassical tendency towards ideal form. As a result of this change in taste, the écorché in plaster of Paris, with both plain and coloured surfaces, became the primary teaching object for anatomical studies in European Academies and Schools of Art.

Papers are invited which draw out the relationships between sculpture and the écorché, looking at objects and makers from the sixteenth century onwards. Please send a 250-word abstract and a short CV to Dr Rebecca Wade (rebecca.wade@henry-moore.org) by Monday 17 February 2014.

This conference coincides with the Artistic Practice and the Medical Museum conference at the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London on 6 June 2014.