Curatorial Fellowship at the Indianapolis Museum of Art
Allen Whitehill Clowes Curatorial Fellowship
Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2012-2013
Applications due by 30 March 2012
The Indianapolis Museum of Art is pleased to announce a nine-month curatorial fellowship. The fellowship supports scholarly research related to the Clowes Collection at the IMA and provides curatorial training in the field of European painting and sculpture. The Clowes Fellow is fully integrated into the curatorial division of the Museum and has duties comparable to those of an assistant curator, ranging from collection research and management to exhibition development and the preparation of interpretive materials and programs.
To be eligible for the fellowship, the applicant must be enrolled in a graduate course of study leading to an advanced degree in the history of art or a related discipline, or be a recent degree recipient (within the last two years). Applicants must demonstrate scholarly excellence and promise, as well as a strong interest in the museum profession. U.S. citizenship is not required.
The Clowes Fellow will receive a stipend of $18,000 and an educational travel allowance of $2,000. Housing is provided in a scholar’s residence on the grounds of the museum. The nine-month fellowship period will begin September 4, 2012. The appointment is renewable. (more…)
Meet Our New Intern: Ashley Hannebrink
I’m happy to introduce Enfilade’s current intern, Ashley Hannebrink, who already has lots of great ideas in store for the next couple of months. -CH
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Note (added 5 May 2025) — The full postings for interns have been archived offline.
Fellowships in American Art and Visual Culture
Smithsonian American Art Museum Research Fellowships
Washington, D.C.
Applications due by 15 January 2012
The Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., invite applications for research fellowships in art and visual culture of the United States. A variety of predoctoral, postdoctoral, and senior fellowships are available. Fellowships are residential and support independent and dissertation research. The stipend for a one-year fellowship is $30,000 for predoctoral fellows or $45,000 for senior and postdoctoral fellows, plus generous research and travel allowances. The standard term of residency is twelve months, but shorter terms will be considered; stipends are prorated for periods of less than twelve months.
Contact: Fellowship Office, American Art Museum, (202) 633-8353, AmericanArtFellowships@si.edu. For information and a link to the online application, visit the museum’s website.
From Student to Art Historian: Transitioning into Professionalism
As Enfilade’s internship program continues to develop and finds its way, I’m happy to give a large public word of thanks to Amanda Strasik as her two-months with us draws to an end. She’s done a fantastic job tracking down material — much of which was posted under her name (though plenty of things appeared generically under the ‘editor’ label). Even more, she patiently put up with my hectic fall schedule. Here, in her final posting, she, as a first-year Ph.D student, contemplates what the end of her graduate training might bring — all with the help of Amber Ludgwig, whom she interviewed for the essay. Many thanks, Amanda! -CH
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In ruminating over the development of academic identity, I’m grateful to Dr. Amber Ludwig for her insights. — AS
s a new Ph.D. student immersed in the world of the classroom, I’ve already noticed that it’s easy to become absorbed in my own research and neglect greater thought to the existence of the professional world of art history—the very world I’m striving to join. While the completion of my graduate work lies in the distant future, I’ve begun to consider the evolution of my own identity as a young scholar, progressing toward the “transitional phase” that all successful graduate students eventually face, the period when one looks to the job market but still has not entirely shed the identity of a student. In an effort to help demystify the “transition” from student to professional in terms of the development of scholarly identity, Dr. Amber Ludwig, a 2011 doctoral graduate of Boston University, kindly volunteered to share some of her experiences as she went from a “deferential graduate student to a commanding ‘doctor.’” Currently a Curatorial Assistant at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Interim Co-Director of the University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Dr. Ludwig has, through her own insights, encouraged me to conjoin, rather than separate, my identity as a student-professional, in the course of pursuing my own career as a young art historian.
During our interview, Amber mentioned that the dissertation writing process was a period of time when she felt very much alone with her thoughts. As a student, she worked independently on topics of her choosing, and she was really responsible only to the professors on her dissertation committee. In addition to the personal enjoyment she found in her subject matter, the notion of introducing new ideas to the field of eighteenth-century art history was inspiring in itself. Now as a museum professional, she’s been forced to adapt to a more “team-like” setting that is constrained by budgetary restrictions and the specific interests of the university audience. While this framework alleviates much of the “what comes next” pressure, it’s a very different working environment than graduate school.
Amber notes, for instance, that whereas her audience was previously dominated by her adviser, it’s now large and varied in terms of scholarly backgrounds — and she adds, “surprisingly more critical!” She credits the dissertation defense as an “incredibly helpful exercise” for instilling confidence in one’s work. She also stresses that the dissertation process is the beginning of one’s career, not the end. Thus, the dissertation is not simply about exhibiting expertise on a particular subject; rather, one is expected to “use the lessons learned throughout the process to improve one’s scholarship and professional practice.” In Amber’s case, she found herself constantly evaluating and re-evaluating how she could improve both her argument and the process itself in order to transition into the professional world more confidently confidently.[i]
As I evaluate my own development of scholarly identity and moments of academic self-discovery, I asked Amber if she had any advice that might make the transition from grad student to professional a little less intimidating. In response, she emphasized the value of presenting at conferences. The experience not only builds students’ confidence to speak authoritatively about their work, but also facilitates networking among others with similar interests.
She concluded our interview with a thought that has made a real impression me: don’t take criticism too personally. For a quasi-sensitive graduate student like me, criticism of one’s academic performance is both necessary and terrifying. And so I’m going to do my best to keep her words in mind: “if you were already perfect, there would be no need for education. Think of it as money well spent.”
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[i] For an interesting take on the dissertation as the beginning of one’s academic career, see Karen Kelsky’s article, “Dissertation Limits,” from InsideHigherEd.com (12 September 2011). Kelsky explains how little, in her opinion, the dissertation itself matters in the bigger picture for a prospective academic job candidate. It’s an intriguing perspective when thinking about the formation of a graduate student’s scholarly identity.
Call for Papers: Graduate Student Symposium in Vancouver
Graduate Student Symposium in Vancouver: The Unseen
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 30-31 March 2012
Proposals due 6 January 2012
The Unseen proposes a blind engagement with the visual. While traditional art historical practice assumes the task of making the art object or artifact whole through observation, description, and interpretation, this symposium instead sets out to embrace a trace that may be fractured, destroyed, moved, translated, historicized, censored, extolled or ignored. The 31st annual University of British Columbia Art History, Visual Art and Theory Graduate Symposium will attend to a critical reassessment of what resists representation, description, articulation or documentation. We seek innovative submissions that investigate and conceptualize the notion of the unseen as it intersects with historical, perceptual, political and philosophical claims concerning the production and circulation of meanings and forms of knowledge.
Unseeing describes both a category of historical analysis and a critical action. Recent studies on visuality and visual culture have asserted the primacy of the visual as a “social fact” constituting historical and contemporary modes of perception and lived experience. By challenging what is or has once been at the boundaries of visuality and visibility, the unseen alternately aims to grasp the unseizable and its potentiality as a form of non-knowledge. This methodological reevaluation further underscores the historiographical problematic of the unwritten or the unwriteable, discerning what has been occluded from or has escaped being written into histories of the visual, or what has become embedded in and normative of others.
Current and recently graduated Master of Arts, Masters of Fine Arts, Doctoral and Post Doctoral scholars are encouraged to submit an abstract of no more than 300 words by January 6, 2011. Include your full name, affiliation and contact information and send your abstract to gradsymp@interchange.ubc.ca.
The 31st Annual AHVAT Graduate Symposium includes a two-day symposium on March 30 and 31, 2012, and a concurrent exhibition, dates to be confirmed. For more information please visit: http://www.ahva.ubc.ca.
Call for Papers: Cleveland Symposium
Cleveland Graduate Student Symposium — Things Fall Apart: Fragmentation in Visual Culture
Cleveland Museum of Art, 23 March 2012
Proposals due 15 December 2011
The 2012 Cleveland Symposium invites graduate submissions exploring the theme of fragmentation in the visual arts. This trope has manifested itself in a variety of ways in response to political, social, ideological, or aesthetic trends of a particular epoch. Students are encouraged to interpret this theme broadly, through avenues such as iconoclasm, revolution, political upheaval, physical fragmentation of materials, or particular aesthetic movements.
We welcome submissions from graduate students in all stages of their studies and from all fields and geographic regions, ranging from ancient through contemporary art. We will also consider papers from a wide range of methodologies and approaches. A monetary prize will be awarded to the speaker who presents the most innovative research in the most successfully delivered paper.
Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words for papers of no longer than 20 minutes, along with a curriculum vitae or résumé, to clevelandsymposium@gmail.com by December 15, 2011. Please include “Cleveland Symposium Submission” in the subject line of your email. Selected presenters will be notified by January 1, 2012.
Call for Papers: Material Matters for Emerging Scholars
From the University of Delaware:
Tenth Annual Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars: Material Matters
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Delaware, 14 April 2012
Proposals due by 16 November 2011
Focus: Object-based research has the potential to expand and even reinvent our understanding of culture and history. In honor of the tenth anniversary of the MCSES, we seek a broad range of papers from emerging material culture scholars. Whether exploring the latest theories, viewing existing material through a new lens, or reinterpreting standing historical conversations with an object-based focus, proposed papers should exemplify the possibilities in material culture research. In exploring these material matters, we hope to promote an interdisciplinary discussion on the state of material culture studies today. Disciplines represented at past symposia include American studies, anthropology, archaeology, consumer studies, English, gender studies, history, museum studies and the histories of art, architecture, design and technology. We welcome proposals from graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and those just beginning their teaching or professional careers.
Format: The symposium will consist of nine presentations divided into three panels. Each presentation is limited to twenty minutes, and each panel is followed by comments from established scholars in the field. There will be two morning sessions and one afternoon session, with breaks for discussion following each session and during lunch. Participants will also have the opportunity to tour Winterthur’s unparalleled collection of early American decorative arts and to engage in a roundtable discussion on Friday, April 13. Travel grants of up to $300 will be available for presenters.
Submissions: The proposal should be no more than 300 words and should clearly indicate the focus of your object-based research, the critical approach you take toward that research, and the significance of your research beyond the academy. While the audience for the symposium consists mainly of university and college faculty and graduate students, we encourage broader participation. In evaluating proposals, we will give preference to those papers that keep a more diverse audience in mind. Send your proposal, with a current c.v. of no more than two pages, to emerging.scholars@gmail.com.
Deadline: Proposals must be received by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. Speakers will be notified of the vetting committee’s decision in January 2012. Confirmed speakers will be asked to provide symposium organizers with digital images for use in publicity and are required to submit a final draft of their papers by March 5, 2012.
Call for Papers: Graduate Student Symposium at Boston
Boston University Graduate Student Symposium on the History of Art & Architecture
Boston University, 2-3 March 2012
Proposals due 28 November 2011
The 28th Annual Boston University Graduate Student Symposium on the History of Art & Architecture invites submissions exploring the role of doubles, multiples, and copies in artistic production from antiquity to the present.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: molds, casts, and replicas; afterimages, mirror images, twinning/tripling, and “mise en abyme”; serial formats and presentations; Janus or Gemini figures, uncanny doubles, doppelgangers, and evil twins; the replication or reappearance of architectural elements and structures; mimicry and mimesis; issues of reproduction in photography, print culture, media, and mass production; copying and emulation in practice and pedagogy; work that problematizes, resists, or elides duplication or multiplication; appropriation, plagiarism, and copyright issues; the re-presentation of works or performances; relationships between facsimiles and originals; and dialogues between final products and sketches or models.
We welcome submissions from graduate students at all stages of their studies, working in any area or discipline. Please email a 500-word abstract and CV as attachments to Leslie K. Brown, Symposium Coordinator, at lkbrown@bu.edu by November 28, 2011. Papers should be 20 minutes in length and selected speakers will be notified before January 1st. The Symposium will be held March 2-3, 2012, with a keynote lecture (TBD) at the Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery on Friday evening and paper presentations on Saturday in the Riley Seminar Room of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
This event is generously sponsored by The Boston University Center for the Humanities; the Boston University Department of History of Art & Architecture; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Boston University Graduate Student History of Art & Architecture Association; and the Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery.
Call for Papers: Graduate Student Conference
6th Annual Graduate Symposium, Department of Art, University of Toronto
Experimental Cultures: Mergers of Art and Science
University of Toronto, 27 January 2012
Proposals due by 15 November 2011
“All art should become science and all science art,” declared the German Romantic poet Friedrich Schlegel in one of his many philosophical fragments. Schlegel’s radical program of reform for the arts and sciences still has currency today. Art historians and other researchers are exploring the unique ways in which cultures of science and art intersect. Illustrations in anatomical atlases or manuals of natural history, for instance, hover somewhere ambivalently between the two. Even in the work of canonical artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci, what is art and what is scientific inquiry cannot be definitively distinguished. These junctions appear not only in the concerns of artists, but also in those of scientists. Developments in neuroscience are transforming our understanding of the experience and creation of art. Innovative technologies enable us to approach art and material culture, ancient and modern, from new angles. We invite proposals of graduate research across time and space that consider how science and technology have influenced the subjects of art, material culture, the practices of art-making, and aesthetic experience. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
– Applications of science and technology to art history and material culture
– How art and science have together generated new theoretical approaches
– Exchange between artists, anatomists, medical practitioners, and other scientists
– Neuroarthistory and its applications
– The use of psychology, physiognomy, or phrenology in portraiture
– Intersections between landscape painting or land art and the natural sciences
Please email abstracts of no more than 500 words for 20-minute papers, in addition to a short CV to gusta.symposium@gmail.com by November 15, 2011. Successful candidates will be contacted by December 1, 2011.
Organized by the Graduate Union of the Students of Art, University of Toronto
Call for Articles: Excess and Moderation for ‘Frame’
Excess/Moderation Theme for Next Issue of Frame: Journal of Visual and Material Culture
Manuscripts due by 15 November 2011
Frame invites scholarly submissions from a variety of disciplines that engage somehow with visual and/or material culture using unique methodologies. Possible areas of interest include art, architecture, film, visual culture, design, built environment, television, material culture, or other domains that engage with visual content from a variety of perspectives. We are particularly attracted to scholarly work that transverses traditional disciplinary borders and creates fresh approaches to the study of visual art and related areas.
This issue is themed “Excess/Moderation.” A mind-map that serves the function of suggesting topics is available on the Frame website (www.framejournal.org). Please see the website for the style-sheet as well. Papers should not exceed 10,000 words, unless for special exception. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically in .doc or .docx format. A separate document that includes a 200-word abstract, full name, email address, phone number, and institutional affiliation should accompany the article. Send all inquiries to the Managing Editor, Shawn Rice, at editor@framejournal.org.
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Frame is a scholarly, peer-reviewed online publication edited by graduate students of the City University of New York Graduate Center. This journal is a re-imagined, interdisciplinary continuation of PART: The Journal of the Ph.D. Program in Art History at the Graduate Center.
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