On Thursday 25th and Friday 26th of January 2018 the Open University the Netherlands organizes the international conference 'The Icon as Cultural Model: Past, Present and Future'.
Keynotes by prof. Ann Rigney (Utrecht University), prof. Kees Ribbens (NIOD/Erasmus University), prof. Jeroen Stumpel (Utrecht University) and prof. Ginette Vincendeau (King's College London).
The conference brings together scholars from various disciplines such as art history, literary studies, media studies, philosophy and history, to stimulate interdisciplinary reflection on how the study of cultural icons may contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of culture in general.
How do specific historical events, persons or places become iconic? How do artifacts such as novels, paintings, sculptures, and films construct iconic images of the past and/or future? Who attributes power to the icon? How, why and by whom is its cultural meaning altered? And why at present does the search, and explication of, cultural models occurs to be highly relevant?
During this two-day conference we will be investigating these, and related questions to further our understanding of the diverse ways the icon has functioned and still functions as a cultural model.
See the conference website for the full program:
https://www.ou.nl/web/the-icon-as-cultural-model/provisional-program.
The conference takes place in Amsterdam and is supported by NICA (Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis).
Admission: 30 euro's (regular) / 10 euro's (PhD's and students). Please, use the online registration form on our website: https://www.ou.nl/web/the-icon-as-cultural-model/registration.
We hope to welcome you in January!