Call for Papers: 19th Annual University of Oregon Graduate Symposium in the History of Art & Architecture

19th Annual University of Oregon Graduate Symposium in the History of Art & Architecture

Symposium Dates: Friday, March 17th (museum tour and social) and Saturday, March 18th (conference)

Theme: In/Out of Place 

In the 1960s, media theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the famous phrase “global village,” referring to the way the world is becoming smaller due to technological advancement, which, in his mind, would bring people together into one collective body. While technological development has the ability to bring people together, it is also capable of widening the gap between individuals, creating a sense of displacement in a globalized world. Discussions about systemic racism and the history of colonial violence against Indigenous peoples, as well as events like the recent pandemic, have also impacted how the individual is understood in cross-cultural interaction.

The History of Art and Architecture department at the University of Oregon invites graduate students to submit abstracts for the 19th Annual University of Oregon Graduate Symposium in the History of Art and Architecture, In/Out of Place. The keynote will be delivered by artist Yuyang Zhang.

This symposium questions how artists, artworks, and art movements explore ideas of community, nationhood, identity, and cultural hybridity. Its goal is to consider how the human figure has navigated these issues from antiquity to the contemporary era, to emphasize not only the finished product (the work of art) but also to address its means of production, the cultural networks it navigates and challenges in order to come into existence. The symposium is interested in considering what it means for those artists and cultures who find themselves in a liminal space between recognized and forgotten, acknowledged and dismissed, and the kinds of work that comes out of this space of uncertainty. It is also interested in how art pushes back against deterritorialization, a phenomenon that severs social and cultural practices from cultural groups and geographic locations, as the land itself is either commodified or in danger of disappearing. The symposium encourages research related to interconnections between self and community, what systems of knowledge have been privileged, the relationship between situated knowledge and global views, how artists have reacted to their political, social, and geographical location, along with issues of exclusion and inclusion in the field, theory, and art canon. Submissions from all periods and geographical locations will be considered and are encouraged.

Potential topics may include, but are not limited to: 

• Legacies of colonialism and decentering Western ways of knowing/means of production
• Diasporic experiences
• Migration/Immigration/Emigration
• Globalization
• The relationship of gender and sexuality to community and place
• Citizenship and nationhood
• Hybridity, transformation, and mutation
• Displacement from the center of the art canon
• Regional art and traditional practices
• Place-based practices
• Art communities (both institutional and non-institutional)
• Underground/nonconformist art 
• Deterritorialization 
• Borders and boundaries
• Infrastructure and logistics in relation to material culture

We invite research papers and discussions of practice from current and recent graduate students of art history and other related disciplines to submit a 250-word abstract, title, and a CV to uosymposium@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is Friday, January 20, 2022. Selected speakers will be notified by January 31, 2023. Presentations should be 20 minutes in length and will be followed by a question and answer session.

The symposium will take place on Saturday, March 18th at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, located on the University of Oregon campus. We will also have a tour of the museum and a social event on Friday, March 17th that speakers are invited, but not required, to attend.

Please direct all questions to Margaryta, Lizi, and Alexis at the Art History Student Association email: ahsa@uoregon.edu.

This symposium is generously sponsored by the University of Oregon Department of the History of Art & Architecture and the University of Oregon Art History Student Association