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CFP: PROXY | Crossing the Boundaries XXXII, Binghamton (due Jan.15)

Type: Conferences & Symposia [View all]
Posted by: Binghamton University, SUNY
Deadline: Fri, January 15th, 2027

CALL FOR PAPERS

PROXY
Crossing the Boundaries XXXII
Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference  
Department of Art History, Binghamton University  
Friday, April 2, 2027 | In person | Binghamton, New York  
Keynote speaker to be announced

The Art History Graduate Student Union at Binghamton University invites proposals for PROXY, the thirty-second Crossing the Boundaries conference. A proxy acts, speaks, or appears in place of someone or something else. The word shares a root with curator: the Latin cura, care. Acting for others can mean both caring for them and taking charge of them.

We want to set unlike proxies side by side: a thirteenth-century reliquary shaped like an arm raised in blessing, made to hold a saint’s remains; Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise (1935–41), his work reproduced in miniature and packed into a suitcase; Ana Mendieta’s Untitled (Rape Scene) (1973), in which her own body stood in for Sarah Ann Ottens, a fellow student who was raped and murdered; Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s "Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) (1991), a portrait of his partner, Ross Laycock, made of candy that visitors may take; and an AI-generated video of Christopher Pelkey, played at the sentencing of the man who shot him.

What can a proxy do that the original cannot? What gives a body, an object, or an image the authority to act for another, and what limits it? Why are some people expected to stand for a gender, a race, or a nation, while others are allowed to be individuals? And who can answer back when a proxy speaks in their name?

We welcome proposals from graduate students, independent scholars, and artists in any discipline, period, or region, including papers that question whether "proxy" is the right word for their material.

Possible topics include:

Relics, replicas, and the authority of the original Architecture, reconstruction, and contested heritage Archives, memorials, and surviving traces Performance, reenactment, and delegated labor Feminist and queer kinship, desire, and surrogacy Race, tokenism, and the burden of representation Museums, Indigenous sovereignty, and repatriation Pain, witness, and the ethics of comparison Translation and speaking for others Disability, care, and guardianship Political, legal, and scientific proxies AI, avatars, and digital doubles

Submission

Please send a single PDF with a paper title, an abstract of no more than 250 words for a 20-minute paper, a short bio, and a current CV to fzhang7@binghamton.edu. Questions are welcome at the same address.

Proposals due: January 15, 2027  
Notification: by February 5, 2027

Posted on Fri, October 9th, 2026
Expires on Fri, January 15th, 2027

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