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CFP - Rutgers University Art History Graduate Symposium 2021, "Mnemonic Aesthetics: Memory and Trauma in Art"

Type: Calls For Papers [View all]
Posted by: Rutgers University
Deadline: Fri, January 8th, 2021

11th Annual Art History Graduate Student Symposium

Organized by the Rutgers University Art History Graduate Student Organization (AHGSO)  

 

Mnemonic Aesthetics: Memory and Trauma in Art

 

April 22nd & April 23rd, 2021

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 

New Brunswick, NJ 08901    

 

Memory has been central to the vocabularies of artists and art theorists since its translation from ancient rhetoric to visual arts scholarship in the early modern period. Recently, scholars have addressed the relationship between memory and the history of art, employing diverse methods from memory theory to decolonialism, postcolonialism, and eco-art history. Mnemonic aesthetics – a concept stressed by Cheryl Finley in her book, Committed to Memory: The Art of the Slave Ship Icon – emphasizes a practice of ritualized remembering which sustains cultural possession and collective memory of shared traumas, especially in regards to slavery. Through acts of repetition, visual communication and performance allow memories that would otherwise succumb to cultural amnesia to be preserved. These acts attempt to revitalize and reinvigorate history by strengthening present ties to the past. This symposium will explore how memory, in particular traumatic memory, has informed the visual arts across chronologies.  

The Rutgers University Art History Graduate Student Organization seeks submissions that examine questions of trauma and memory in the visual arts. Abstracts are welcome from all historical periods, disciplines, and methodological perspectives. Submissions will be considered for 20-minute presentations in English. After the symposium, one paper will be selected for possible publication in Volume 38 of the Rutgers Art Review, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal produced by graduate students in the Department of Art History.  

 

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

● Forced migration and diaspora studies

● Development, destruction, and dislocation 

● Eco-art history, the anthropocene, and environmental humanities 

● War and genocide 

● Repression and invisibility

● Ruins and fragmentary remnants of the past

● Decolonial and postcolonial studies

● Medical trauma

● Cultural amnesia

● Protests and activism  

 

Please send your abstract and a current CV to rutgersarthistorygradsymposium@gmail.com by January 8. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words. Applicants will be notified of the committee’s decision by January 31.    

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year’s symposium will be held virtually, via Zoom. If you are interested in attending as an audience member, registration will be required. A link to register along with the symposium schedule will be circulated in the months leading up to the symposium. Please direct all questions to rutgersarthistorygradsymposium@gmail.com.  

Posted on Thu, November 5th, 2020
Expires on Fri, January 8th, 2021

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