Call for Papers: Medieval Eurabia: Religious Crosspollinations in Architecture, Art and Material Culture during the High and Late Middle Ages (1000-1600)
Deadline: November 1, 2017
The coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean led to a transfer of knowledge in architecture and material culture which went well beyond religious and geographical boundaries. The use of Islamic objects in Christian contexts, the conversion of churches into mosques and the mobility of craftsmen are only some manifestations of this process. Although studies beginning with Avinoam Shalem’s Islam Christianized (1996), have dealt extensively with Islamic influence in the West and European influence in the Islamic Mediterranean, sacred objects, and material culture more generally, have been relatively neglected. From crosses found in Mosques, to European-Christian coins with pseudo/-shahada inscriptions, medieval material culture is rife with visual evidence of the two faiths co-existing in both individual objects and monuments.
This panel invites papers from scholars working on intercultural exchange in art, architecture and material culture. We particularly welcome contributions that focus on sacred objects that have been diverted or ‘converted’ to a new purpose, whether inside or outside an explicitly religious context.
Papers should present original research, which expands the boundaries of knowledge and which the scholars would like to be considered for publication. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words long. Panel organised by Sami De Giosa, Oxford University and Nikolaos Vryzidis, British School at Athens. Email: aahchristianmuslimpanel2018@gmail.com
CFP: Art and Law: Objects and Spaces as Legal Actors
Deadline: November 6, 2017
Art history has long investigated the role of the law, from issues of visual evidence and legal aesthetics to ideas of artistic originality and authorship. But recent scholarship has increasingly drawn attention to the ways in which art can participate in the law’s actual operation. This session aims to broaden these investigations by tracing the long history of artistic intrusions into legal life, focusing on moments when the objects and spaces of art and architecture, broadly defined, have functioned as legal actors in their own right.
The session promises to explore these ideas through interdisciplinary and cross-chronological case studies from researchers, artists, and practitioners both in art history and in parallel fields such as law, journalism, and the social sciences. How have aesthetic objects past and present actively shaped the production and execution of the law as witnesses or juridical subjects in themselves? How have artists approached the courtroom as a site of artistic production and intervention? And in what ways has aesthetic production sought to short-circuit legal structures or forward alternative, even utopian, legal systems? Such questions have taken on new urgency in light of recent political and constitutional crises worldwide.
Papers might address, amongst other topics:
– historical and contemporary objects that dispense justice
– signs, emblems, or inscriptions that enforced legal boundaries or enacted legal codes
– artworks framed as legal victims, or which have been tried in absentia of criminals
– objects and theories of legal proof
– architectural actors as part of the fabric of legal drama
– art historical or theoretical texts investigating legal production and evidence-gathering and witnessing as forms of aesthetic production and research
Proposals of 250 words, accompanied by a short academic CV, should be sent to the two session organisers no later than 6 November 2017:
Dr Jack Hartnell (University of East Anglia, UK)
j.hartnell@uea.ac.uk
Dr Kevin Lotery (Sarah Lawrence College, USA)
klotery@sarahlawrence.edu
