Understanding Displacement in Visual Art and Cultural History: 1945 to Now [24-25/10 2023] Call for Papers
Tristram Paul Hillier (1905-1983),
Le Havre de Grace (‘The Safe Haven’, 1939). Courtesy of Manchester Art Gallery.
Call for Papers
University of Manchester Conference
Understanding Displacement in Visual Art and Cultural History: 1945 to Now.
Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th, October, 2023.
Despite the political urgency surrounding refugeedom and statelessness, displacement has been under-discussed in art history, and the cultural history of war and conflict. Understanding Displacement in Visual Art and Cultural History aims to bring to light new research in this field of enquiry. This conference seeks to explore the impact that cultural representations, visual art and craft have had on displacement and refugees/asylum seekers, as well as the reverse: the impact that DPs, refugees, asylum seekers and stateless visual artists and craft artists have on the art industry, museum/gallery sector, as well as the UN/humanitarian and culture sectors.
The conference would ideally suit social and culture historians, visual studies scholars, art historians, art theorists, museums and curatorial studies scholars, as well as practitioners (eg. artists and curators). Papers are welcome to focus on any period between 1945 and the present day.
The conference is part of an AHRC funded project, Understanding Displacement Aesthetics and Making Change in the Art Gallery with Refugees, Migrants and Host Communities, in partnership with the Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth Art Gallery.
We invite paper proposals based on the relationship between displacement and visual art, cultural history and museums and the following themes:
Historical and contemporary art and artists, and craft makers
Representations of and by DPs and refugees, asylum seekers, stateless people
Social and cultural histories of displacement and refugeedom
Aesthetics and Art Theory
Visuality, materiality, affective objects
Social practice art with forcibly displaced communities
Craft practitioners, Art Therapy and Useful Art
International art markets and exhibitions
Art Galleries and the Museum sector;
Curation; collections policies and practices
Collaborations with artists and communities from backgrounds of forced displacement
Community Arts
Hospitality; belonging; exclusion; co-existence
Decoloniality, racism and whiteness
Temporality, Futurity
Social structures: Gender, race, class, ethnicity, and religion
Displacement and disability
Cultural politics and ethics
Contemporary forms of slavery (forced labour, debt bondage)
United Nations, NGOs, humanitarianism and uses of artists
UNESCO, Tangible and Intangible Heritage
Deadline for submissions: July 7th, 2023
To apply, please provide a title and abstract (250 words maximum) for a 20-minute paper. Alongside your name, institutional affiliation (if any) and short biography (150 words maximum).
Please email your paper proposals directly to dap.SALC@manchester.ac.uk
You should receive the outcome of your submission within two weeks.
This is primarily an in-person conference taking place at the University of Manchester. However, to maximise participation we are exploring the possibility of some online panels to facilitate online participation.
There is no delegate fee for this conference.
