CALL FOR PAPERS
Artivism: Art History and Heritage in Global Conflict

15th Annual Art History Graduate Student Symposium

Keynote speaker: Dr. Elisabeth Friedman. Associate Professor, Art History & Visual Culture, Illinois State University

In times of warfare and political conflict, art inspires and comforts. Art challenges official narratives and humanizes violence. Art liberates, and expresses the inexpressible. For these reasons, artworks, museums, archaeology sites, and other heritage sites are routinely damaged during geopolitical conflicts. Rutgers Art History’s 15th Annual Graduate Student Symposium aims to foster conversations about art and heritage in crisis, and the expressive role of art in contemporary conflict zones (e.g. Palestine, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Afghanistan, Syria, Mali, etc.). Scholarship engaged with “artivists”, or contemporary artists who utilize artistic expression for political ends and protest, is of particular interest, as well as studies of censorship and/or annihilation of artworks.

The symposium will take place on Friday, March 28, 2025 in New Brunswick, NJ. We welcome graduate student submissions at any level of study from all disciplines and methodologies that investigate visual culture and its political role in society. Submissions will be considered for a 20 minute presentation in English, and should include a 500-word abstract and title. Submissions are due by December 15, 2024, please send them to ruarthistorygradsymp@gmail.com.

After the symposium, one paper will be selected for possible publication in Volume 42 of the Rutgers Art Review, a peer-reviewed, open access journal produced by graduate students in the Department of Art History.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.