The Feminist Art History Conference was established in 2010 to celebrate and build on the legacy of feminist art-historical scholarship and pedagogy originated by Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard at American University in Washington, D.C. In September 2020 this international conference will convene for the seventh time. The core principles of a feminist art history have long included the goals of reclaiming the place of women artists and patrons within the history of art and visual culture, and of describing and elaborating how gendered ideologies have framed the structure of both artistic practice and the writing of art history over the centuries. In recent years feminist art history has also become increasingly intersectional and interdisciplinary, dialoguing with race, class, geography, and environmental and architectural issues, to name but a few.

In the spirit of bringing together the diverse strands of thought and practice that feminist art history now embraces, this conference will feature papers spanning a wide range of chronological, geographic, intersectional, and interdisciplinary topics. These may include (but are not limited to) artists, movements, and works of art and architecture; cultural institutions and critical discourses; practices of collecting, patronage, and display; the gendering of objects, spaces, and media; the reception of images; and issues of power, agency, gender, and sexuality within visual and material cultures. At this year’s conference, underrepresented art-historical periods (ancient, medieval, Renaissance), cultures and traditions beyond the Western world, and issues of race and ethnicity are especially encouraged. We welcome submissions from established and emerging scholars of art history as well as advanced graduate students.

To be considered for participation, please provide a single document in Microsoft Word. It should consist of a one-page, single-spaced proposal of unpublished work up to 500 words for a 20-minute presentation, followed by a curriculum vitae of no more than two pages. Please name the document “[last name]-proposal” and submit with the subject line “[last name]-proposal” to feminist.ahconference@gmail.com.

Invitations to participate will be sent by 1 February 2020.

Keynote Speaker
Kellie Jones, Professor in Art History and Archaeology and the Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS), Columbia University

Organizing Committee
Joanne Allen, Jordan Amirkhani, Juliet Bellow, Norma Broude, Kim Butler Wingfield, Nika Elder, Mary D. Garrard, Andrea Pearson, Ying-chen Peng and Anne Nellis Richter (coordinator)

Sponsored by the Art History Program in the Department of Art, College of Arts and Sciences, American University, with the generous support of Robin D’Alessandro and Dr. Jane Fortune