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Subtle Histories: Uncovering the Unseen
in Visual Culture
The 39th annual UCLA Art History Graduate Student Symposium - November 11-12, 2004, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA |
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sub·tle \′sut-’l\, adj. 1 a: DELICATE, ELUSIVE <a ~ fragrance> b: difficult to understand or distinguish : OBSCURE <~differences in sound> 2 a: PERCEPTIVE, REFINED <a writer’s sharp and ~ moral sense> b: having or marked by keen insight and ability to penetrate deeply and thoroughly <a ~ scholar> 3 a: highly skillful: EXPERT <a ~ craftsman> b: cunningly made or contrived: INGENIOUS 4: ARTFUL, CRAFTY <a ~ rogue> Graduate students in any discipline are invited to submit abstracts for the 39th annual UCLA Art History Graduate Student Symposium, the longest-running Art History student symposium in the United States. To be held on November 12, 2004, this event will bring together emerging scholars to share their research on any aspect of the visual arts relevant to this year's theme. This year, for the first time, the event will take place in the UCLA Hammer Museum, an important center of art and culture in the heart of West Los Angeles. This year's theme, Subtle
Histories: Uncovering the Unseen in Visual Culture, is meant to encourage
the disclosure of subtle, or untold, stories in art history, those
that have been marginalized by adherence to strict disciplinary categories. We seek innovative submissions from scholars in
any field who are concerned with the uncovering of such visual histories
that have been hidden, lost, or never realized. In
a climate charged with identity politics, often based on binary oppositions,
have we been overlooking those stories that do not fit neatly into
these binaries? During the past two decades,
Postcolonial studies, for instance, has increased our awareness of
the complexity of cultural interaction and exchange, both past and
present. How can this kind of critical reassessment
be applied to other periods, cultures and media, within the broad
domain of visual art, to address these new, composite cultural and
political identities and histories? How can
we incorporate these stories into the discourse?
Writers such as Antoinette Burton, Ann Stoler, and Christopher
Pinney, among others, have sought to direct our attention to these
"smaller" stories that have not yet found a place within
standard academic divisions. Contributions
from fields ranging from anthropology to the sciences have successfully
challenged Art History's established categories and opened up new
spaces for the recovery of representations that did not fit the frames
of the discourse. Our goal is to build
on those strides that have already been made and further explore the
subtle complexities in visual culture and representation. Possible questions
that might be asked include:
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