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Art History Fellowships for Contingent Faculty

Apply by October 15, 2025

The New Foundation for Art History, a non-profit organization that seeks to support new and mid-career art historians, is currently accepting applications for our Fellowships for Contingent Faculty: Contract, visiting, adjunct, and otherwise non-tenured and non-tenure-track faculty are eligible to apply.

Colleagues have observed with increasing alarm the growth of contingent faculty positions at the expense of tenure track lines throughout the field of art history. Given this new reality, the NFAH would like to be the first to address it by way of new fellowships designed around the specific needs of contingent faculty. Realizing that many contingent faculty cannot take regular full-year fellowships without losing the tenuous support of their positions, these new NFAH fellowships aim to supply two or three subsequent summers of research leave. By working to the extent possible within the hard strictures of contingent/adjunct teaching loads and schedules, NFAH hopes to provide sufficient support to help successful applicants advance by way of research and publication to more secure positions within the discipline, partially ameliorating the current crisis in art historical work. Ultimately, it is hoped that other institutions will join the NFAH in developing alternative funding for contingent faculty advancement.

AWARD

The NFAH will grant each recipient between $10,000 and $15,000 for each summer (up to a total of $45,000 per applicant over three years).

APPLICATION 

Candidates will send a cover letter laying out their need for the fellowship (400 words maximum), projected research statement, including budget and completion timeline (1800 words maximum), a writing sample or publication (best related to the project under review), a short two-page cv (including positions held, service, grants/fellowships received, last leave time), and one reference letteraddressing the quality of the projected research and practicality of the project in terms of the completion timeline. Applications will be judged by the NFAH fellowship committee, which is constituted of professional art historians.

Application materials should be forwarded as a single pdf (named with the candidate’s first initial and surname) to info@nfah.org by October 15, 2024. Recommenders should send their letters as pdfs on letterhead separately to the same email address. 

The NFAH actively seeks to promote diversity in the field.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: October 15, 2025

CANDIDATES WILL BE INFORMED OF THE NFAH DECISION BY December 15, 2025

Arcaheology in the Community Workshop

October 16, 2025

The nonprofit group Archaeology in the Community presents Echoes of the Past: Ethics, Law, and Archaeological Collections Stewardship, a workshop for students working in areas related to museum studies, public history, and heritage management. The focus will be community collaboration and respect for traditional knowledge in curation settings. The instructor, Angela Neller (Kanaka ‘Oiwi), is curator for the Wanapum Heritage Center. The workshop will be held on Zoom on October 16 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, but everyone who registers at the link above will receive the recording and all learning materials in case they’re unable to attend the live event.

CFP: 42nd ANNUAL FSU ART HISTORY GRADUATE STUDENT SYMPOSIUM

Abstract submission deadline December 1, 2025

The Florida State University Art History faculty and graduate students invite current PhD and MA students to submit abstracts for papers to be presented at the 42nd Annual Art History Graduate Student Symposium. The symposium will take place March 6–7, 2026, on our main campus in Tallahassee, FL.

The Symposium keynote speaker this year will be Claudia Brittenham, Professor of Art History and Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago. Dr. Brittenham’s research focuses on the art of ancient Mesoamerica, with particular attention to the ways that the materiality of art and the politics of style contribute to our understanding of the ontology of images. 

The symposium committee welcomes papers that represent an advanced stage of original research from all areas of study within art and architectural history and visual and material culture. Paper sessions will take place Friday and Saturday with critical discussions following each speaker. Papers presented will be considered for inclusion in Athanor, our internationally distributed, peer-reviewed journal.

Please include the following in your application:

• Abstract (maximum 500 words), including a paper title

• Current CV

We encourage applicants to ask a faculty advisor to review the paper before submission.

The deadline for submission is December 1, 2025.

Send abstracts and CV to: FSUSymposium@gmail.com

For updates, visit arthistory.fsu.edu/sympo

FIRST EVER Florida Collegiate Art History Symposium for Undergraduate Students

Application deadline 10/10; Symposium 11/15 in Tampa

Art history undergraduate students are invited to participate in the first Florida Collegiate Art History Symposium to be held on Saturday, November 15th, 2025 in Tampa, FL. Organized by the art history clubs at Florida International University, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, and University of South Florida, this entirely student-run event will be the first of its kind to bring together Floridian undergraduate students who are interested in and or studying art history.
 
This event, open to any interested undergraduate students, will be an opportunity for undergraduate students in the state of Florida who are interested in art history to come together, connect, and learn from each other about the field. Floridian undergraduate students in art history will be able to give research presentations to their peers, hear from various professional speakers from across the art world, and come together in a way they have never been able to before. Through this event we hope to better facilitate close connections for undergraduate students of art history across the state of Florida. We hope this completely student-run event will be the first of many to come.
 
This event will be hosted in Tampa, Florida, and will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. More details on the location will be announced in the future. 
 
This form is for students interested in attending the event. To attend the event, you must fill out this RSVP Form. Alongside this RSVP Form is also the opportunity to submit Research Papers.
 
Link to Form: 
https://forms.gle/1gBG3fAfmR9Ph6j6A
 
As part of this event, undergraduate students will be able to give research presentations. Undergraduate students are able to submit any academic papers they have completed for classes or for theses. These presentations will be academic and should be presented as such. Students should organize and prepared to present for 8 to 10 minutes and be prepared to answer questions from the audience. This list will similarly be curated for the event by the organizers. Please submit your research papers through this form. If you have any further questions about what qualifies as a research paper or about eligibility then please reach out to the email provided below. The due date for Research Paper submissions is Friday, October 10th, 2025.
 
This event is being planned and run by the various Presidents of the aforementioned university clubs related to art history. We reached out to as many other art history clubs in Floridian colleges as we can find as well as to institutions that offer art history programs, but that may not currently have a student organization. We would like to see as many students from as many schools as possible at this event! We hope this event can be the first of many to come!
 
Event Date: Saturday, November 15, 11AM – 5PM
 
Event Address: In Tampa, Florida. 
 
Further information, such as location, will be released in the future.
 
Transportation to and back from the event will be provided as much as is possible!
 
If you have any questions or issues submitting your paper through this form, please contact us at fcahs.inquiry@gmail.com
 
Please RSVP if you are interested in attending!
 
Research Paper Submissions Due Friday, October 10th!!
CFP: Sohbat: The Third Biennial Graduate Student Symposium on Islamic Art and Architecture, Yale University

Application deadline 10/31; Conference 3/26–27

Sohbat: Third Biennial Graduate Student Symposium on Islamic Art and Architecture

Department of the History of Art | Yale School of Architecture

March 26-27, 2026

Yale University

CALL FOR PAPERS

Theme

The ever-wider scale of destruction in our present moment has engendered a sense of urgency not only about the preservation and reconstitution of memories but also our roles in this world, stretched across multiple personal and professional identities. We invite papers from a range of historical, geographical, and methodological positions, to respond to this urgency by asking, how can art and architectural histories recuperate the material past, as well as sensory and cognitive experiences that register in the memory and mentalities of a community? To what extent do events of destruction and reconstruction catalyze and heighten sensibilities of the ephemeral?

Taking the imagery of the canopy, which can simultaneously symbolize the sky and suggest a roof or a dome, as a starting point, we ask how the histories of Islamic art and architecture help us recover or reimagine rituals and practices of belief, care, and creativity? How can we see beyond buildings and surfaces to consider and care for embedded systems (craft, ecology, land, etc.) while paying attention to shifts in political, climate, and global movements?

Logistics

• The symposium will provide meals and two nights of accommodation; travel subsidies are possible depending on funding availability. We encourage students to apply for additional funding from their institutions for expenses related to travel.

• Each student speaker will present their paper for 15 minutes. There will be time for Q&A in each panel.

Submission Guidelines

Please send your abstract (250 words), a working title, CV, and the images of two artworks related to your proposed paper to singleslidesohbat@gmail.com by 11:59 PM on October 31, 2025.

Please title your email “Submission.” Please send inquiries and submissions to singleslidesohbat@gmail.com.

Notifications will be sent by November 24, 2025.

Symposium Organizers

Graduate Student Organizers: Anas Alkhatib, Hasan Nisar, Julia Qingye Wang, and Yupeng Wu.

Bowdoin College Seeks Assistant Professor of Pre-Modern Art History, Tenure Track

Apply now! Application reviews begin November 10, 2025

Bowdoin College’s Department of Art History invites applications for a full-time tenure-track faculty appointment in pre-modern art history at the Assistant Professor level, beginning July 1, 2026. The position subfield is open, with a preference for candidates whose research and teaching expand beyond the department’s existing pre-modern art historical strengths in East Asia and Northern Europe. A PhD is expected by the date of the appointment. The teaching load is two courses per semester. Bowdoin is particularly interested in candidates dedicated to undergraduate teaching and with a promise of long-term successful research and/or creative work. 
 
Bowdoin College offers opportunities for professional development, a fully funded, year-long pre-tenure sabbatical leave (after three years of teaching and successful reappointment), and regular, generously funded, post-tenure sabbaticals. Support for teaching, grant-writing, artificial intelligence initiatives, computing software, and community partnerships in courses is available. The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, and George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives are outstanding resources for faculty research and student learning in art history and related disciplines. The College also offers robust programming and resources for establishing and enhancing mentoring networks. 
 
At Bowdoin, we are committed to inclusive excellence, an ongoing collective practice that honors our institutional commitment to provide an outstanding liberal arts education and serve the common good. The College is home to talented students, faculty and staff and we encourage applications from candidates committed to the inclusive instruction and support of a diverse student population, and those who will enrich and contribute to the College’s multifaceted diversity.  
 
Accessibility during the application and interview stages, as well as once employed, is a priority of the College: https://www.bowdoin.edu/accessibility/index.html. In addition, visa sponsorships for faculty hires are available.   
 
Bowdoin College accepts only electronic submissions. Please visit https://careers.bowdoin.edu to learn more and apply.
Full-time Curatorial Assistant at the Lowe Art Museum, U Miami

Apply now!

CURATORIAL ASSISTANT

A critical member of the Lowe’s fast-paced Collections and Exhibition Services Team, the Curatorial Assistant provides essential support for all aspects of permanent collection rotations and temporary exhibition displays. Reports to the Assistant Director for Collections & Exhibition Services (“AD”).

CORE DUTIES

  • Assist with all aspects of researching and developing permanent collection rotations and temporary exhibition displays, including creating and maintaining checklists and drafting routine correspondence (including, but not limited to, loan letters, donation acknowledgements, and other curatorial reports).
  • Assist AD and Registrar with managing all incoming and outgoing shipments of art, both domestic and international.
  • Communicate object information, installation plans, and schedules to all relevant stakeholders.
  • Ensure that exhibition timelines and workflows are adhered to and/or adjusted as necessary.
  • Provide organizational support for curatorial projects, including calendar management, minutes, and administrative follow-up.
  • Research and compile information as needed to facilitate publications, installations, or exhibition-related projects, including provenance and Rights & Reproductions.
  • Assist with cataloging collections and preparing registration materials.
  • Assist with compiling information for possible acquisitions, deaccessions, and loans and preparing acquisition proposals/curatorial reports.
  • Manage incoming telephone calls, emails, and written correspondence for supervisor and others as directed.
  • Assist with collection management and storage.
  • Maintain Lowe archive with support from Records Assistant and Registrar.
  • Help coordinate onsite work of external conservation and art appraisal professionals.
  • Assist with producing and monitoring of Collections & Exhibitions budgets and related reporting activities.
  • Provide administrative assistance as required, including arranging travel and accommodation for artists, guest curators, couriers, and speakers.
  • Respond to inquiries and requests from the general public.
  • Spot check galleries daily/assist Lead Preparator, Facilities Manager, and Registrar with maintaining highest possible presentation standards.
  • Other duties, as required.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

  • BA (Art History, Museum Studies, or Studio Art background preferred).
  • One year (or equivalent) of experience within an arts, culture, and/or nonprofit environment.
  • Experience with museum registration and/or exhibitions is desired, but not necessary.
  • Any relevant education, certifications and/or work experience may be considered.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

  • Must be proactive, highly organized, detailed oriented, and able to manage multiple concurrent projects within an ever-changing environment.
  • Ability to evaluate priorities and work well under pressure.
  • Excellent time management, problem solving and analytical skills.
  • Takes responsibility and accountability for the outcome of work; plans and prepares for all projects.
  • Ability to form and maintain successful working relationships and work in a collaborative team environment is essential.
  • Excellent computer skills with competence in Word, Excel, and Outlook necessary; TMS and Crystal Reporting (or equivalent) is a plus.

Curatorial Assistant: https://careers.miami.edu/us/en/job/R100090318/Curatorial-Assistant

 
Internship Opportunities at the John G. Riley Center & Museum for African American History & Culture

Grads & Undergrads: Apply before October 1!

The John G. Riley Center & Museum, a premier cultural institution dedicated to preserving African American history and culture in Tallahassee, invites applications for internships in Fall 2025 and Spring 2026.
 
These non-paid internships are open to both graduate and undergraduate students who are highly motivated and detail oriented. Candidates will gain hands-on experience in museum practices, collections management, cultural heritage, and local histories. We especially welcome students with strong research skills, a passion for history, and a commitment to community engagement.
 
Successful interns will have the opportunity to contribute to our mission to educate and empower the community while gaining meaningful professional experience in a dynamic museum environment.
 
For more information, please contact Ileana Olmos at ileana.olmos@talgov.com.
CFP: Asterisk*: The Yale Undergraduate Journal of Art and Art History

Submission deadline October 12, 2025 for Spring 2026 issue

Asterisk*: The Yale Undergraduate Journal of Art and Art History is a publication founded and run by students at Yale University. 

The editors are seeking high-quality undergraduate student essays that offer fresh perspectives with vivid prose. These works can be part of a course research paper/project, independent study, or honors thesis. We welcome works that have been submitted for a course grade but ask authors to refrain from submitting works that have already been published in other outlets.

For essays: Please submit a ~300-word abstract that details the thesis of your essay along with the logical line of argumentation that gets you to it. Attach an essay of 2,000–3,000 words in a Microsoft Word document with all images referenced in the essay. You may use a maximum of 4 artworks per essay. Essays MUST be in Chicago citation style (including footnotes, bibliography, etc.). We will peer-review all essays, and writers selected for the publication will receive drafts for revision prior to publication.

For artworks: Please submit a photograph of your artworks as individual and high-resolution .jpg files with their titles as file names. In addition, please attach a ~200-word description of the artwork in a Microsoft Word document. All photographable mediums of creative work will be considered (painting, photography, sculpture, digital art, drawings, etc.). Please send us the titles of your work, the years they were made, and the media used. We will not accept more than 4 images per submission.

To submit your work, please email yujaah.submissions@gmail.com. Please indicate your full name, your university, your class year, and your email. The title of the email should be in the form “Lastname, Firstname Submission.” The deadline to submit is October 12, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Please do not submit previously published work. You can access our previous issues here. 

 

Call for Papers: 51st Annual Cleveland Symposium, November 14, 2025 - DEADLINE EXTENDED

Submission deadline August 1, 2025

The Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University invites current and recent graduate students to submit paper abstracts for the 51st Annual Cleveland Symposium, Love and Desire in the Visual Arts, by July 21, 2025. Held in partnership with the Cleveland Museum of Art as part of the joint program between CWRU and CMA, the Cleveland Symposium is one of the longest-running annual art history symposia in the United States organized by graduate students. This year’s symposium welcomes innovative research papers that explore themes of love and desire as manifested in any medium as well as in any historical period and geographic location. Different methodological perspectives are welcome.

Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Expressions of romantic love and desire
  • Platonic love and tenderness
  • Depictions of heartbreak and lovesickness
  • Visualizations of passion, emotion, and devotion
  • Self-love and inner desires
  • Divine love and the significance of love and desire in religious devotion
  • Nudity, sexuality, eroticism, and the body
  • Gendered and queer love
  • Power dynamics in the experience of love and desire
  • The tactile and sensuous quality of media

Current and recent graduate students in art history and related disciplines are invited to submit an abstract of up to 350 words and a CV to clevelandsymposium@gmail.com by Friday, August 1, 2025. Selected participants will be notified by mid-August. Presentations should be between 15–18 minutes in length. The symposium is planned as an in-person event. Speakers will be responsible for their own travel, but lodging with CWRU graduate students will be arranged for interested participants. Please send any questions to Claudia Haines and Rachel Sweeney at clevelandsymposium@gmail.com.

Call for Papers: FSU Literatures & Linguistics Interdisciplinary Conference, March 5 & 6, 2026

Submission deadline October 17, 2025

LINC 2026 Graduate Conference, titled “Beyond Fracture: Reimagining Futures through Divergence and Convergence,” will be held on March 5–6, 2026, at Florida State University.

LINC is an interdisciplinary conference organized primarily by graduate students in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, with collaboration from other departments across FSU, that invites participation from undergraduate, graduate students, and faculty working in literature, linguistics, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, the arts, education, and related fields. We welcome proposals from diverse disciplinary perspectives and are eager to foster conversations across the Humanities.

The deadline to submit proposals is October 17, 2025, and we would be grateful if you could share the attached CFP with faculty and students in your department.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to contact us at my contact djc18cq@fsu.edu, Emil Asanov at ea24h@fsu.edu,  or the Organized Committee at mllgradconference@gmail.com

Ancient Mediterranean Art History Tenure-track Assistant Professor position at Baylor University

POSITION OPENS June 6, 2025

Baylor University seeks to fill a tenure-track position within the Department of Art & Art History at the Assistant Professor rank in Ancient Mediterranean Art History starting in the Fall of 2026. The Department of Art & Art History prioritizes faculty success at all levels. Candidate should be comfortable with undergraduate education in a studio environment. 

To learn more about the above position and apply, please visit: apply.interfolio.com/168224

Baylor University https://www.baylor.edu/

College of Arts & Sciences www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences

Department of Art & Art History https://art.artsandsciences.baylor.edu/

With a main campus located in Waco, Texas, Baylor University is the oldest college in Texas. With a population of 21,000 diverse students, Baylor is one of the top universities in the nation, having been named an R1 institution by the Carnegie Classification in January 2022. Baylor is also on the honor roll of the “Great Colleges to Work For” from The Chronicle of Higher Education; Baylor offers competitive salaries and benefits while allowing faculty and staff to live in one of the fastest-growing parts of the state. Our strategic plan guides the University as we continue to live up to Baylor’s mission of educating men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community.  

Baylor University, a private not-for-profit university affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is committed to compliance with all applicable anti-discrimination laws, including those regarding age, race, color, sex, national origin, military service, genetic information, and disability. Baylor complies with statutory Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity requirements. Baylor’s full official Notice of Non-Discrimination may be read online.

2026 Davidson Family Fellowship at the Amon Carter Museum

Apply by June 27, 2025

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art invites applications for the 2025–2026 Davidson Family Fellowship. The Fellowship provides support for scholars holding a PhD (or equivalent) or PhD candidates to work on research projects in American art that advance scholarship by connecting with objects in the Carter’s permanent collection. The stipend rate is $5,000 per month for a minimum one-month to a maximum four-month period of full-time research at the Museum. During their stay, fellows will actively participate in the scholarly life of the Museum, and at the end of their appointment they are asked to present research progress in the form of a lecture or roundtable discussion.
 
The application deadline is June 27, 2025, for a fellowship to begin on or after October 1, 2025, and end by September 30, 2026. Housing and travel expenses are to be managed and funded by the fellow.

Full Description & Application Form

 

VAP Position in Art History at University of Florida

Apply by May 5, 2025

The School of Art and Art History at the University of Florida, College of the Arts invites applicants for a one-year Visiting Assistant Professor in Art History to teach undergraduate courses, including a survey of ancient through late medieval art in Europe, the Near East, and Mediterranean basin; a General Education course on protection of cultural heritage that is called “Art Crime”; and an upper-level course in field of specialty. A syllabus and materials will be provided for the survey and the Art Crime course to aid in setting up the courses, and the instructor will be able to adjust readings and case studies.

DETAILS HERE

 

 

2025 KU History of Art Graduate Student Symposium

Submission deadline June 30, 2025

Call for Papers:

2025 KU History of Art Graduate Student Symposium
The Kress Foundation Department of Art History, University of Kansas

Symbiosis: Art and Ecologies in Global Perspectives

Symposium Dates: November 7-8, 2025
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sugata Ray, University of California, Berkeley

Deadline for Submission: June 30, 2025

Symbiosis, from the Greek meaning ìliving together,î refers to long-term, close physical interactions between two or more different organisms. In a broader sense, symbiosis can be used to describe the relationships between not only human and non-human agents in ecological systems but also individuals and communities with diverse identities, cultures, and backgrounds. Highlighting relationality rather than separation, mutuality rather than individuality, interaction rather than isolation, this symposium explores the role of art and visual culture in shaping, negotiating, and disguising intimacies in ecological, communal, and social relationships. How does art construct and contest the networks among humans, non-human entities, and environments? How does art reveal and/or repress these entanglements across time and region while also envisioning a sustainable future?

We invite proposals for 20-minute in-person presentations exploring the ways in which art and visual culture engage with the conference theme. We welcome proposals from current M.A. and Ph.D. students that address topics from a wide range of time periods and geographical areas, as well as object-oriented and theoretical approaches.

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

Art and Activism
Artist Communities
Art in the Anthropocene
Art Museums and Environmentalism
Art of Science and Science of Art
Climate Change and Art
Ecocriticism and Eco Art History
Environmental Justice and Ethics
Geoaesthetics
Human-Nature Relations in Art
Multiculturalism
Planetarianism
Post-Humanism
Postcolonialism and Decolonization

Please submit an abstract of 250–300 words and a CV to kusymposium@gmail.com by June 30, 2025. Selected applicants will be notified by mid-July.

Internship Opportunities at the John G. Riley Center & Museum for African American History & Culture

Apply by April 25

The John G. Riley Center & Museum, a premier cultural institution dedicated to preserving African American history and culture in Tallahassee, invites applications for internships in Summer and Fall 2025.

These non-paid internships are ideal for graduate students seeking academic credit and valuable professional experience, as well as undergraduate students looking to gain hands-on experience in museum practices. We welcome highly motivated and detail-oriented individuals to join our team, particularly those with a strong work ethic, research interests, and a passion for collections management, cultural heritage, and local histories.

Successful candidates will have the opportunity to contribute to our mission to educate and empower the community, while gaining invaluable insights into the inner workings of a dynamic museum environment.

Contact Ileana Olmos at ileana.olmos@talgov.com for more information.

2025 Summer Internships at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

Apply by March 17, 2025

The Ringling offers paid, full-time summer internships for eight weeks: June 2 – July 25, 2025. Ringling summer internships provide hands-on, skill-building professional experiences while working on one or more projects within a specific department. All Ringling interns gain exposure to many aspects of The Ringling’s operations including professional development and cultural enrichment activities.

Remaining Summer Internship Opportunities:

– Archives

– Curatorial

– Education

– Performing Arts (Technical Theater and Box Office)

To learn more and apply, please visit: https://bit.ly/RinglingSummerInternships.

 

Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Research, Travel, and Creative Works Grant

FSU’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Center strives to support student research and artistic activity that focuses on and engages with Native American and Indigenous communities across the globe. Towards that end, this grant fund provides students with reimbursable funding to assist in research, travel, and creative works that are focused on creating and/or developing knowledge with Native and Indigenous partners and/or to support travel related to disseminating knowledge at conferences, meetings, and/or workshops. Creative works and activities associated with Indigenous nations are also encouraged.
COMPLETE DETAILS & APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

CFP: The Archival Art Historian, an ICMA-Sponsored Panel at CAA, February 2026

Submission deadline August 29, 2025

ICMA-SPONSORED PANEL: THE ARCHIVAL ART HISTORIAN 
(CFP: COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE, CHICAGO 18TH-21ST FEBRUARY 2026)
 
Art historians of the medieval past are often required to conduct research within varied archives that were not designed for art historical research: libraries, historical museums, private collections, cathedral crypts, parish churches or graveyards. Databases such as the Digital Index for Medieval Art, the Warburg Institute’s Iconographic Database and the ICMA Image Database are gradually revolutionising the study of medieval art. However, art historians of the medieval past must still frequently contend with generations of afterlives, layers of bureaucracy and confounding archival systems which rarely prioritise the visual. Working within these spaces presents both challenges and exciting opportunities for original interventions. This panel invites papers that reflect on the experience of conducting art historical research in archives that were not designed with art historians in mind.
 
This session aims to foster a productive discussion about the intricacies of art historical research and the position of archives therein. The 90-minute session will consist of five 10-minute presentations, followed by a round table discussion and Q&A. We therefore invite 10-minute presentations that reflect on: a single archival encounter, object, institution or methodological problem. Papers should raise issues which may form the basis of a generative broader conversation between panellists and with the audience. Possible topics may include: discussion of working with unillustrated catalogues, the challenges of studying material that is still ‘active’ in a working context or the complexities which surround the creation of digital archives. We welcome papers which consider medieval archives and objects from across periods and geographies and we define ‘archive’ in the broadest possible terms, to include both digital and physical collections.
 
Please submit a 250 word abstract by Friday 29 August 2025 via CAA’s dedicated submission portal at the following link:
https://caa.confex.com/caa/2026/webprogrampreliminary/Session16076.html

This panel is sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA). If your paper is accepted and you are not already a member of the ICMA, you will be required to join by February 2026. Some funding to assist with the cost of attending the conference may be available to speakers through the ICMA Kress Travel Grant Fund. Contributing panellists will have the opportunity to submit their paper for publication in a special issue of the open-access journal Different Visions, titled ‘Points of Friction’, and co-edited by Dr Millie Horton-Insch and Dr Lauren Rozenberg.