Human experience of the natural world is integral to artistic production. Amidst the ongoing climate crisis, art historical discourse has focused on the human-nature relationship with more urgency. Employing ecocritical methodologies and perspectives, recent scholarship investigates visual vocabularies and material cultures that express historical conceptions of nature and ecology. Artifacts of Change aims
to foster interdisciplinary conversations on entanglements and tensions between human communities and their lived environments.
Abstracts are welcome from all historical periods, disciplines, and methodological perspectives with a visual/material focus. Submissions will be considered for 20-minute presentations in English. After the symposium, one paper will be selected for possible publication in Volume 40 of the Rutgers Art Review, a peer-reviewed, open access journal produced by graduate students in the Department of Art History.
Please send your abstract and a current CV to rutgersarthistorygradsymposium@gmail.com by Friday, January 27, 2023. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words. We welcome conventional academic papers as well as visual (photographic, video, etc.) projects and other creative proposals. Applicants will be notified of the committee’s decision in mid-February.