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University of Oregon Graduate Symposium in the History of Art and Architecture

Published January 5, 2022

In the 1960s, media theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the famous phrase “global village,” referring to
the way the world is becoming smaller due to technological advancement, which, in his mind, would
bring people together into one collective body. While technological development has the ability to bring
people together, it is also capable of widening the gap between individuals, creating a sense of
displacement in a globalized world. Discussions about systemic racism and the history of colonial
violence against Indigenous peoples, as well as events like the recent pandemic, have also impacted how
the individual is understood in cross-cultural interaction.

The History of Art and Architecture department at the University of Oregon invites graduate students to
submit abstracts for the 19th Annual University of Oregon Graduate Symposium in the History of Art and
Architecture, In/Out of Place. The keynote will be delivered by artist Yuyang Zhang.
This symposium questions how artists, artworks, and art movements explore ideas of community,
nationhood, identity, and cultural hybridity. Its goal is to consider how the human figure has navigated
these issues from antiquity to the contemporary era, to emphasize not only the finished product (the work
of art) but also to address its means of production, the cultural networks it navigates and challenges in
order to come into existence.

The symposium is interested in considering what it means for those artists
and cultures who find themselves in a liminal space between recognized and forgotten, acknowledged and
dismissed, and the kinds of work that comes out of this space of uncertainty. It is also interested in how
art pushes back against deterritorialization, a phenomenon that severs social and cultural practices from
cultural groups and geographic locations, as the land itself is either commodified or in danger of
disappearing. The symposium encourages research related to interconnections between self and
community, what systems of knowledge have been privileged, the relationship between situated
knowledge and global views, how artists have reacted to their political, social, and geographical location,
along with issues of exclusion and inclusion in the field, theory, and art canon. Submissions from all
periods and geographical locations will be considered and are encouraged.

Legacies of colonialism and decentering
Western ways of knowing/means of
production
● Diasporic experiences
● Migration/Immigration/Emigration
● Globalization
● The relationship of gender and sexuality
to community and place
● Citizenship and nationhood
● Hybridity, transformation, and mutation
● Displacement from the center of the art
canon
● Regional art and traditional practices
● Place-based practices
● Art communities (both institutional and
non-institutional)
● Underground/nonconformist art
● Deterritorialization
● Borders and boundaries
● Infrastructure and logistics in relation to
material culture

The symposium will take place on Saturday, March 18th at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, located on the University of Oregon campus. We will also have a tour of the museum and a social event on Friday, March 17th that speakers are invited, but not required, to attend. Please direct all questions to Margaryta, Lizi, and Alexis at the Art History Student Association email:ahsa@uoregon.edu.

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