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Engaging in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (EPOCH) Student Symposium

September 24, 2010-September 25, 2010 The University of Texas at Austin, School of Information, Austin, TX, United States

The first annual Engaging in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (EPOCH) student symposium aims to bring together an international group of graduate students who are involved in the research and practice of protecting cultural heritage. In order to prevent the loss of material and intangible culture due to both human and natural causes, EPOCH will engage a new generation of scholars in the practices and methodologies necessary to preserve our cultural legacies for today and the future. Hosted by The University of Texas at Austin's School Information, this two-day conference will allow students from diverse backgrounds in heritage protection studies (including library and archival science, museum studies, architecture history, anthropology, and art conservation) to share findings, pose questions, and develop collegial networks. We hope you can join us!

For more information: EPOCH Student Symposium

World Universities Congress

October 20, 2010-October 24, 2010 Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey

In October 2010, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University will be organising a World Universities Congress on the theme: "What should be the new aims and responsibilities of universities within the framework of global issues?"

The main responsibilities of universities around the world have traditionally been to offer education and training leading to a profession, to conduct scientific research, and to provide other services to the community. However, in a world where global issues are increasingly impacting on daily life, universities today have a duty to assume more responsibility in a wider field.

The trend towards globalisation, resulting from factors such as efforts to integrate national economies, an increase in international and intercultural relations, and the disappearance of national borders in the sphere of communications, has brought with it a number of problems. It is therefore necessary for topics such as those listed below to be discussed at university level. Universities need to redefine their aims and responsibilities and to make and share suggestions for lasting solutions on international platforms. In addition to the three traditional tasks mentioned above, universities need to define their duties and objectives with regard to the following topics:

Understanding and preventing global climate change

Preventing global terrorism

Eradicating global poverty

Solving the problems of global migration

Eradicating inequalities in income distribution

Eradicating injustice in health services

Eradicating inequality in educational opportunities.

Proposing solutions to environmental pollution

Preventing regional conflicts

Securing world peace

Protecting cultural heritage

Developing lasting solutions to rapid population growth

Expanding the role of non-governmental organisations in local and international developments

These issues, which threaten the whole of mankind, cannot be solved only by international or transnational organisations, such as the United Nations, European Union, UNESCO, OECD and G8, or by governments alone. Universities can make a significant contribution by participating in the debate. In order to assist in resolving these issues, universities need first of all to include relevant goals in their strategic planning, to create research and training centres, and to rethink their teaching programmes. Universities will have the opportunity to determine what can be done during sessions at the Congress.

Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University intends to bring together universities and other closely associated institutions, researchers and intellectuals, and to provide a wide-ranging forum to discuss the above-mentioned and similar global issues threatening our planet and the new tasks and roles of universities in the process of seeking solutions. We therefore look forward to hearing your views and suggestions with regard to the goals and themes of the World Universities Congress which Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University will host from 20th - 24th October 2010 and we would most value your participation in the Congress.

For more information: World Universities Congress - Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University

Other Views: Art History in (South) Africa and the Global South

January 12, 2011-January 15, 2011 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Final call for papers: OTHER VIEWS: ART HISTORY IN (SOUTH) AFRICA AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH
A colloquium organised by the South African Visual Arts Historians (SAVAH) under the aegis of the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 12-15 January 2011

The colloquium addresses concerns about the unequal distribution of resources around the globe and challenges from postcolonial societies to the older methods and concepts of Western art history. These challenges have relevance in South Africa, Africa and the Global South, which in this context is a cultural construct rather than a geographic term. It refers to communities and artistic production, throughout history and across nations, which, within the dominant narratives of Western art, have been ignored, marginalised, displaced and appropriated.

Papers are invited that address any of the topics outlined in the panels below. Abstracts, up to 250 words in length, must be submitted by email in English, and must include the author’s institutional affiliation and relevant contact details. The final length of individual papers must not exceed 3,000 words, in order to fit into the strict 20 minute time limit per presentation. Abstracts should be sent directly to the panel organisers, copying the Chairperson of SAVAH, Federico Freschi, federico.freschi@wits.ac.za. ABSTRACTS WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL 31 JULY 2010.

1.    INTERROGATING WESTERN PARADIGMS
1.1    Modernist primitivism and indigenous modernisms: transnational
discourse and local art histories
1.2    Rethinking authenticity in African art

2.    INTERROGATING THE POSTCOLONIAL
2.1    Art as an act of decolonisation: perspectives from and on the Global South
2.2    About the epistemological and political consequences of some uses of the ‘Latin American Art’ label

3.    INTERROGATING THE GLOBAL SOUTH
3.1    Problematising the Global South

4.    THE POLITICS OF DISPLAY AND COLLECTING
4.1    Changing museums, changing art histories
4.2    Africa, Africanness, and their representation in the contemporary
mega-exhibition

5.    CULTURAL PRODUCTION
5.1    Where to put baskets in an art gallery? The place of traditional
cultures in art history
5.2    Tradition and innovation in Southern African textiles

6.    ART AND ‘PRE-HISTORY’
6.1    Archaeologies of art

7.    POWER AND POLITICS
7.1    Architecture and landscape

8.    CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES
8.1    Unsettling hierarchies: women artists in South Africa
8.2    Clothing, cultures, classifications: inventing self and other through
dress
8.3    Who is entitled to tell the black artist’s story in South Africa?

9.    PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH
9.1    Between Seeing and Believing: Documentary and Archival Practices in the Global South

For more information: Final Call for Papers: Other Views: Art History in (South) Africa and the Global South

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