Provocations for a Different Art History in a Cross-Disciplinary Context: Comparing Comparativisms
Conference
February 19, 2024
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Location
Institute for the Humanities, 153 Behavioral Sciences Building
Address
1007 W. Harrison St., Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
Download iCal FileFields as different as art history, anthropology, literary criticism, philology, and law have developed ways of thinking about how cultural practices can be compared, but they have never pooled resources to discover what assumptions and strategies they might share. The study of art among indigenous cultures has been a platform where ideas of the local are strongly articulated. This is an informal, cross-disciplinary workshop that emerges from a group project to develop an alternative history of world art and considers how different disciplines in the humanities and social sciences are thinking about comparativism.
Presenters will speak on art history (James Elkins and Ömür Harmanşah), comparative philology, comparative theology (Hugh Nicholson), comparative literature (Emily Apter), indigenous methodologies (Margaret Kovach), comparative legal studies (Tom Ginsburg), and cross-cultural aesthetics. The afternoon will be an open panel discussion. The day is formatted as short, informal talks (10 minutes), each followed by a brief response (5 minutes) and a longer discussion (30 minutes). Lunch is not provided. The conference will conclude with a general panel discussion. There will be pre-circulated papers to provide concrete reference points.
Co-organized by James Elkins, Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Ömür Harmanşah, Associate Professor of Art History and Director, School of Art and Art History, University of Illinois Chicago.
The conference is sponsored by the UIC Institute for the Humanities and School of Art & Art History.
Date posted
Jan 8, 2024
Date updated
Feb 15, 2024