Call for Papers: SHERA

[Karen Kettering]

[apologies for cross-posting]

SHERA (Society of Historians of East European and Russian Art and
Architecture) Call for papers:


SHERA is organizing a series of symposia on the art and architecture of
Russia and East-Central Europe.  The first symposium will have as its theme
"Russian Modernism: Methods and Meaning in the Post-Soviet era." The
organizational committee includes Wendy Salmond, Anne Odom, Alison Hilton,
and is chaired by Blair Ruble (Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson Center,
Washington D. C.) and Jane Sharp (Department of Art History and
Archaeology, University of Maryland College Park.  The symposium will be
held for two days in April 1999 at the University of Maryland, College Park
campus and the Woodrow Wilson Center.  Admission will be free.

 We are asking graduate students, as well as faculty/scholars/curators
interested in presenting papers to send abstracts to Jane Sharp or Blair
Ruble at the addresses given below.  The deadline for submission is June
1998. Keynote speakers will be invited.

Modernism is interpreted broadly, to include the widest possible range of
issues and media in 19th and 20th-century visual arts and architecture.

Sessions will be organized according to approach that will address as
follows :
* the legacy of Formalist and Marxist historiography, its impact on studies
of Russian modernism in Russia, East-Central Europe and the West.
* the extent to which the avant-garde defined what is understood as
(Russian) modernism; how a historiographical focus on the avant-garde
continues to shape the study of modernism in general (and for an
international community).
* how a renewed interest in social history that focuses on institutions and
audiences has affected interpretations of Russian modernist art.
* how periodization has determined meaning/value for Russian modernist art,
how redefinitions of period styles altered modernist art historiography
(and why).
* how constructions of gender (or lack of attention to this) have affected
interpretations of  modernity/modern art in Russia.
* how constructions of national identity have shaped Russian modernist art
and/or critical discourse.
* what is the significance of media bias/specialization within the study of
Russian modernism.
* how do differences in method and training, gaps in communication among
international scholars of Russian modernism affect the field in general.

Each paper must explicitly engage the problem of methodology in its
historical treatment of the subject.  The committee will also be looking
for papers that deal with the issue of the collapse of the Soviet Union and
its impact on interpretive approaches in academia as well as in museums (in
the presentation and public interpretation of objects).

The committee encourages foreign scholars to apply, as we intend to apply
for travel funding for speakers.

Jane A. Sharp
Institute for Advanced Study
Olden Lane
Princeton, NJ  08540
jsharp at ias.edu

Blair Ruble
Director
The Kennan Institute
Woodrow Wilson Center
370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW,  Suite 704
Washington, D.C.  20024-2518
wwcem124 at sivm.si.edu