Art and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America:
                            a Transatlantic Exchange
                       University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
                               14. April. 2006

UPDATE: PLEASE DISREGARD THE EARLIER EXTENDED DEADLINE. THE NEW
EXTENDED DEADLINE IS FEBRUARY 15, 2006.

UPDATE: KEYNOTE SPEAKER CONFIRMED

Due to the interest expressed in the conference, we are extending the
deadline for proposals. Please note the new deadline of February 15,
2006.

The Keynote Speaker for the conference is Professor Elaine Hadley of
the University of Chicago. Professor Hadley's interest in the popular
and political culture of nineteenth-century Britain has led to her work
in theater, journalism, and "cheap" literature as well as in Victorian
liberalism. She is the author of Melodramatic Tactics: Theatricalized
Dissent in the English Marketplace, 1800-1885 (1995) as well as
articles published in the Yale Journal of Criticism and Victorian
Studies. She is currently working on a book entitled Living Liberalism.

The Nineteenth Century Forum (NCF), an interdisciplinary group
comprised of faculty and graduate students at the University of
Michigan, invites proposals for panels and individual papers for its
graduate student conference "Art and Politics in Nineteenth-Century
Britain and America: a Transatlantic Exchange."

The convergence of art and politics during the nineteenth century
unites two of the most important spheres of thought in both the
Americas and the United Kingdom. These spheres clearly never remained
wholly separate but were profoundly affected by each other and raise
some important issues for us today. How did nineteenth-century figures
negotiate between the individual and the collective in and through art?
  Why did certain artists in the nineteenth-century turn to politics?
How did their political interests impact their art? And how do we
re-present nineteenth-century political art to our own modern
communities?

Some of the same questions that we face as teachers and scholars of the
21st century were also articulated in the 19th century, as modern
university education was coming into it own. How do nineteenth-century
practices and politics inform our academic work and how might that
translate into our own engagement in or with politics—on and off the
page, inside and outside the university—today?

Taking these questions as our central focus, this one-day conference
seeks graduate student contributions that engage such questions and
their relevance to nineteenth-century texts.

Possible points of entry include: * Political Art or Art as Politics:
How do c19 artists use their art as a medium for political expression?
* The Politics of the Personal: How do c19 figures negotiate between
the individual and the collective through art?
* Imagining Political Pasts and Futures: How do c19 figures position
themselves temporally and spatially?
* Art and Empire: How is art used in the service of nationalistic or
imperialistic ventures? * Politicizing Place: How does the
representation of c19 places or landscapes contribute to attitudes
about land use, agriculture, outdoor leisure, or environmental justice?

The conference will begin with a lecture delivered by our featured
keynote speaker, Professor Elaine Hadley of the University of Chicago,
and conclude with a roundtable on art and politics as they relate to
our pedagogies and to our academic communities.

We encourage both pre-formed panels and individual contributions from
graduate students in all disciplines. Papers with inter- or
multidisciplinary approaches are especially appreciated. Please submit
250-word abstracts, along with your institutional affiliation and
contact information, to ncfconference2006_at_umich.edu by 15. January.
2006. Selected papers should be no more than 20 minutes in length.

* * *

The Nineteenth Century Forum (NCF) is comprised of faculty and graduate
students from English, History, Comparative Literature, American
Culture, Women's Studies, and related departments at the University of
Michigan. We are interested in examining the "long nineteenth century,"
from the beginnings of Romanticism to the early twentieth century.
Please visit our website at http://www.umich.edu/%7Encf/index.html for
more information.

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                        CFP_at_english.upenn.edu
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         or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu
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Received on Sat Jan 21 2006 - 13:49:25 EST