American University expresses its sincere appreciation to the leading sponsors of the Feminist Art History Conference, Robin D’Alessandro and Dr. Jane Fortune, who have helped secure the future of the conference through their generous support.

2021 Program Overview

See complete 2021 Schedule.

Friday, September 24

• 6:00, Welcome
• 6:30, Keynote Address by Dorothy Ko,
  Barnard College, Columbia University:
  “Melt: The Female Body and the Ecology of
  Creative Destruction in China”

Saturday, September 25

• 9:00, Breakfast Zoom Social Hour
• 10:00, Session One:
  1A. The Symbolic Body
  1B. Mentors and Organizers?
  1C. Body Politics
  1D. Activism: Making Space
  1E. Constructing the Artist
• 11:00, Session Two:
  2A. Early Modern Women Artists
  2B. Finding Feminisms
  2C. Bodies in Motion
  2D. Sculpture: Deconstructing Masculinity
  2E. Mysticism and Spirituality

• 1:00, Lunch Zoom Social Hour

• 2:00, Session Three:
  3A. Spaces, Virtual and Real
  3B. Self-Fashioning
  3C. Maternity Revisited
  3D. Raising Awareness
  3E. Activism: In Word and Deed

  3:00, Cocktail Zoom Social Hour

Sunday, September 26

• 10:00, Session Four:
  4A. Art and Craft, Medium and Message
  4B. Subversion
  4C. Antiquity: Myth and Fantasy
  4D. Technologies of Resistance
  4E. Exhibiting Female Agency
• 11:30, Special AU-NGA Panel: “Feminist Issues for Museums”
  Moderator: Mikka Gee Conway, National Gallery of Art
  Panelists: Lauren Haynes, Duke University Museum; Catherine Morris, Brooklyn Museum; Asma Naeem, Baltimore Museum of Art; Christine Sciacca, Walters Art Museum; Christina Yu Yu, MFA Boston

Conference Background

The conference builds on the legacy of feminist art-historical scholarship and pedagogy initiated by Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard at American University. With the goal of fostering a broad dialogue on feminist art-historical practice, the event will feature papers spanning a range of chronological, geographic, and intersectional topics.

Previous keynote speakers include Lisa Gail Collins, Vassar College (2014); Patricia Simons, University of Michigan (2013); Whitney Chadwick, San Francisco State University (2012); Mary Sheriff, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2011); and Anna Chave, Queens College and the Graduate School, CUNY (2010).

Broude & Garrard Paperback

Introducing Feminist Art History, now available in paperback as well as e-book format, brings together the landmark introductory essays and prefaces written by Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard for their five co-edited volumes on feminism and art history (1982-2005). With a new preface (2014).