TWO SESSIONS ON WOMEN AND GENDER IN TRECENTO ART & ARCHITECTURE

By now a large and ever-increasing body of scholarship in various fields addresses women and gender in numerous cultures and regions. However, a rich vein remains under-explored: art historical inquiry into the roles, experiences, and representation of women in the Trecento, when many aspects of women’s roles and circumstances were in flux.  Interest among Trecento scholars in women and gender has recently widened considerably, with more scholars engaging and more approaches applied to the subject. Together with the highly successful papers presented at RSA in 2021, the papers in these sessions will be eligible for publication in an edited volume on the subject.

These two linked sessions seek to promote investigation of the roles and experiences of Trecento women as well as the ways society and/or the Church gendered them. Trecento attitudes toward women are usually assumed to have been exclusively negative, determined by men, and based on Church teachings– and they often were. However, some Trecento artists clearly paid close attention to women’s dress, behavior, and other details, including those of non-white women either in the bible or in the world around them, and rendered them with descriptive detail and sensitive nuance. Others rendered “the other” as stereotypes.

As these are art historical sessions, images should be considered primary documents; however, interdisciplinary approaches and research are also very much welcome. Topics addressing women of any class and status – as religious, as patrons, or as pious devotees will be fully considered; however, papers are especially welcome that consider the gendering of the emotions, lives, and representations of women, women of color, laywomen, and papers that move beyond traditional binaries for a complex understanding of the models for and lives of Trecento women. Since RSA will be meeting in Dublin, scholars from outside of the U.S. are particularly warmly invited to submit a proposal.

Please send proposals to the organizer, Judith Steinhoff (jsteinho@Central.UH.EDU OR jsteinhoff@uh.edu), by the end of Saturday, July 31, 2021.

Each proposal must include:

• paper title (15-word maximum)
• paper abstract (150-word maximum)
• A good abstract will state the topic and argument and will inform specialists in the field of what is new about the research. Generalities known to everyone, or research that a scholar intends to do but has not yet begun, are not appropriate. Please keep in mind that, if selected, your abstract will be used, as is, for the online program and conference app.
• a brief resume (.pdf or .docx)
• PhD or other terminal degree completion year (past or expected)
• full name, current affiliation, and email address
• Because these sessions are sponsored by the IAS, each participant will be required to be a member of both the Italian Art Society AND the RSA at the time of the conference.