Dear IAS Members

Below you will find a list of RSA 2023 sessions that the IAS is sponsoring. Please consider submitting a proposal for your participation.
Thank you.

I.   Session Title:  Transgressing the Socially Controlled Body of Early Modern Italy (I-II)
Session Organizers:  Rebecca Howard, University of Memphis rmhward2@memphis.edu
and Caroline Koncz, Independent Scholar  ckoncz15@gmail.com
 
Abstract:
Centuries beyond the early modern period, bodies continue to be controlled and held to certain socially fabricated and problematic expectations. Social and gendered standards placed on early modern persons (realized through the issuing of sumptuary legislation, conduct literature, and clerical/state legislation, to name only a few sources), are often the forces behind artistic depictions of period bodies. The papers in this panel thus seek to consider how social constructs impacted early modern artists’ renderings of figures, either from life, history, and/or fiction. Speaking to the theme of the socially constructed and controlled body in early modern Italy, papers will explore subjects such as transgressive and/or confirmative depictions of bodies; defining, performing, and/or blurring gender roles; transgressive dressing; cross-dressing; and the nude or the body undressed. Discussions of such policing of early modern bodies may reflect contemporary efforts that further attempt control over the bodies and lives of certain individuals.
 
Please send paper proposals* to the organizers by 5 August 2022.
*See proposal guidelines below.
 ____________________
 
II.   Session Title:  Re-Orienting the Early Modern Networks of Exchange between Italy and Asia (I-II)
Session Organizers:  Negar Rokhgar, Pratt Institute   negar.rokhgar@gmail.com
and Margo Weitzman, Rutgers  margo.weitzman@rutgers.edu
 
Abstract:
Cross-cultural exchange between early modern Italy and the “East” is a fulcrum for many early modern scholars. It is widely established that visual and material culture, economics and trade, and political alliances were phenomena that hinged on fluid boundaries and complex global relationships. For instance, how did global commerce and trade affect political alliances, the movement of materials, and visual culture? To what extend did diplomatic relations between networks shape borders or influence access to goods and resources? How did traveling agents build networks between commercial centers? How did the Renaissance agent craft personal and communal identities in foreign countries? With these questions in mind, we aim to convene scholars with critical approaches toward cultural, political, and material exchange between Italy and Asia during the early modern period.

Please send paper proposals* to the organizers by 5 August 2022.
*See proposal guidelines below.
 
 
All Paper proposals must include:

• Paper Title (15 words max)
• Abstract (150 words max)
• Brief CV (pdf or doc) with speaker’s full name and email address
• PhD completion date (past or expected)
• Discipline Area 

Please note: As this is a sponsored panel, all speakers must be (or become) members of the Italian Art Society in 2023. Please note that there are free one-year sospesi memberships available for eligible speakers in IAS sponsored sessions. Information can be found on our website here: https://www.italianartsociety.org/grants-opportunities/travel-grants/.

The IAS offers several types of conference travel grants which help support graduate students and junior scholars, as well as scholars who are traveling internationally to present in IAS- Sponsored sessions. Applications for these grants are announced and opened in the late fall.
 
More information on the various conference travel grants be found on our website: https://www.italianartsociety.org/grants-opportunities/travel-grants/
 

A presto,
 

Janis Elliott, PhD Vice President for Program Coordination, and Program Committee Chair, Italian Art Society programs@italianartsociety.org