CALL FOR ABSTRACTS FOR PANEL

Conference: The 44th Annual Conference on South Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panel Title: In Circulation: Visual Cultures of South Asia

Panel Organizer: Shivani Sud, PhD student, History of Art Dept., University of California, Berkeley

Recognizing that culture has never stood absolutely still, the focus of this panel is on processes of movement and circulation. From the standpoint of an increasingly transnational and interconnected world, it is imperative to reflect on how networks of circulation not only impact the ways in which images and objects operate but also challenge conventional epistemological and methodological approaches to the study of visual cultures. Through what channels and networks are images and objects distributed? How does art transcend boundaries and borders, both literally and metaphorically? How has cultural mobility impacted South Asian culture, past and present? What are the potentials, limits, and politics of circulation? How might closer attention to processes of circulation open up new avenues of inquiry for scholars? This panel aims to (re)think questions of circulation, use, reception, and exchange to offer new conceptual tools and theoretical frameworks for the study of South Asian visual cultures.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
1. Portable objects
2. Traveling exhibitions and museum collections
3. Commodity flows and various modes of transfer (i.e. sale, gift, and theft)
4. Artists and works that engage questions of movement, migration, and displacement.
5. Histories of mass production and reproduction (i.e. advertisements, calendars, and postcards).
6. Viral images and memes

Please send an abstract (500 words max) and a current CV as email attachments to shivanisud@berkeley.edu by March 10, 2015.

All participants will be required to submit their final 20-minute paper by August 1, 2015.

CONFERENCE:
Location: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Dates: October 22-25, 2015.

OTHER DETAILS
For conference related details (submission-related logistics and guidelines, hotel accommodations, travels, past proceedings, and photos etc.), please click here: https://www.southasiaconference.wisc.edu/index.htm

CONTACT INFORMATION
Shivani Sud
shivanisud@berkeley.edu