Call for Papers
College Art Association Annual Conference
10-13 February 2021, New York City
due 16 September 2020

Destruction and Preservation: Pre-Modern Art in a Perilous World

Organized by
Anne Heath, Hope College (heath@hope.edu) and Gillian B. Elliott, George Washington University (gillianelliott@gwu.edu)

The pressures historical sites and objects face regarding civil unrest, human and economic development, globalization, and climate change are not new, and neither is the recognition that these monuments should be preserved. Monks moving reliquaries to safe locations in anticipation of the Norman invasions, civilizations of Palmyra continuously rebuilding after centuries of conquest, Florentine citizens decorating altars with flowers in the aftermath of war and plague, and faithful parishioners hiding tabernacles in their homes while reformers decimate church treasuries all attest to a history of patrimony, its fragility, and the efforts to save it.

Historians of pre-Modern art endeavor to reconcile the destruction and preservation of monuments on two fronts. Even as scholars interpret the effects of historical change on works of art and architecture, they must also come to terms with new dangers confronting these monuments. The production of scholarship requires travel to archives, sites, and museums, thereby adding to the carbon footprint. Monuments are becoming increasingly less accessible, due to their fragile state or lack of funding to keep them open. Manuscripts and art objects still in-situ are in danger of perishing all together. In connection with the content area suggested by the College Art Association on the climate crisis, we invite papers (in-person and virtual) on the theme of cultural heritage destruction and preservation. Papers may explore historical instances of destruction or preservation, or address these issues as they play out today in the face of climate change, globalization, and social unrest. 

Instructions to submit by 16 September 2020 here.