ACASA Triennial: Call for Individual Papers

January 19, 2024 By Caroline Bastian

We invite proposals for individual papers for open panels and roundtables at this time (January 19, 2024- March 1, 2024). Please see the list of open panels and roundtables at the bottom of this page. The full list of accepted panel proposals can be viewed here.

Recently the field of African arts has shifted from object-centered approaches to ones that are human-, community-, and artist-centered. Who is speaking? How can we listen to each other and invite more diverse and globally-entangled voices? Some strategies for human-centered approaches include collaboration, wellness, healing, pluralities of knowledge, the sustaining and building of relationships, fostering new generations, thinking generously and inclusively and active listening in lieu of, or in addition to, object-centered approaches. We welcome contributions on themes such as:

Diversifying the field of African arts
Tangible and intangible knowledges and scholarly approaches
Networking and broadening voices
Community and artist-centered approaches
Artist, museum, and/or community approaches or responses to wellness and healing
Pluralizing knowledges, expertise, and the production of knowledges and expertise
Developing and sustaining individual, museum, and institutional relationships and partnerships, especially international ones
Fostering the next generation of artists, scholars, and communities
Personhood and people-centered approaches and/or their relationship to tangible artworks
Empathy, radical listening, thinking generously and inclusively
Mentorship, exchanges, collaborations
Transparency in museum and institutional practices
Decoloniality and decolonial approaches to the arts of Africa

Regular panels will be 120 minutes long with either a) four 20-minute papers and a discussant or b) five 20-minute papers. 90-minute roundtables or alternative discussion-based formats (such as lightning talks or poster presentations) are welcome–creativity encouraged.

Participants may only present one paper but may serve as a discussant on another panel or as a presenter on a roundtable.

Individual paper proposals must include the following:

Title of Paper
Name, Professional Title, Affiliation of Proposer
A proposal not to exceed 500 words describing the theme and scope
Contact information, including phone and e-mail (this information is for internal use only and will not be publicized)
Please include the title of the panel/roundtable so the application can be shared with the correct chair.

The submission deadline for paper proposals is March 1, 2024.

Please submit via the submission portal here

Proposals may be submitted by anyone, but an active ACASA membership is required to take part in the symposium. Visit https://www.acasaonline.org/join-acasa/ to find information on ACASA membership and to join.

For any questions or concerns, please email Caroline Bastian Retcher, ACASA Admin, at bastian@acasaonline.org.

Open Panels & Roundtables:

Decolonization of African Art in Museums, Covid-19, and Curating Art in Digital Space

Towards a dynamic and distributed future: interdisciplinary methods of engaging with African Art & Cultural Heritage Materials

Reimagining Creative Ways of Speaking Truth to Power in a Time of Heightened Repression

Knowledge Creation and Co-Curation in Museums and Public Spaces: Contestations and Advances

Public Art, African Histories: Asserting and Subverting Colonial Power

Photographic Transversals: Mobility, Intermediality, and Temporality in African Photography