ACASA

Arts Council of the African Studies Association

Call for Papers: Methodological Approaches to Researching Modern Art by African Women Artists

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Call for Presentation Abstracts:
Towards the CAA 114th Annual Conference (18-21 Feb. 2026), we now welcome the submission of presentation abstracts for the session “Methodological Approaches to Researching Modern Art by African Women Artists.”

—Session convened remotely—

Session Chairs:
Nomusa Makhubu (Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town), and Claudia Marion Stemberger (Department of Art History at the University of Delaware)

Session Abstract:
The rise of the contemporary in both research and exhibitions of African visual art and material culture has gained significant traction, placing the historically marginalized study of women artists in twentieth-century Africa at a crossroads. The recent growth in online resources pertaining to global modern art, such as biographical notes by AWARE and contextual essays from the MoMA, has helped to reevaluate the narratives surrounding African women artists of the twentieth century. Surveys on African women artists have proposed that gendered practices are multifaceted (Blackmun Visonà 2021), while also underlining the challenges posed by “incongruent methodological approaches to how that gendered history is constructed” (Makhubu 2020). This has opened opportunities to transform research methodologies and fieldwork strategies. In moving forward, however, despite ongoing reflections on the current state of the field (African Arts 2017 & 2024) and revised trajectories of African modernisms (Critical Interventions 2019), there remains a paucity of directions in the analysis of modern art by individual African women artists. The panel discusses methodological innovations and case studies that underpin novel scholarship on women’s artistic production among twentieth-century African art historiography. The scope encompasses accounts of recent shifts and envisioning future inquiry, especially in respect of Africa-centered perspectives. By engaging in debates about the de/canonization of art historical knowledges, this panel illuminates the previously underrepresented histories of African women artists.

Subject Fields
African History / Studies, Anthropology, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Women’s & Gender History / Studies

https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20120622/cfp-methodological-approaches-researching-modern-art-african-women

Timeline:
Proposal submission deadline: 29 August 2025
Notification of acceptance: 16 September 2025

Submission Guidelines:
Prepare your presentation title and abstract (250 words), in addition to your shortened CV (~2 pages). Presenters will submit through CAA’s online forms via this link: https://caa.confex.com/caa/2026/webprogrampreliminary/meeting.html
For technical issues, kindly reach out to caa@confex.com

Assistant Professor – Black Visual Culture

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Date Posted: 07/14/2025
Closing Date: 09/30/2025, 11:59PM ET
Req ID: 44059
Job Category: Faculty – Tenure Stream (continuing)
Faculty/Division: University of Toronto Mississauga
Department: University of Toronto Mississauga: Visual Studies
Campus: University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM)

Description:

The Department of Visual Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga invites applications for a full-time tenure stream appointment in Black Visual Culture. The appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2026.

Candidates must have earned a PhD degree in Visual Culture, Art History, Black Studies or Africana Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, or a closely related discipline by the time of appointment, or shortly thereafter, with a demonstrated record of excellence in research and teaching. We seek candidates whose research and teaching interests complement and enhance our existing departmental strengths. The successful candidate will be expected to pursue innovative and independent research, and to establish an outstanding, competitive, and externally funded research program.

Candidates must provide evidence of research excellence which can be demonstrated by the quality of the writing sample, the submitted research statement, a record of publications in top-ranked and field-relevant academic journals and books, or forthcoming publications meeting high international standards, research collaborations, presentations at major conferences, fellowships, awards, and accolades, and strong endorsements by referees of high standing.

Evidence of excellence in teaching will be demonstrated through teaching accomplishments and a teaching dossier, including a teaching statement, sample course materials, and teaching evaluations submitted as part of the application, as well as three letters of reference. The successful candidate will be expected to provide examples of innovative approaches to pedagogy and mentoring.

Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

The Department of Visual Studies (DVS) is home to five programs and one certificate option: Art History, Art & Art History, Cinema Studies, Visual Culture and Communication, Visual Culture Studies and Certificate in Curatorial Studies. Ideally, the candidate will teach primarily in the Visual Culture streams, though we understand all of these programs as importantly related. The candidate will be expected to help build the Visual Culture curriculum. DVS is also affiliated with the Blackwood Gallery (https://www.blackwoodgallery.ca/), a vital, on-campus gallery of contemporary art and a major pedagogical resource.

The candidate also will be appointed to and teach in a graduate unit at the University of Toronto St. George campus, such as Art History (https://arthistory.utoronto.ca/) or the Cinema Studies Institute (https://www.cinema.utoronto.ca/) The University of Toronto offers the opportunity to teach, conduct research, and live in one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in the world.

At UTM we are committed to fostering an environment of diversity and inclusion. With an enviable diverse student body, we especially welcome applications from candidates who identify as Indigenous, Black, or racially visible (persons of colour), and who have experience working with, teaching or mentoring diverse groups or students. Candidates must demonstrate, in their application materials, an ability to foster diversity on campus and within the curriculum or discipline, and must show evidence of a commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and the promotion of a respectful and collegial environment. Candidates must submit a statement describing their contributions to equity, diversity, and inclusion, which might cover topics such as (but not limited to): teaching that incorporates a focus on underrepresented communities; efforts undertaken to develop inclusive pedagogies, collaboration, and engagement with underrepresented communities; and mentoring of students from underrepresented groups. If you have questions about this statement, please contact Professor Brian Price: dvschair.utm@utoronto.ca.

All qualified applicants are invited to apply online by clicking on the link below. Applicants must submit a cover letter, a current curriculum vitae, teaching dossier (including a statement of teaching philosophy, sample course materials, and teaching evaluations supporting teaching quality and experience), a research statement outlining current and future research interests, and a substantial recent writing sample (e.g., an article or book chapter).

Applicants must provide the names and contact information of three references. The University of Toronto’s recruiting tool will automatically solicit and collect letters of reference from each referee the day after an application is submitted. Applicants remain responsible for ensuring that referees submit recent letters (on letterhead, dated and signed) by the closing date. More details on the automatic reference letter collection, including timelines, are available in the candidate FAQ .

Submission guidelines can be found at http://uoft.me/how-to-apply. Your CV and cover letter should be uploaded into the dedicated fields. Please combine additional application materials into one or two files in PDF/MS Word format. If you have any questions about this position, please contact Professor Brian Price at dvschair.utm@utoronto.ca. For more information about the Department of Visual Studies, please visit https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dvs/.

https://jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississauga-Assistant-Professor-Black-Visual-Culture-ON/593973817/

All application materials, including recent reference letters, must be received by September 30, 2025.

ACASA Board Nominations NOW OPEN!

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All nominations due July 21, 2025

The ACASA Board of Directors is looking to fill five open board positions for the ASA 2025-2027 Term:

  1. Vice President/President-Elect
  2. Treasurer-Elect
  3. Website Editor
  4. Member at Large
  5. Member at Large

All nominees must be members in good standing of ACASA (must have an active membership). In addition to their assigned position, each Board member serves on committees during their 3-year term and participates in regular board meetings. Please note that nominees do not apply to a specific board position, but encourage nominees to include their preferred positions in their statement of intent. Following the general election, the Board will hold an internal election to designate one new member as Vice President/Future President, as indicated in the bylaws, and assign the remaining board positions accordingly. All elected nominees must be willing and ready to serve as ACASA Vice President/President-Elect.

All nominations are due July 21, 2025. Submit your nominations through the link below.

Nomination Form

The ACASA Board Elections Committee will contact nominees by email. Nominees who accept their nomination must submit a short bio, short statement of intent including interested position(s), and a 4-page (max) CV by 4 August 2025.

Members may nominate another ACASA member or themself for one of these positions.

If you have any questions, please email Caroline Bastian Retcher, ACASA Admin, at bastian@acasaonline.org

Getty Scholars Program 2026-2027 CFA

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Call for Applications
The Getty Research Institute is pleased to announce that the 2026-27 application for residential grants and fellowships for predocs, postdocs, and scholars under the theme of Provenance which opened, July 1. Applications are due by October 1, 2025 at 5pm PT.
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PROVENANCE
For the 2026–2027 year, the Getty Scholars Program invites innovative proposals for projects that explore provenance and adjacent research areas, including but not limited to the history of collecting, the study of the art market, and broader explorations around the ownership of art objects. Relevant to all periods and areas of art production, the scholar cohort will be invited to examine and critique the arena of provenance studies while also envisioning its future, situated between the practices and demands of source communities, art historians, museums, and the market. Digitization and databases, such as the Getty Provenance Index, have also opened up the interdisciplinary possibilities of provenance research and laid the ground for art restitution efforts and other forms of reparation. Applicants are invited to propose projects, either individual or collaborative, that reflect upon the ownership, transfer, and movement of art objects from all world regions and time periods.
Please find the full call for applications and theme text on the Getty Scholars Program and Getty Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowships webpages.

African Art Gallery Opening – London

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Almas Art Foundation (AAF)  is a London based non-profit organisation that is committed to celebrating the invaluable contributions made by African and African diaspora artists to modern and contemporary visual arts.

Almas aims to present and create an awareness for the practices of established and mid-career African and African diaspora artists through a programme of publications, exhibitions and films, documenting these artists’ practices for a new generation of African artists, scholars and the wider international art community.

Almas aims to foster collaborations with emerging artists, curators and writers to support the arts ecosystem in Africa and facilitate residencies through partnerships with universities, institutions and independent initiatives.

WEBSITE   https://www.almasartfoundation.org/

INSTAGRAM @almasartfoundationuk

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/almasartfoundationukorg/

Almas Publication Catalogue_250707_205601

2026 African Critical Inquiry Workshop: Revisiting and Reimagining “lmvo Zabantsundu”

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The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) is pleased to announce that the 2026 ACIP Workshop will be Revisiting and Reimagining “Imvo Zabantsundu”. The project was proposed by organisers Athambile Masola (Historical Studies), Litheko Modisane (Film and Media Studies), Sanele kaNtshingana (African Languages), and Wanga Gambushe (African Languages) at University of Cape Town and Sisanda Nkoala (Linguistics) of University of the Western Cape. Revisiting and Reimagining “Imvo Zabantsundu” will take place in Cape Town, South Africa in March 2026.

Revisiting and Reimagining Imvo Zabantsundu 

Revisiting and Reimagining “Imvo Zabantsundu” will be a two day immersion workshop delving into the newspaper Imvo Zabantsundu, the first Black-owned newspaper
in South Africa. Established in 1884 by John Tengo Jabavu (1859-1921), this newspaper not only laid the foundation for Black journalism but also generated a print culture that was challenging the colonial print culture that was emerging in the region. The newspaper has become a cultural artefact many refer to as a pioneering moment but few have engaged with it as a historical, cultural, and political artefact worth revisiting as a living and breathing archive. This workshop will bring together academics, students, journalists, and creatives to reinvigorate the newspaper towards a longer project which will culminate in a book that will revisit Imvo through scholarly and creative responses. This workshop will include collective close reading of the newspaper (those available), analyses of changes in the language
used over time, as well as a film screening which situates the newspaper within a broader
intellectual tradition of the world of letters in the southern African region.
In a context where English dominates public culture, it has become harder to imagine that South Africa once had a rich culture of multilingual newspapers such as Imvo as well as other newspapers that came later, such as llanga lase Natali, The Bantu World, and Koranta ea Becoana.
This workshop aims to challenge this narrowing of public culture by taking seriously the
newspaper as a cultural artefact which can reinvigorate contemporary public culture.

Founded in 2012, the African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) is a partnership between the Centre for Humanities Research at University of the Western Cape in Cape Town and the Laney Graduate School of Emory University in Atlanta. Supported by donations to the Ivan Karp and Corinne Kratz Fund, the ACIP fosters thinking and working across public cultural institutions, across disciplines and fields, and across generations. It seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of public culture, public cultural institutions, and public scholarship in shaping identities and society in Africa through an annual ACIP workshop and through the Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards, which support African doctoral students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences enrolled at South African universities.

Information about applying to organize the 2027 ACIP workshop and for the 2026 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards will be available in November 2025.

The deadline for both workshop applications and student applications is 1 May 2026.

For further information, see http://www.gs.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html and
https://www.facebook.com/ivan.karp.corinne.kratz.fund.

Call for Papers

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International Conference on GLOBALISATION IN LANGUAGES, EDUCATION, CULTURE, AND COMMUNICATION (GLECC2025)

The past two decades have witnessed remarkable advancements in the studies into Education, Second and Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting, Cultural Studies & Communication. This growth can be largely attributed to the forces of globalisation. Consequently, adopting the globalisation perspective is timely and provides a natural
framework for connecting these diverse yet interlinked disciplines.

This conference aims to bring together researchers, educators, practitioners, and policymakers to disseminate research outcomes, share insights, discuss findings, exchange visions, and identify challenges
and trends in an interactive and immersive multidisciplinary environment. The submissions take the forms of abstract, full paper, panel discussion, and workshop proposals.

There is a “conference first” policy in place. Selected papers will be invited to further develop into full journal articles free of APCs.
Conference proceedings will be published open access with an ISBN.
There will be optional pre-conference workshops on 29 July and post
conference events on 1 August.

Dates: 30-31 July 2025 (main conference)
Venue: Manchester, U.K.
Submission deadline extended to: 18 May 2025

Keynote speakers confirmed:
1.“Beyond borders: The interplay of international mobility, culture, and
commerce” by Professor Zheng Wang, University of Dundee, UK.
2.“Rethinking language and culture education for a reglobalising world”
by Dr Derek Hird, Lancaster University, UK.

For further details, https://glecc.org/2025/

Lecturer in the Arts of Africa (2 full-time, indefinite posts available), Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich

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Ref: ATR1705

The Sainsbury Research Unit (SRU) at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, is a UK-based institution dedicated to an international programme of advanced research and instruction in the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas.

The SRU runs MA and PhD programmes and offers visiting fellowships. It is part of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at UEA, maintaining close relationships with the Department of Art History & World Art Studies, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC).

You will need to hold a doctorate in anthropology, art history, archaeology or a related subject and should have fieldwork experience, a strong interest in visual arts, a good record of original research in sub-Saharan Africa and the capacity to provide research-led instruction in visual arts/material culture.

Expertise in museum anthropology, collections research and/or anthropological theory and material culture studies is desirable.

Primary responsibilities include: Undertaking personal research; co-teaching the MA course Africa module; MA and doctoral supervision; some limited undergraduate teaching; some limited SRU administrative tasks. There will be quality time and a personal research allowance for research leading to publications and career development.

These full-time roles are available from 1 September 2025 on an indefinite basis.

Starting salary from £48,419 per annum, dependent on skills and experience, with an annual increment up to £55,755 per annum.

For more information and to apply : https://vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/1447/lecturer-in-the-arts-of-africa-atr1705.html

Portraiture and Archives in African Photography Symposium

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Hybrid event: Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University and Zoom

March 28–29, 2025

Join us for a two-day symposium celebrating the art and research of the Eskenazi Museum of Art’s featured exhibition Portraiture and Archives in African Photography co-curated by Ibrahima Thiam, Allison Martino, and Beth Buggenhagen. ACASA board member Allison Martino is organizing this symposium that will feature presentations by artists, scholars, and curators to discuss current research and curatorial work related to photography and collaborative projects. Guest speakers include artists Zohra Opoku and Ibrahima Thiam as well as keynote speaker Dr. Silvia Forni, Shirley and Ralph Shapiro Director of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Sessions will be held in person at the Eskenazi Museum of Art and via Zoom. View the full schedule of events and RSVP to attend here.

REMINDER: CALL FOR APPLICATIONS AFRICAN CRITICAL INQUIRY PROGRAMME IVAN KARP DOCTORAL RESEARCH AWARDS FOR AFRICAN STUDENTS IN SOUTH AFRICAN Ph.D. PROGRAMMES Deadline 1 May 2025

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Applications are open for African Critical Inquiry Programme’s 2025 Ivan Karp
Doctoral Research Awards to support African doctoral students in humanities and
humanistic social sciences at South African universities conducting relevant dissertation
research. ACIP seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of
public culture, public cultural institutions, and public scholarship in shaping identities and
society in Africa. Ivan Karp Awards are open to African postgraduate students
registered in South African PhD programmes working on topics related to ACIP=s focus.
Maximum award ZAR 50,000.
For full information see ACIP Opportunities at
http://www.graduateschool.emory.edu/about/special/acip.html.
ACIP is a partnership between Centre for Humanities Research at University of Western
Cape and Laney Graduate School of Emory University