A Message from Hala Auji, the Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair for Islamic Art at VCU School of the Arts, and Symposium Co-Chair (July 19, 2023)
As the new Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair for Islamic Art at VCU School of the Arts, it is my great pleasure to share details about the 2023 Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art in its tenth iteration, which I am chairing alongside Radha Dalal, Director of Art History and Associate Professor of Islamic Art, VCUarts Qatar.
Since joining the Department of Art History at VCU’s Richmond campus, I have been inspired by the program and the school’s collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to teaching, and scholarship. VCU has been an ideal home for my research, which is informed by my background in graphic design, criticism and theory, and art history.
In my publications, including my monograph, and teaching I explore the history of the book, print culture, cultural modernity, museum practices, and portraiture in the Islamic world, with a focus on Arabic-speaking communities of the Eastern Mediterranean. Having lived and worked in Beirut (Lebanon) and Dubai (UAE) for several years, I was thrilled that my new job, while based in Virginia, would allow for exciting opportunities to collaborate with colleagues at VCU Qatar and throughout the Global South, particularly at a time when we are witnessing major global changes and challenges.
Read more at this link.
A message from Marisa Brown, Program Manager, Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art (September 4, 2023)
Greetings,
Registration is now open for Islamic Art History and the Global Turn: Theory, Method, Practice, the Tenth Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, to be held November 11-13, 2023 in Doha at VCUarts Qatar. The event website contains a conference schedule, profiles of all conference speakers, and an extensive list of scholarly resources that address this Symposium’s guiding question – namely, how art history’s concerns with the global turn and calls for decolonial, diverse, inclusive, and equitable histories is shaping the field of Islamic art history.
The Symposium’s keynote address on November 11 will be given by Finbarr Barry Flood (Director of Silsila: Center for Material Histories and William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the Humanities, Institute of Fine Arts & Department of Art History at New York University). It is titled Shifting Scales: Islamic Art History as Global Microhistory. On November 12 and 13, we will hear presentations from Talinn Grigor, Ellen Kenney, Sam Bowker and Karen Exell, and roundtable conversations on theory, method, and practice, with a special concluding conversation at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art on November 13 titled Curating in a Global Context: Works in Progress. You will find biographical information about all Symposium speakers and the titles of their presentations on the event website.
Read more at this link.
