Workshopping Future Directions in Impressionism
5-6 (in-person) & 9 (online) September 2024
Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London Apply online | questions to impressionistfutures@gmail.com
What is impressionism now? Who counts as impressionist? Who decides the future of impressionism? ‘Workshopping Future Directions in Impressionism’ (5-6 September 2024, Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London (IAS, UCL) & 9 September 2024 (online)) creates space for the subfield to look collectively and work collaboratively. As the first in what is intended to be a series of events in 2024 and beyond, ‘Workshopping Future Directions in Impressionism’ promises to be that: a workshop. We welcome colleagues at all stages of their careers to participate in discussions about the current state-of-the-field as well as its imminent, desired, and dreamt-of directions. We invite the participation of those wishing to share and critically reflect on their current research, collectively investigate new possibilities, establish and expand their professional networks, and formulate new, collaborative projects to generate impact. This workshop will catalyse future events pertaining to the themes outlined below and the questions raised.
This workshop will feature a diverse, inclusive programme of activities designed to stimulate critical reflection and spark conversations among all participants, including:
● Thematic panels of lightning talks (7 minutes) with extended discussion time
● Breakout discussions around pressing issues and problems
● Roundtable discussions
● Speed networking
● A ‘world café’-style wrap up, collating key points to inform future events Amongst others, possible topics for presentations and discussions will include: Bodies and identities
Bodies, overlapping identities, and corporeal experiences in relation to ongoing theoretical debates about gender and sexuality, race and post-colonialism, citizenship and national belonging, religion and ritual, sensation and emotion, health and ability.
The Global
Competing definitions and contested national and cultural ownership, historical and contemporary nationalisms and national and cultural identities. Migrations, circulation, and mobilities. Intersections between claims on land, resource extraction and ecocritical approaches. Pluralisation of modernities and the consequent potential reinscription of Eurocentrism.
Networks and structures
Spatial histories and theories, networks and relationships. Data-driven and econometric histories. Studies in the history of collecting, curating, and exhibitions. Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Reception, production, translation
Impressionism as a product of reception, reproduction, interpretation, translation, and dissemination. Critical, historical, literary, poetic, and art writing as practices of impressionism. Accounting for changing, multiplying, and contradicting interpretations of impressionism across place and time. Impressionism and language politics, translations of impressionist concepts.
Materialities and media
Novel and synthetic materials. Scientific ways of seeing, thinking, and knowing. Impressionism in a transformed media ecology, new hybridisations and interactions between media, recentring marginalised media. Impressionist printmaking, reproduction in/of/between print & painting. Technical analysis of artworks.
Professional possibilities and constraints
Institutional, political, economic, and social contexts and determinants of current and future scholarship. Pressures of/on publishing, the pace of scholarly production, and dissemination to non-academic publics and audiences. Responsiveness to academic and methodological trends, and their relationship to public perceptions, exhibitions, and impressionism’s commercial appeal. The weight of impressionist historiography and the stakes of novelty.
We underscore that topics to be included in this workshop will be driven by the workshop’s participants. We welcome new ideas and new voices.
The workshop will convene 5 and 6 September 2024 at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London. These workshop sessions will be in-person only. On 9 September, the workshop will then go online, with further presentations, discussions, and activities. For the online day we welcome those who want to join the conversation but are unable to travel to London and those who attended the in-person events and wish to continue the discussion.
We invite applications from all those wishing to attend. Please complete this short application form, including a statement of interest (150 words + 3 keywords), biography (150 words), and, if wishing to also give a lightning talk, an abstract (250 words) by 3 June 2024. All those who submit will be informed of a decision no later than 14 June. While we cannot offer support for travel expenses, there is no conference fee. We are grateful for the support of UCL and Queen’s University, Belfast.
Please email questions to impressionistfutures@gmail.com.
Organised by Alexis Clark (North Carolina State University), Allison Deutsch (Birkbeck, University of London), Claire Moran (Queen’s University Belfast), Samuel Raybone (Aberystwyth University).