Call for Papers
American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting
Washington, D.C., November 28-December 2, 2007

Learning to Create: Socialization to the Arts in Educational Institutions

The socialization into an increasing number of art forms is currently taking place in educational institutions the world over. In the Western world, some art forms, such as classical music, have been introduced into conservatories long ago; others, such as creative writing, have only recently undergone similar processes. This move into educational institutions, broadly defined as sites where the socialization into the arts is codified and standardized, allows for analyzing in detail the intricacies of the inculcation into various art forms and the ways in which different ideologies that circulate in different cultural contexts structure the socialization into the arts. For example, one persistent idea in the Western world pertains to Romantic notions that maintain that art cannot be taught but must result from organic processes independent of external formulae. This raises the question of how the socialization into artistic creativity within such institutions is negotiated with these notions. Various ideologies other than ideologies of artistic creativity might come into play in different cultural contexts, such as ideologies of the body, gender, economy.
We solicit papers that focus on the interplay between these two levels: the process of socialization into the arts in educational institutions and the ideologies that impact it.

Please e-mail abstracts by March 20th to ewilf@uchicago.edu. Complete papers must be submitted by March 30th.

Eitan Wilf
PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology
University of Chicago
ewilf@uchicago.edu