This year’s Turner Prize shortlist has been labelled one of the most politically-charged selections in the prize’s history. Using this as a starting point, we welcome proposals from postgraduate students that deal with issues surrounding “political” artwork. Does the crisis of political engagement leave a vacuum that people turn to art to fill? Has art become a corollary of political protest? Why are fraught political controversies migrating into art? Can art be an instrument for social change? Preference will be given to papers which address current or past Turner Prize artists, although other subjects are also welcome. Topics for study could include, but are not limited to:

•The artist as dissident
•Community-based art projects and socially engaged practice
•Protest politics and activist approaches to the role of art
•Art versus state/media censorship
•Criminalised art practice, graffiti and the ethics of street art
•Representations of gender and queer politics in art
•The politics of religious art

Proposals should be 1 side of A4 in length; this is for a 20 minute presentation. The deadline for submissions is 24 August 2007. Please send proposals along with a brief academic biography to robert.knifton@tate.org.uk