This one-day graduate student symposium focuses on intersections where art and science meet.

2009 will witness a number of major events to mark the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. One of these is an exhibition organized by the Fitzwilliam Museum in association with the Yale Center for British Art, entitled “Endless Forms”: Charles Darwin, Natural Science, and the Visual Arts. This symposium takes part in these conversations by exploring multiple ways in which art overlaps with science in a broader context, considering a range of historical periods and cultures.

We seek to focus the discussion through the close study of objects. To this end, the program will include material study sessions in exhibitions and collections at Yale University.

Topics may include but are not restricted to:

networks of artists and scientists
artist/scientist collaborations
art and the natural world
the philosophical concept of the sublime
theology, art, and science
art, science, and education
science museum displays
scientific illustration
travel accounts
art and exploration
amateur practice
photography as science or art
the influence of scientific discoveries on the arts
artistic and scientific approaches to epistemology
dialogues between art and science in the Enlightenment
artistic and scientific concepts of truth

We invite proposals for 25-minute papers on this theme from graduate students across the arts and sciences. Special consideration will be given to papers examining the topic in relation to British art and culture. Cross-disciplinary and comparative studies are particularly welcome.

Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words by October 14, 2008.

By email: imogen.hart@yale.edu
By mail:
Imogen Hart
Research Department
Yale Center for British Art
P.O. Box 208280
New Haven, CT 06520-8280

Travel funds for speakers are available upon application.

Support for this symposium has been generously provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.