Association of Art Historians annual conference
University of Reading, Reading UK
11 - 13 April 2013

The Association of Art Historians (AAH) was formed in 1974, born from a need to professionalize a rapidly expanding subject. Within a year of its existence, the AAH counted over 500 members – including a group of academics with a particular interest in designs histories. This breakaway group felt that design historians needed separate representation and in 1977 the Design History Society (DHS) was formed.

Recently, both the AAH and the DHS have independently funded oral history-based research projects to explore the origins of each organisation. While documenting the specific histories of the associations, the projects raise broader questions about contexts of art and design education, including the web of relationships between individuals and institutions, and shifts in related academic employment markets.

The intersecting accounts also provide opportunities to reflect on the expansion or formalisation of methodologies and disciplinary identities, and to question how they have come to be historicized in part through these two professional organisations.

This panel, chaired by Liz Bruchet (Voices in Art History, AAH) and Joanne Gooding (PhD researcher, DHS and Northumbria University), explores issues arising from the shared histories of these organizations. We invite papers that consider factors in the professionalization of art and design history; the place of academic networks (both formal and informal); the conceptualisation of related sub-disciplines; the place of institutional histories, and the articulation of professional identities linked to histories of art and material cultures. Additionally, we invite papers that draw on the testimonies documented through these oral history projects.

DEADLINE for proposals: 12 November 2012. Proposals should be sent to the email address below and include: a title, an abstract (300 words max), your name and any institutional affiliation.

For more information please see the links below or e-mail Liz or Joanne: adhoralhistories@gmail.com

Liz Bruchet, Voices in Art History
Joanne Gooding, Design History Society

Association of Art Historians: www.aah.org.uk/annual-conference/ Voices in Art History: www.aah.org.uk/projects/oral-history Voices in Design History: www.vivavoices.org/website.asp?page=Interviews