CFP: Clothing, Flesh, Bone: Visual Culture above and below the Skin

Deadline for paper proposals: May 9, 2008

Clothing, Flesh, Bone: Visual Culture above and below the Skin

Chairs: Victoria L. Rovine, University of Florida, Box 115801, Gainesville, FL 32611-5801; and

Sarah Adams, University of Michigan, 3502 Barton Farm Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48105

This panel broadly explores new approaches to the study of visual culture that depicts or adorns the human body. We seek papers that address representations of the body in all media, from sculpture, dress, and performance to medical methodologies and mortuary practices. While papers may examine artistic representations of the body and the use of the body itself as artistic medium, they also may push beyond humanities models to consider the body as it exists below the skin—as flesh, blood, and viscera. Papers might explore the body in visual culture from medical, physiological, or biological perspectives. How is the body depicted across cultures, and what do those depictions reveal about shifting concepts of the medical body? How is the biological body reflected in diverse media? How does the history of medicine and science itself influence representations of the human body? Does adornment that conceals, reveals, or enhances the body reflect histories and beliefs about the biological body?

Please send paper proposals to the panel chairs by MAY 9, 2008

Victoria L. Rovine, Assistant Professor - School of Art and Art History, Center for African Studies, University of Florida - P.O. Box 115801 Gainesville, Florida 32611-5801. (352) 273-3069 fax: (352) 392-8453

e-mail: vrovine@africa.ufl.edu