HECAA@30: Environments, Materials, and Futures in the Eighteenth Century

The Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture are delighted to announce that the Call for Papers for “HECAA@30: Environments, Materials, and Futures in the Eighteenth Century” is now available. Please visit the conference website: https://sites.google.com/umb.edu/hecaa30 for a list of open sessions and details. Applications for participation are due to session chairs by April 1, 2023.

This in-person conference will take place in Boston, Cambridge, and Providence from October 12-14, 2023, with morning plenary sessions followed by gallery sessions, tours, and architectural site visits each afternoon. 

On the land of the Massachusett and neighboring Wampanoag and Nipmuc peoples, Boston developed in the eighteenth century as a major colonized and colonizing site. Its status today as a cultural and intellectual hub is shaped by that context, making it a critical location to trace the cultural legacies of racism and social injustice between the eighteenth century and today. For whom is “eighteenth-century art and architecture” a useful category? What eighteenth-century materials, spaces, and images offer tools or concepts for shaping our collective futures? In considering these questions, we aim to expand HECAA’s traditional focus on Western European art and architecture and specifically encourage proposals from scholars working on Asia, Africa and the African diaspora, Indigenous cultures, and the Islamic world.

We welcome proposals for contributions to panels, gallery sessions, roundtables, and workshops. Scholars at any career stage, and all geographic and material specializations, are encouraged to apply. We look forward to seeing you in Boston!