Paper proposals should be between 200 and 300 words in length (font 11, 1.5 spacing) and must include the following: your name and surname, title of the paper; your professional affiliation and contact details. We welcome submissions from not only experienced scholars but also postgraduate students. Please send abstracts of proposed papers to Annemi Conradie at annemi.conradie@uct.ac.za. Deadline for submission is 8 April 2013.

The annual SAVAH conference will be hosted by the Department of Visual and Art History, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town 6-8 September 2013

Keynote Speaker: Prof Anthony Bogues

Harmon Family Professor of Africana Studies, affiliated Professor of Political Science and Modern Culture and Media, and Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, Rhode Island.

The theme of the conference is: VISUAL ARTS AND ART HISTORY NOW: WHAT? HOW? WHY?

The theme for this conference revolves around three questions:

WHAT do those in the visual arts and art history do?

HOW do we do it?

WHY does it matter?

The three questions invite engagement with the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of current visual artistic practices and/or intellectual work focused on the visual domain. We welcome presentations falling under the rubric of not only Visual Studies and Art History, but also Film and Media Studies, Architecture, and indeed any discipline or field where the scholarship involves a focus on the visual domain.

We welcome papers which focus on South Africa. We would also like to broaden the conversation to include papers which, while not focused on this country, nevertheless raise issues and ideas pertinent to scholars in South Africa. Papers might fall within the following broad areas:

visual arts education: current issues in fine art and art historical education, at primary, secondary and tertiary level; the role of art education in society; art education and transformation; art education and employment • art as commodity: the value of art; the art market; collecting; art as investment

heritage: public collections; archives and archival practices; oral history; memory; remembrance; tourism; policy; display strategies • art writing and criticism: the role of critical writing and critique as well as arts journalism; the commodification of scholarship

methodologies, terminology, theory: research, writing, criticism, artistic practice, pedagogy; critical engagement with theory, method, terminology (e.g. ‘global’, ‘south’, ‘contemporary’)

visual art and the/its environment(s): public art, architecture, urban geography; urban and rural regeneration

the politics of representation: identity politics; freedom of expression (and censorship); cultural contestations; issues around transformation; issues around gender or ‘race’ and representation, etc.

community engagement and community projects: visual arts as vehicle for development and job creation, art therapy, etc.

Paper proposals should be between 200 and 300 words in length (font 11, 1.5 spacing) and must include the following: your name and surname, title of the paper; your professional affiliation and contact details.

We welcome submissions from not only experienced scholars but also postgraduate students. Please send abstracts of proposed papers to Annemi Conradie at annemi.conradie@uct.ac.za. Deadline for submission is 8 April 2013.