Vital Constitutions: The Appearance of “Health” in History

Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference

Call for Submissions  |  Deadline June 30, 2017

Rice University  |  Houston, Texas

Hosted by the Department of Art History

Rice University’s Department of Art History is delighted to introduce its inaugural graduate conference, Vital Constitutions, which seeks to problematize the nature of “health.” All living forms—from biological to social bodies—realize unique ways to survive and at times thrive in tenuous and hostile environments. Vital Constitutions aims to explore the conference title broadly in relation to structures by which bodies, communities, societies and environments have adapted, and been sustained, when such structures become precarious. We hope to challenge claims of normativity by considering how objects, institutions, and the “natural” environment affect conceptions of vitality. Questions for consideration include: How have representations of the well, the sick, treatment, and contagion been visualized? In what ways have discursive languages surrounding “health” expanded and contracted, and to what societal effect? How do terms such as “anthropocene,” “global warming,” “climate change,” or “preservation” impact ecological debates and actions? When and through what methods have humans placed needs for “health”—be it of the biological or social body—above all else? How have artists, scientists, activists, grassroots leaders, and intellectuals grappled with representations and realities of care and castigation visually and conceptually across time and geography?

Potential points of exploration include, but are not limited to:

• Alternative spaces of communities
• Art and neoliberalism
• Avant-Garde and canon
• Dis/ability
• Disease and cure
• Drug use and policing
• Food economies
• Gender and sexualities
• Hygiene and filth
• Labor and Insurance
• Nice Construction
• Normativity and “other”
• Pseudo-sciences
• Recreation and Play
• Representation and the invisible
• Self-care and apathy
• Social practice and social reform
• Surgery and Intervention
• Urban planning and transient housing

This conference intends to have an accessible and inclusive structure within and beyond academia. This is an experimental and collaborative forum that presents not only graduate papers, but alsoart objects, time-based media, and relics of visual culture. Artists, activists, and scholars will join the public beyond university walls to engage with a local institution or community project. A public roundtable will consolidate ideas, arguments, and strategies explored over the course of the weekend.

 Please send submissions to vitalconstitutions@gmail.com. For paper presentations, please send a 250-word abstract or description and curriculum vitae (limited to 3 pages or less). For artist submissions, please send JPEGS and/or mp3 or mp4 files (include title, work date, process, dimensions, and medium) and a curriculum vitae (Dropbox and other FTP links will not be reviewed). All proposals should be submitted online. Lastly, we are able to offer limited support for travel to participants on a need basis, to be determined after selection of papers.