Liminal spaces enable the incorporation and interpretation of new objects, ideas, and materials. Frontiers conjure fraught historical moments, instances of subjugation and resistance, and thresholds charged with possibilities. How do these new frontiers, either physical or metaphorical, impact artistic production? How do creators engage with a world continually in flux, negotiating these boundaries that at times can seem both rigid and expansive? On the edges of these frontiers, art and architecture express concepts ranging from hybridity to marginality.

The 35th Annual Boston University Graduate Symposium in the History of Art and Architecture invites submissions that consider the theme of the frontier. Possible subjects include but are not limited to the following: the narrative of first encounter; transitional spaces, periods, and styles; migration versus travel; transgressive artistic responses and display practices; the incorporation of geography and cartography into artistic practices and cultures; and imagined or real encounters with (outer)space.

We welcome submissions from graduate students at all stages of study, and from any area of study.

Papers must be original and previously unpublished. Please send an abstract (300 words or fewer), a paper title, and a CV to: [email protected].

The deadline for submissions is Friday, November 30, 2018. 

Selected speakers will be notified by December 21, 2018, and are expected to accept or decline the offer within a week of notification. Papers should be 20 minutes in length and will be followed by a question and answer session.

The Symposium will be held Saturday, March 2, 2019, with a keynote lecture (TBD) and graduate presentations in the Trustees Room of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

This event is generously sponsored by the Boston University Center for the Humanities; the Boston University Department of History of Art & Architecture; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Boston University Graduate Student History of Art & Architecture Association.