A r s A n i m a l i u m

Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference
October 18-19, 2019
Rice University | Houston, Texas
Hosted by the Department of Art History & the Humanities Research Center

Ars Animalium, the second biennial graduate conference presented by the Department of Art History and the Humanities Research Center at Rice University, invites papers that consider the role, function, or representation of animals in art-making practices throughout the centuries and across the globe. For many artists, reflection on the human’s place in a world of animals has been a rich and complex source of exploration. What do images and/or the use of animals tell us about animals and those who depicted them? How have scientific, religious, political, and aesthetic discourses shaped and been shaped by depictions of animals?

Potential points of exploration include but are not limited to the following terms:

• On our relationship to animals as: Food, Labor, Companion, Threat, Resource, Holy thing
• On the animal as sign of: Other, Ourselves, Change, Nature
• On the typology of animals in the: Allegorical, Symbolic, Sciences, Natural History
• On the unnatural animal in: Myth, Monstrosity, Religion
• On the animal in theory: Deconstruction, Posthumanism, the Anthropocene