April 2025
Association for Art History Conference Session: "More-than-human worlds on the move" , co-convened with Dr Eszter Erdosi
Migration, understood as the movement from one location to another with the intent to settle temporarily or permanently, is fundamental to history and life on this planet. While postcolonial, Marxist and feminist scholarships have diversified discussions on migration, including in art history, these perspectives often retain a predominantly human-centric focus. However, migration extends beyond humans, encompassing plants, animals, fungi and other more-than-human organisms. Their movements are shaped by factors such as –but not limited to– climate change, extractive practices, habitat destruction, trade or hunting.
This panel explores other-than-human migrations in art and visual culture across historical and contemporary contexts. It considers representations, implications and intersections with histories of colonisation, globalisation, and environmental change. By expanding discourse on migration as embedded within larger ecological systems and networks, this session aims to demonstrate the critical, theoretical, speculative and epistemological potential of art practice and history for shaping multispecies narratives.
Themes include the migration of seed and plants, with reflections on the concept of so-called “invasive alien species”, to interspecies empathy, and borders systems. By shifting focus beyond the human, this session highlights the critical role of art and visual culture in engaging with and shaping multispecies narratives on migration.
Speakers:
Johanna Spanke, Universität Hamburg
“Invasive Alien Species”: Imaginations of Plant Agency and Migration in Iván Argote`s Descanso
Chiara Juriatti, Catholic Private University Linz
Seeds of Subversion: Multispecies Migrations and Decolonial Histories in Thereza Alves’ Seeds of Change
Tijen Tunali, University of Rennes 2
Unbounded Migrations: Art, Ecology, and Multispecies Narratives Across Borders
Katherine Gregory, Wake Forest University
Illegal Crossings: Animals, Art, and Thwarted Migration at the US-Mexico Border
2022 - 2024
Looking North is a series of online and in-person events bringing together artists, writers and ecological conservation initiatives with a particular focus on Scotland. It is funded by The St Andrews' Centre for Energy Ethics, the Scotland's Future series, St Leonard's Postgraduate College, the Centre for Contemporary Art.
Speakers included Alex Boyd, Cal Flyn, Sekai Machache, Christopher Marshall, Sophie Gerrard, Amanda Thomson, Mhairi Killin, Alastair McIntosh, Siobhan McLaughlin, Amy Liptrot, Hanna Tuulikki, Sophie Strand, and Bathsheba Demuth.
April 2024
Association for Art History Conference Session: "Anthropocene Mobilities"
Co-convened with Dr. Alistair Rider, senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews.
This panel addresses travel, migration and mobility of human and non-human populations, including animals, fungi and plants, in the light of the current environmental crisis. It takes its point of reference from the sociologist Andrew Baldwin, who coined the term 'Anthropocene mobilities' to address how the concept of the Anthropocene can be explored through the lens of mobility. In so doing, Baldwin focused primarily on how discourses about mobility justice intersect with environmental considerations. But this panel aims to redress the anthropocentric focus that has defined these discussions. We wish to explore the notion of 'Anthropocene mobilities' as a means of decentring human-only narratives and diversifying current perspectives on movement, and we invite papers that bring these concerns to studies of art, culture, and its histories.
November 2023
Looking North: Exploring Sufficiency and De-Growth in Art Making and Exhibition Practices in Scotland - A Roundtable Discussion
November 18, noon- 4 pm - Transmission Gallery, Glasgow
Speakers: Emma Nicolson (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh/ Atlas Arts), Nick Addington (William Grant Foundation), Dr. Lucy Steeds (University of Edinburgh), and Dr. Tim Collins (Collins & Goto)
This event is supported by the British Art Network
July 2023
The Association for Art History's Reading Group's session on intersectional feminism in an ecocritical art history with Dr. Lisa E. Bloom (University of California - Berkeley)