College Art Association 113th Annual Conference
New York City, February 12–15, 2025
Session title: Gender Violence in Art in the Classical World and Beyond
The mythology, history, and literature of the Classical world (defined here as the ancient Mediterranean and adjacent regions) prominently feature stories of gender-based violence. Sexual violence, femicide, human sacrifice, slavery, war crimes, and forced marriage emerge as frequent patterns born out of gender inequality in these narratives. Both overtly and covertly expressed, sometimes told in detail and sometimes sanitized, such acts of violence are a common subject matter in ancient art. This session invites papers that explore points of interaction between art and systematic gender-based violence in the visual traditions of the ancient Mediterranean world. What function does art serve in communicating, reifying, or normalizing violence? In what artistic, historical, archaeological, spatial, or cultural contexts do we see the deployment of narratives of violence, and what functions do such deployments serve? What modes—from humor to tragedy, from public to private—inform the aesthetics of gender-based violence? What audiences does such art target and what agendas does it serve? What degree of agency do the subjects of such violence have over the production of these visual traditions. In addition to the art of the ancient Mediterranean world, we welcome papers that address art from cultures that were in communication with the Mediterranean, as well as the reception of Classical narratives in artistic traditions of later periods. Also welcome are pedagogical approaches to studying these sensitive topics (both in the classroom and in public-facing spaces such as museums).
Keywords:
1. Geographica Area: Southern Europe and Mediterranean
Time Period: 1500 to 500 BCE
Time Period: 500 BCE to Fifth Century
Topics: Art History
Topics: Gender Studies
Chair:
Cicek Beeby, Brown University, Classics Department
Submission Deadline: August 29th, 2024
Session abstract and submission link: https://caa.confex.com/caa/2025/webprogrampreliminary/Session15271.html
