The 23rd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History was held February 23, 2018 on UAB’s campus.
12:00 Check-in
12:15 Welcome Remarks (Cathleen Cummings, Lucy Curzon)
12:30-1:45 Session 1
- Anna Dow, Louisiana State University, “Who Should Own Antiquities? Returning the Rosetta Stone”
- Rebecca Teague, The University of Alabama, “Carving Politics: Niccolò’s Tympanum of Verona Cathedral”
- Morgan Heard, The University of Alabama, “The South Portal at the Cathedral of Auxerre: Examples of Christian Kingship in the Era of Louis IX and the Capetian Kings”
1:45–2:00 Coffee break
2:00 -3:15 Session 2
- Reed O’Mara, The University of Alabama “Concerning Princes and Pomegranates: The Prince of the World at Strasbourg Cathedral as Political Commentary”
- Shannah Rose, Tulane University, “(Re)Creating the Cannibal: Albert Eckhout’s Images of the Brazilian Savage”
- Patricia Morgan, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “An Examination of Abanindranath Tagore’s Bharat Mata (Mother India) as Socio-Cultural and Political Icon for 20th Century India”
3:15-3:30 Coffee break
3:30-5:15 Session 3
- Olivia Wall and Samira Rahbe Chambers, University of Memphis, “Specific, Functional, Found: The Fabricated Realities of Virginia Overton”
- Lijun Ma, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “The Declaration of “Caringism” (接觸主義)”
- Rebekah James, The University of Alabama, “Through the Looking Glass: Black Feminist Politics in Love & Basketball and Something New”
5:15-6:00 Reception
6:00–7:00 pm Keynote Lecture, Dr. Meryl Bailey, “Returning the Past: Cultural Heritage, Ethics, and the American Museum in the Twenty-First Century”
In 2004, the Cleveland Museum of Art purchased an extraordinary ancient Greek statue known as the Apollo Sauroktonos from an antiquities dealer. Eight years later, the museum acquired an important Roman portrait bust of Drusus Minor, son of the Roman emperor Tiberius, through the same source. Italian authorities quickly questioned the provenance of the bust, and in 2017 it was repatriated to Italy. But even though Greek authorities have long questioned the provenance of the Apollo, it remains on display at the Cleveland Museum. This lecture takes these two objects as a point of departure to discuss the law and ethics of collecting in the twenty-first century. We will address the obligations of museums seeking to build and expand world-class collections, examine the impact of collecting practices on the destruction of cultural heritage sites, and consider the opportunities and limitations of partnerships and long-term loans as an alternative to the acquisition of antiquities.
Return to the Symposium page: https://art.ua.edu/academics/graduate-programs/graduate-symposium/.