Wellesley Deerfield Symposium
Wellesley Deerfield Symposium 2014
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Art of Science in New England, 1700-1920
A one-day symposium sponsored by the Grace Slack McNeil Program for Studies in American Art at Wellesley College and the Office of Academic Programs at Historic Deerfield.
Date: Saturday, March 15th, 2014
Location: Collins Cinema, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
This symposium will explore visual representations of scientific inquiry produced, collected, distributed or otherwise circulating in New England from the start of the 18th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Beginning with the scientific discoveries of the Enlightenment and extending through the 19th and into the 20th centuries, New Englanders sought to understand and explain scientific paradigms through two and three-dimensional representations. Botanical drawings, geological maps and charts, anatomical models, waxworks, and dioramas are just a few of the methods through which professionals and amateurs employed artistic methods and techniques in pursuit of scientific research and pedagogy. How did these representations shape scientific understanding? How did scientific ideas produce particular types of objects? What was the nature of collaboration between scientist and artist? How was the art of science put to pedagogical use in a variety of educational institutions from classrooms to lecture halls and museums? Papers should be theoretical or analytical in nature rather than descriptive and should be approximately 20 minutes long.
Please submit 250-word proposals and a two-page c.v. via electronic mail to Martha McNamara mmcnamar@wellesley.edu and Barbara Matthews bmathews@historic-deerfield.org. Proposals should include the title of the paper and the presenter’s name.
For further information, please contact Martha McNamara (mmcnamar@wellesley.edu) or Barbara Matthews bmathews@historic-deerfield.org. The deadline for submissions is September 30th, 2013.
