Upcoming Events

Narratives of Exile, Migration, and Movement in Contemporary Art

SCAH-sponsored panel at 2025 College Art Assocation Annual Conference

Chair: Sarah E. Kleinman, Virginia Commonwealth University
Friday, February 14 • 4:30 to 6 pm
New York Hilton Midtown • 2nd Floor – Madison Suite

In his 2011 essay “The Migrant’s Time,” Ranajit Guha casts diaspora as a temporal transgression, resulting in displacement and a rupture from shared pasts. This session invites papers that examine the ways in which art and curatorial practices intersect with experiences of displacement, migration, and cultural hybridity in contemporary art. Possible topics include:

How have arts practitioners represented narratives of exile and displacement? What visual languages and narratives emerge from experiences of forced migration and diaspora? How do these representations challenge dominant narratives of place and belonging?
How have artists navigated issues of identity in the context of migration and movement? How do their works reflect the complexities of cultural hybridity, diasporic identities, and the politics of belonging?
How do material choices and artistic processes intersect with memories of displacement and migration? How have artists engaged with objects, textures, and archival materials to evoke personal and collective histories of migration and exile?
How have curators engaged with narratives of migration, exile, and (post)colonial histories in exhibition-making? How have recent exhibitions served as sites of critical inquiry?
How have diasporic artistic practices challenged dominant narratives of migration, displacement, and colonial legacies? How have arts practitioners mobilized art as a tool for resistance, solidarity, and social change?

This session aims to critically examine narratives of exile, migration, and movement within the broader context of contemporary art and visual culture. We particularly encourage submissions from emerging scholars, curators, and artists.

Papers
“‘she walked in reverse’: Forced Migration, Diaspora, and Indo-Caribbean Identities in Suchitra Mattai’s installations,” Nicole F. Scalissi, PhD, California State University San Bernardino

“Creolizing Landscapes: Public Domesticity and Hiram Maristany’s ‘Island in the City,’” Serda Yalkin, PhD candidate, Duke University

“Shifting Sands/Shifting Identities: Anh-Thuý Nguyễn’s ‘Thuy & Sand,’” Olivia Murphy, PhD candidate, University of Oklahoma

“Aesthetic Conversions in the US/Mexico Borderlands: Artist Collective COGNATE and the Work of Migration,” Paloma Checa-Gismero, PhD, Swarthmore College

“Manaf Halbouni’s Mobile Monument, Mobilistan and Mulți-Directional Migration,” Peter M. Chametzky, PhD, University of South Carolina