Mark Roskill Graduate Symposium
The Mark Roskill Symposium in Art History is an interdisciplinary symposium organized annually by the graduate students in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, named in honor of Mark Roskill (1933-2000). Roskill was an art historian and scholar of art historiography and criticism who taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for over 30 years. Educated at Harvard and Princeton Universities, he began as a specialist in the Italian Renaissance, but continued throughout his career to write widely on then-emerging fields, including photography, English painting, and Cubism. Among his numerous publications is an influential methodological text, What is Art History? (1976).
Upcoming: TRANS* After Trans: Unmaking Gender
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Previous Themes & Keynote Speakers
2022
The Witching Hour: Occultism & Magic in Visual Culture
Keynote Speaker: Pam Grossman, writer, curator, and teacher of magical history.
2021
I've Seen Trouble: Art Out of Dark Times
Keynote Speaker: Charmaine A. Nelson, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Transatlantic Black Diasporic Art and Community Engagement, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
2020
Reduction, Regeneration, Restoration: Art as Agent in the Age of Climate Crisis
Keynote Speaker: Jonathan Fogelson, architect and designer
2019
The Allure of the Global: Contemporary Curating as a De-Centering Practic
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Orianna Cacchione, Curator of Global Contemporary Art at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum
2018
Artificial Selections: Art, Natural History and the Taxonomy of the Museum
Keynote Speaker: Elisa Kim, Assistant Professor of Architecture and History, Smith College
2017
Strength, Unity, Power: Contemporary Practices in Native Arts
Keynote Speaker: Wendy Red Star, Contemporary Artist
2016
Actively Historic: The House Museum in the 21st Century
Keynote Speaker: Frank Vagnone, co-author of Anarchist's Guide to House Museums
2015
Plugged In: Art in the Digital Age
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Anne Umland, Museum of Modern Art, New York
2014
In the City: Identity and Urban Spaces
Keynote Speaker: Carmenita Higginbotham, University of Virginia
