Graduate research seminars take place at 5.00pm each Wednesday during the Michaelmas and Lent terms in the History of Art graduate centre, 4A Trumpington Street.
Each term the seminars are built around a different theme. Distinguished guest speakers are invited from across the UK and abroad, as well as from within Cambridge. The talks are followed by a short Q&A session, and informal drinks and snacks. All are welcome to attend
Graduate Research Seminar Series, Lent Term 2016: 'Art / Religion / Controversy'
Convenors: Christina Farley and Zuzanna Sarnecka
In the modern world we see hundreds of images each day. Yet rather than losing their power through such overexposure, art in the broadest sense continues to cause controversy in the religious and moral spheres - from the Charlie Hebdo shootings, through banning Marcin Swieszewski's 'Last Supper' from Expo in Milan, to ISIS' destruction of Palmyra. It seems that to describe the role of art in shaping religious identities in various parts of the world and at different times, one would have to invariably tell a story of controversy, censorship, religious propaganda, fanaticism and destruction. This seminar series seeks to explore those problematic instances, when art created out of piety or to stimulate certain religious behaviours, caused political turmoil, raptures and bloodsheds in communities around the world.
20 January
Malu Halasa, Independent Writer and Curator
Power and Aesthetics of Religious Imagery in the Syrian Conflict
27 January
Sussan Babaie, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
The monarch and the mystic: religious conflict and the congregational mosque of Isfahan
3 February
Grazyna Jurkowlaniec, University of Warsaw
St Augustine at the crossroads between nursing Mary and crucified Christ. Late medieval origins and early modern controversies
10 February
Wendy Pullan, University of Cambridge
At the Boundaries of the Sacred. The reinvention of everyday life in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter
17 February
Vid Simoniti, University of Cambridge
Genetic Art and Sanctity of Life
24 February
Anna Gannon, University of Cambridge
Firmly I believe and truly: religious iconography on early Anglo-Saxon coins
2 March
Aaron Rosen, King's College London
How to offend Jews with pictures
9 March
Lucy Wooding, King's College London
Swearers and Sabbath-breakers: images of transgression in Reformation England
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