CFP: Drawing the Line: Race, Gender, Ethics, and the Arts

Drawing the Line: Race, Gender, Ethics, and the Arts
An interdisciplinary conference
Saint Anselm College
New Hampshire Institute of Politics
March 28–29, 2025

Where do we draw the line? If we take the aphorism that morals have aesthetic criteria, then how should we think about the study and practice of the arts and intersections between arts, ethics, and politics? Twenty-first century social movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo raised our consciousness and motivated change, while banned curriculum, debates about academic freedom, and challenges to democracy and human rights highlight the importance and limits of artistic production as an agent for change. Scholars and activists have long argued that racial politics and gender dynamics are always at work in ethical frameworks and artistic production, but it is only more recently that here have been widespread calls to acknowledge the moral imperative for all of us, across disciplines, to reckon with race and gender.

Drawing the Line: Race, Gender, Ethics, and the Arts is designed to explore these claims and stimulate rich discussions about the ethical dimensions of artistic production. This conference is rooted in the assumption that the relationship between ethics and the arts has always fascinated thinkers. If ethics concern moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity, then there are many ways that the arts provoke us to confront ethical challenges, from direct connections between the messages conveyed by stage works, vocal music, and visual art to the more subtle ethical dimensions of art that challenge our perceptions and prompt debate. We are interested in how and to what extent art can do ethical work, illuminating and engaging with social justice issues, and instigating change.

This call welcomes proposals for papers of 15-20 minutes in length from a broad range of disciplines—the visual and performing arts, architecture, philosophy, literature, history, politics, and beyond—and perspectives that explore how race and gender can and should inform ethics and arts. There are many ways of considering the intersections of race, gender, ethics, and the arts. Themes and questions that may help frame our discussion include:

Art and Power

• How can art trouble us, and to what end? How can art confront racism andsexism? 
• How does our identity inform our choices and understanding of art’s power and ethical dimensions?

Representation in artistic content

• What is art telling us about humanity and its values? 
• Who is the intended audience and how are they meant to react? 
• What does artistic construction tell us about a historical era and its construction of race and gender?

Representation and artistic identity

• Who is the author and what is their identity? 
• Who are the presenters or performers of the art and how have they been compensated, coerced, or forced into participating? Who is missing from these presentations and why?

Canons, Systems, and Bad Actors

• What do we do with “great” art by “bad” people? 
• How can we reckon with systems at various levels of authority? 
• How can art that confronts racism and sexism contest inequitable systems?

Artistic Production

• Where do race and gender fit into our understanding of artistic production?
• What are our barriers to creating art, to making space for a more equitable, accessible, active artistic experience? 
• How do we deal with that and why should we?

Artistic Responsibility

• What is role of the individual—our personal responsibility as educators, as consumers, as citizens in a democratic, capitalist society—in thinking about how art is *in* our everyday life?

We also encourage proposals for various alternative types of conference presentations beyond the standard delivery of papers including round table discussions, creative and/or practical workshops, or panels that combine both research and practice.

SUBMISSIONS

Submit 250-word proposals by October 15, 2024, to [email protected]

TRAVEL

The New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College is one hour north of Boston, in Manchester, NH. Manchester is served by the Manchester-Boston regional airport (MHT), as well as by bus.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

• Naomi André, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Courtney Elkin Mohler, Boston College
• Hilary Poriss, Northeastern University

EXHIBITION and Q&A
          The Guerrilla Girls

ORGANIZERS
         Sean Parr (Music), Saint Anselm College
         Laura Shea (Art History), Saint Anselm College