CFP: Conference “Out of Scale: From ‘Miniature’ Material Cultures to the Anthropic Principle”

Conference: Out of Scale: From “Miniature” Material Cultures to the Anthropic Principle
London, June 16-18, 2025
 

Conveners: Wenjie Su (Princeton University; CASVA), Yizhou Wang (Hong Kong Baptist University), Stephen Whiteman (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

Dates and Venue: June 16-17, 2025 (conference at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London)
                                June 18, 2025 (optional viewing sessions in or around London)

Keynote speakers: Andrew James Hamilton (The Art Institute of Chicago), Wei-Cheng Lin (The University of Chicago)

Call for Paper: 
Scale—the relative dimension, magnitude, or scope of objects, and their proportional relationship to the observer—is often understood through the lens of individual or collective visual assumptions. As inhabitants of the terrestrial sphere, we tend to rely on our bodies and cultural paradigms to interpret the scale of geographical terrain, human-made structures, material artifacts, social phenomena, and historical events. Technological advancements—from maritime expeditions to space exploration, from telescopic and microscopic investigations to the detection of cosmic microwave background—have urged humanity to redefine its scale of existence. Meanwhile, various philosophical and religious traditions have long pondered humanity’s place and purpose in relation to natural and supernatural realms.

By exploring designs and creations conceived on a micro-scale or as small-sized, this conference invites discussion on human creativity and human existence through the theme of scale. Examples abound across diverse human traditions, including burial and ritual objects, microarchitecture, portrait miniatures, and accessorial items such as netsukes, snuff boxes, and pocket watches. These objects appear diminutive when compared to the human body, the “worlds” they represent, or their counterparts within more dominant socio-cultural systems. At times dismissed as frivolous and superficial, these streamlined and recontextualized objects can evoke out-of-scale resonances, transcending the original limitations of data or resources.

This conference connects studies that examine the art historical, historiographical, and ideological significance of scaled objects. First, we aim to deepen discussions on the sensorial, spiritual, intellectual, and technical implications of scaling. Particularly understudied are ephemeral objects and repositioned sites, such as lab settings and festival stagings. Second, we seek to investigate how the scale—of originals, reproductions, or paradigms—has shaped the central or peripheral status of specific objects and sites in art historical scholarship.

Third, we aim to highlight the unique contributions that humanities and art historical scholars can make in addressing cutting-edge intellectual challenges in fields including AI and space exploration. Throughout the global history of visual and material cultures, creatively re-scaled objects have played a central role in conceiving and simulating worlds that surpass our optical and epistemological thresholds. By exploring how humans have continually shifted scales to position themselves within and across realms, this conference reflects on humanity’s inherently limited yet endlessly creative perspective and envisions pathways to launch beyond boundaries.  

Further questions and topics include but are not limited to: 
– Material, aesthetic, sensory and affective qualities unique to small-scale objects.
– Practices of modeling and scaling in the production of scientific knowledge, such as mapping and laboratory experiments.
– The dialectics of miniature and monumentality.
– Relationships between scale, virtuality, and reality.
– Critical reflections on the interpretational framework of “miniaturization”, such as the so-called miniature paintings of various Asian and Islamic traditions.
– Challenges posed by small-scale objects or fragments in archaeological, museum, and pedagogical contexts.
– The role of scale-shifting in methodological turns, such as global history, gender criticism, and eco-criticism.

We invite proposals from scholars in a range of disciplines, including art and architecture history, museum studies, cultural history, intellectual history, and the history of science, and on any geographic region and any period of time.

Please send an abstract (ca. 250 words) for a 20-min presentation and a 150-word bio as a single PDF file by March 15, 2025 to conference convenors: w-su@nga.gov ; yizhouwang@hkbu.edu.hk ; stephen.whiteman@courtauld.ac.uk 

Acceptance notification: March 30, 2025

Event details:
The symposium will be held June 16-17, 2025 at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Optional group viewing sessions will be arranged on June 18. Accepted speakers will be invited to propose objects from London-based collections or sites that resonate with the themes of scale and the miniature.

Contact Email

yizhouwang@hkbu.edu.hk

CFP for [online] Session at Royal Geographical Society Conference: Aging and the ‘crafts of place’: creative engagements in practice and method

The Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers conference will be held in Birmingham, UK, from August 27-29, 2025 on the theme of Creative Geographies/Geographies of Creativity. 

For those working on social and cultural geography with an interest in aging, intergenerational learning, and place, please consider submitting a proposal to this online session – accepted papers will be notified by February 28, and the session will be submitted to the RGS-IBG team for consideration by March 7.

Aging and the ‘crafts of place’: creative engagements in practice and method 

In a 1981 lecture, Clifford Geertz used the term “crafts of place” to describe practices and systems that “work by the light of local knowledge” (1981, 167). This evocative terminology highlights the relationship between knowing, doing, and place – a nexus for interdisciplinary consideration of land-based knowledge, place-making, and place-based cultural production. Indigenous ways of knowing have long emphasized the role of land as pedagogy (Betasamosake Simpson 2014), while attention to sustainability has given new impetus to studies of place-based and vernacular skills, products, and practices (Paneels 2023; Watson 2019). Placemaking, too, might be conceptualized as a ‘craft of place,’ with recent scholarship beginning to outline the role of creativity in placemaking (Courage and McKeown 2019; Courage 2020) and underscoring the relationship between regional ecologies, cultural landscapes and cultural heritage practices (Gillett 2022; Luckman and Thomas 2024). Given that these frameworks highlight the importance of spending time with a place and the validity of embodied and relational ways of learning and knowing, how do they intersect with the real or imagined effects of time on human bodies and communities – with aging? How does engagement with the ‘crafts of place’ evolve throughout the life course? What is the role of intergenerational relationships in sustaining local knowledge and place-based practices? Might the elements of time and aging challenge or broaden the notions of local knowledge or crafts of place? Might thinking of aging in relation to these themes provide a lens through which to consider it as a socially, culturally and spatially-delineated process? How might research itself become a ‘craft of place’ that engages creatively with practices, places and (aging) demographics whose ways of knowing have been historically marginalized by institutions?

This single-session online panel invites speakers to submit abstracts for 10-15 minute presentations that engage with themes of aging and ‘the crafts of place,’ broadly interpreted, with particular consideration given to those that use case studies to highlight creative and innovative practices and methods. Speakers are invited to share ideas for how best to facilitate conversation around their presentation topics and will be able to upload additional material as well as questions for the audience ahead of the session. It is anticipated that the session will include an opportunity for discussion in themed breakout rooms. 

Research Group Sponsorship: Social and Cultural Geography Research Group Sponsorship application submitted, not yet confirmed

Convenor and Affiliation: Dr. Molly-Claire Gillett, Postdoctoral Fellow, Trent Centre for Aging and Society, Trent University (Canada) & School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, University of Galway (Ireland)

Guidelines for prospective authors: please upload an abstract of ~250 words along with a short bio of ~50 words to this form: https://forms.office.com/r/iiNZwUcdaW by February 21, 2025.

Questions can be directed to Molly-Claire Gillett (mollyclairegillett@trentu.ca) Selected authors will be notified by February 28, with the complete panel proposal sent to RGS for consideration by March 7.

References:

Betasamosake Simpson, Leanne. 2014. “Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious     transformation.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 3 no. 3: 1-25.            https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/22170/17985 

Courage, Cara. 2020. The art of placemaking: a typology of art practices in placemaking. London:     Routledge.

Courage, Cara and Anita McKeown. 2019. Creative Placemaking: Research, Theory, and Practice. London:  Routledge.

Cutchin, Malcolm and Graham D. Rowles, eds. 2024. Handbook on Aging and Place. Cheltenham and   Northampton: Edgar. 

Geertz, Clifford. 2000. Local Knowledge: Further Essays In Interpretive Anthropology. E-book. New York:   Basic Books.

Gillett, Molly-Claire. 2022. “‘Storying’ Landscape and Material Practice: Clones Crochet Lacemaking            as Irish Intangible Cultural Heritage.” New Hibernia Review 26, no. 4: 36-   64. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/nhr.2022.0045.

Luckman, Susan and Nicola Thomas. 2024. Craft Communities. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.

Panneels, Inge. 2023. “The Quintuple Bottom Line: A Framework for Place-Based Sustainable          Enterprise in the Craft Industry.” Sustainability 15, no. 4: 3791.     https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043791

Skinner, Mark, Rachel Winterton and Keiran Walsh eds. 2021. Rural Gerontology: Towards Critical       Perspectives on Rural Ageing. London and New York: Routledge.

Watson, Julia. 2019. Lo—TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism. London: Taschen.

Contact Information

Molly-Claire Gillett
Postdoctoral Fellow, Trent University and University of Galway

Contact Email

mollyclairegillett@trentu.ca

Call for Participants Special Collections Catalogers and ILS/LSP Migrations

Dear Colleagues,

Special collections catalogers (those who spend at least 30% of their time cataloging special collections and/or rare materials) are invited to participate in a survey related to Integrated Library System (ILS) or Library Services Platform (LSP) migration and special collections data.

To participate, individuals must be over the age of 18 and currently employed as a special collections cataloger. Participants must have migrated Integrated Library Systems (ILS) or Library Services Platforms (LSP) in the last 5 years.

Participation within this survey is voluntary. Participants may stop completing the survey at any time. The survey will be anonymous but not confidential. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b8U2I30vUZ49hum

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact

Libby Hertenstein

hertenstein.9@osu.edu

614-247-9802

Office of Responsible Research Practices

hsconcerns@osu.edu

(614) 688-8457

(800) 678-6251

CFP: Graduate Student Program Proposals SAA Annual Meeting

The 2025 Student Program Subcommittee is accepting proposals for two special sessions dedicated to student scholarship during the 2025 Annual Meeting in August. Work from both master’s and doctoral students will be considered. This call encompasses proposals for sessions to be presented either in-person or virtually during the hybrid Annual Meeting.

Graduate Student Presentation

The work of three current archives students and/or SAA student chapters will be selected for presentation. Each speaker will be allotted fifteen minutes to present a paper. Be creative! Proposals from individual students as well as SAA student chapter groups will be considered. Proposals may relate to the student’s applied or theoretical research, research about the archives profession itself, or even practical/internship experiences. Student chapters may consider presenting on projects or initiatives conducted in the current term (Fall 2024 through Summer 2025). Participant selection will be based on the quality of proposals submitted.
This session will be held in-person.

Graduate Student Poster

The 25th annual Graduate Student Poster Session will showcase the work of both individual students and SAA Student Chapters. All posters will be presented in-person and virtually in PDF format. More information about preparing posters will be shared upon acceptance. Posters will be available to all meeting attendees throughout the week of the conference and on the virtual platform.

Individual posters may describe applied or theoretical research that is completed or underway; discuss interesting collections with which students have worked; or report on archives and records projects in which students have participated (e.g., development of finding aids, public outreach, database construction, etc.). Submissions should focus on research or activity conducted within the previous academic year (Fall 2024 to Summer 2025).

Student chapter posters may describe chapter activities, events, and/or other involvement with the archives and records professions. A single representative should coordinate the submission of each Student Chapter proposal.

Submission Instructions and Deadline

The submission form will be available by February 14. To submit a paper or poster proposal, please complete the proposal form no later than March 24. (Proposals received after this date will not be considered.) Emailed submissions or submissions in any other format will not be accepted.

SAA encourages broad participation in the ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2025. All presenters—including speakers, session chairs, commentators, and poster presenters—are limited to participation in one session. Please alert the 2025 Student Program Subcommittee if you have agreed to participate in another accepted session.

If presenters wish to attend any portion of the 2025 Annual Meeting, they will need to secure institutional or personal funding to register for the conference. SAA is not able to consider complimentary registration for student presenters.

If you have any questions, please contact conference@archivists.org.

Proposals for posters and presentations for the 2025 Annual Meeting are due Monday, March 24. Proposals received after this date will not be considered.

Call for Participation: Survey on Archival Collecting Reflex

Colleagues,

I’m seeking archivists who have participated, or declined to participate, in rapid response collecting in the aftermath of a tragic event at your institution or in your community to complete an anonymous survey for new research on the archival collecting reflex. 

Do archivists have a collecting reflex, an embedded professional drive to collect material, especially to document tragedies in the immediate aftermath of them. What fuels this reflex? From where does it come? Is it possible to privilege the personal over the professional in situations where the tragedy happened in your institution or community? These are basic questions in my research on how archivists manage their professional obligations to gather and preserve with their personal emotional needs to grieve with their fellow community members in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy.

The following is a link to a Qualtrics survey that launches my research exploring the “archival collecting reflex.” The survey should take no more than 20 minutes to complete. The survey will close on February 23, 2025.

The Qualtrics link: virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Hs5t4KH6eEd44m
Participants must be 18 years or older to take the survey. 
With appreciation,
Brenda Gunn, Principal Investigator
UVA IRB-SBS 7274

CFP: “The Past as Knowledge,” 10th Annual International Gender and Sexuality Studies Conference

All submissions are welcome. The selection committee interprets our theme broadly and encourages proposals that reflect on women’s, gender, and queer studies. The conference will include presentations that address issues of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies across various disciplines, including, but not limited to, the social studies, humanities, fine arts, activism, and STEM fields. We invite students, faculty, staff, scholars, and activists to propose papers, panels, roundtable discussions, and workshop presentations.

The International Gender and Sexuality Studies Conference is presented by the Women’s Research Center and the BGLTQ+ Student Center at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) with assistance from the UCO chapter of the National Organization for Women. In tandem, these organizations promote engagement with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) issues.

____________________

Our theme this year is “The Past as Knowledge.” Instead of defining the past as times, events, and modes of knowledge preceding the present moment, the 10th annual International Gender and Sexuality Studies (IGSS) Conference invites the many ways that people have based their future-forward thinking through engaging with and being inspired by the past. The past, in fact, has always been one with–and living among–the present. At a time when cultural amnesia and other forms of forgetting pervade every corner, how should we protect and make good use of archives as defense? How should the past be the current guide for our knowledge production? What epistemic value does the present-past offer us? Virginia Woolf, in Women and Writing, asks that we don’t ignore quotidian history, saying “It is only when we know what were the conditions of the average woman’s life…that we can account for the success or failure of the extraordinary woman as a writer.” Likewise, scholars such as Miriam David and Sue Clegg have resisted the temptation to obscure foundational second-wave feminist thinking–the personal as the political–in current research and practices. With your participation, we will take up many questions related to WGSS in multiple disciplines during our two-day conference on October 17 through October 18, 2025, while sustaining a productive and positive space for students, activists, and community members alike.

This year’s keynote speaker will be Paula Sophia Schonauer (LCSW), a licensed social worker in the State of Oklahoma and the director of the Counseling Center at Oklahoma City University. A published writer, Schonauer has written fictional work as well as forensic social work. Schonauer’s talk, which will cover activism and social work in the mental and medical healthcare settings, will be moderated by Lindsey Churchill, Ph.D., Professor of History and Director of WGSS.

The deadline to apply is April 18th, 2025 at 11:59PM Central Time. Please use the following link for the CFA: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/01/27/tenth-international-gender-and-sexuality-studies-conference-1017-18-2025.

For questions, please contact thecenteratuco@gmail.com or Shun Kiang, Ph.D., at skiang@uco.edu.

Contact Information

Women’s Research Center and BGLTQ+ Student Center at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO)

Contact Email

thecenteratuco@gmail.com

URL

https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/01/27/tenth-international-gender…

Call for Peer Reviewers: Teaching With Primary Sources Case Studies

Call for Peer Reviewers

The Case Studies on Teaching With Primary Sources series sponsored by the Reference, Access, and Outreach (RAO) Section of SAA seeks individuals who conduct instruction work in archives and special collections to serve as peer reviewers for its open-ended series of case studies. Single-blind peer review is conducted using a rubric to evaluate and share feedback on submissions. 

To volunteer to become a peer reviewer, please complete our sign up form by March 15, 2025. A member of the editorial team will reach out to you after the deadline with more information.

For questions, please contact twps-casestudies@archivists.org.

ABOUT THE TWPS CASE STUDIES

Sponsored by the Reference, Access, and Outreach (RAO) Section of SAA, this open-ended series of case studies is designed to illustrate the application of the Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy. The guidelines were developed by a joint task force charged by SAA and the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS). 

Call for Chapter Proposals and Peer Reviewers: Sustainability Leadership in Libraries and Archives Book

Overview

This call for proposals is for a peer-reviewed, edited book on sustainability leadership in libraries and archives with an international focus. Although more and more books about sustainability are being written for the library science field, none have specifically focused on leadership for sustainability. I am looking for chapters from all levels of librarians and archivists, not just those formally occupying positions of authority. This book is being proposed for publication by Routledge as part of their Critical Issues in Library and Information Sciences and Services series.

This book explicitly aims to explain leadership that challenges the status quo of libraries and archives, focusing on transformative leadership in sustainability. It features practices, ideas, theories, and frameworks replicable in libraries and archives as they stand right now and those that help them move into the future, using sustainability as a framework.

What is Sustainability?

There are many different frameworks people use to understand sustainability. Two of the most popular and well-known are the “three-legged stool” framework of environment, economy, and equity, which stems from the “Our Common Future” report and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. There are, however, many different sustainability frameworks in use in libraries, education, and other fields that may be appropriate for a chapter. Because there are many approaches to understanding and implementing sustainability, there’s not one specific framework authors are required to use for their chapter proposal. Instead, a description of the chosen sustainability framework should be an essential part of the chapter. In this way, this book aims to highlight multiple perspectives on sustainability by showing how libraries and archives define and implement them.

Book Structure

Proposals for chapters in the book should be written for one of the following sections:

  • sustainability leadership from within
  • sustainability leadership collaborations
  • sustainability leadership in the community
  • sustainability leadership strategies
  • sustainability leadership and stakeholder relationships

Chapters can focus on real situations from authors’ daily practice or on conceptual or theoretical work. Final chapters should be 5,000–8,000 words and use APA 7th ed. style.

Submitting a Proposal

Proposals are being accepted via Google Forms. Please submit an abstract no longer than 300 words, double-spaced. Please make sure you note specifically what sustainability framework your chapter will use. Include the title of the proposed submission, name(s) of the author(s), institutional affiliation, contact information with email address(es), and a short biography of the author(s).

Authors whose proposals are accepted will receive detailed chapter guidelines. Chapters will be double-blind and peer-reviewed by volunteer peer-reviewers other than the editor.

Proposals can be https://forms.gle/Vhobv35Rh6NNNBk67. Click or tap if you trust this link.” data-auth=”Verified” data-linkindex=”0″ rel=”noopener”>submitted here.

If you would like to be a peer-reviewer for this book, please https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeK26zwW-BZMM2GWBDOwTDV7EQ5c4dJQRMYTlwq2e3UQzUnqg/viewform?usp=sharing. Click or tap if you trust this link.” data-auth=”Verified” data-linkindex=”1″ rel=”noopener”>fill out this information.

Questions about the book can be directed to Erin Renee Wahl at ewahl@nmsu.edu.

Anticipated Timeline

  • Collecting chapter proposals January–February 2025
  • Responses to proposals anticipated by the end of March 2025
  • Full chapters due by May of 2025
  • Chapters will be sent to peer reviewers and returned to the editor by the end of July 2025
  • Final chapters (with revisions, etc.) by the end of 2025/beginning of 2026
  • Completed book to the publisher no later than May 2026

Link to the submissions call on the series editors’ website.

CFP: Archives Association of Ontario 2025 Virtual Conference

The Archives Association of Ontario is pleased to announce the 2025 Annual Conference to be held from May 6th to May 8th virtually.

Theme: Ebb and Flow: Narratives of Adaptability

This theme focuses on how archives, archivists, and information professionals adapt to challenges, recover from disruptions, and transform their practices to remain vital and responsive to their communities. Whether facing environmental change, evolving technologies, or funding constraints, “Ebb and Flow” explores how the path towards innovation and growth is rarely straightforward.

Stay tuned for more information!  #aao25conf

Call for Participation: Survey re: ILS and Special Collections Data

Dear Colleagues,

Special collections catalogers (those who spend at least 30% of their time cataloging special collections and/or rare materials) are invited to participate in a survey related to Integrated Library System (ILS) or Library Services Platform (LSP) migration and special collections data.

To participate, individuals must be over the age of 18 and currently employed as a special collections cataloger. Participants must have migrated Integrated Library Systems (ILS) or Library Services Platforms (LSP) in the last 5 years.

Participation within this survey is voluntary. Participants may stop completing the survey at any time. The survey will be anonymous but not confidential. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b8U2I30vUZ49hum

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact

Libby Hertenstein

hertenstein.9@osu.edu

614-247-9802

Office of Responsible Research Practices

hsconcerns@osu.edu

(614) 688-8457

(800) 678-6251