Against the Medici: Art and Dissent in Renaissance Italy (Contro i Medici: arte e dissenso nell’Italia del Rinascimento)
Archivio di Stato – Florence
26-27 May, 2016

As patrons of art, the Medici left a legacy that is unrivalled. Their well-known narrative lies at the center of Renaissance scholarship. The Medici patronized painters and sculptors, founded academies, preserved and curated their collections, and used both artists and artworks as political tools to convey their agendas and augment their prestige amongst the courts of Italy and Europe. Yet, just as Medici identity was expressed in terms of this cultural patrimony, so too were the attacks of their enemies. A rich corpus of anti-Medicean works of art remains underappreciated and understudied: works of art that communicated messages of opposition, hostility and even hate that struck at the very heart of the political identity of the Medici dynasty. Recognizing the role that art, artists, and artistic patronage played in opposing the Medici (roughly from Cosimo the Elder to the end of the sixteenth century), this two-day event, sponsored by the Medici Archive Project and the Archivio di Stato in Florence, will address this lacuna.

The organizers of the conference, Alessio Assonitis and Stefano Dall’Aglio, invite proposals for 25-minute papers that pertain to subjects including, but not limited to:

• Anti-Medici Patronage in the Quattrocento
• Savonarola and the Piagnoni: aesthetics, patronage and artistic production
• Michelangelo: between pro-Medici and anti-Medici
• Anti-Medici art and patronage in Rome · Art and architecture in the time of the Republic(s)
• Dissent and absolutism under the Medici Dukes
• Anti-Medicean sentiment in academies, workshops, and confraternities
• Graffiti and vandalism
• Florentine patronage in exile
• Duplicity and dissimulation
• Censorship and Damnatio Memoriae

The keynote speaker will be Paolo Simoncelli (Sapienza – Università di Roma).

Scholars interested in participating should send an abstract in English or Italian (no more than 200 words) and a one page C.V. to conference@medici.org by 1 January, 2016. The papers can be presented in English or Italian.

Selected participants will receive partial funding for travel and accommodation.

The 11th Annual Conference of the Association of Adaptation Studies
St Anne’s College, Oxford, UK
26-27 September, 2016

Papers are invited on any aspect of adaptation studies but proposals on adaptations and history are particularly welcome. These might include: the history of adaptations, adapting history, biopics and adaptations, adaptation as historical appropriation, adaptations and period drama or heritage adaptations. Proposals (between 50 to 100 words) should be sent to: Deborah Cartmell (djc@dmu.ac.uk) and Imelda Whelehan (Imelda.Whelehan@utas.edu.au) by 1 June, 2016.

Effaced from History? Facial Difference and its Representation from Antiquity to the Present Day
The University of Winchester
31 March – 2 April, 2016

Papers of 20 minutes are invited that address any aspect of the theme of facial difference, whether through birth attributes, illness, injury or deliberate modifications such as tattooing, piercing, masks and make-up. Papers should speak to one or more of the key themes of staring and visibility, language, and/or materiality.

Subjects might include, but are not limited to:

• Medical approaches to facial difference
• Gender and difference
• War, violence and punishment
• Visual culture — sculpture, painting, photos…
• Literary responses (inc. drama)
• Shame and stigma
• Print media — news items, sensationalism, exhibiting the face
• Congenital and acquired differences
• Self-inflicted or faked differences
• Queering the face — what is ‘normal’?

If you prefer to offer a poster, we welcome submissions in that form as well.

The conference will open with a public lecture from Suzannah Biernoff on the evening of 31 March. Further keynote speakers to be announced.

Please send your abstract or poster outline (max 200 words) and a short bio (max 100 words) to emily.cock@winchester.ac.uk by Friday 11 December, 2015.