Ephemera & Place in the Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Worlds
Graduate Conference at Yale University
Department of History of Art
Friday, April 17, 2026
Co-organizers: Blair Betik and Nicole Boyd, Ph.D. Candidates
Keynote Speaker: Professor Abhishek Singh Amar (Hamilton College)
Artists and architects of the ancient, medieval, and early modern worlds worked in anticipation of human action. Altars in Greco-Roman sanctuaries; frescoes in Renaissance villas; screen paintings in East Asian court complexes; and figurines in Mesoamerican tombs were all designed to enrich, animate, and accommodate an assortment of activities, including religious rituals, theatrical performances, diplomatic gatherings, and celebrations. Though these fleeting phenomena are known to art historians thanks to textual, visual, and material evidence, they test the limits of art historical inquiry, which has traditionally prioritized what is enduring, complete, and visible.
Ephemera & Place will bring together graduate students to explore how built spaces and site-specific artworks dating up to the year 1700 shaped and were shaped by ephemeral events. Recent scholarship has emphasized the “global” diffusion and transformation of artistic objects, techniques, forms, and subjects. This conference instead foregrounds the dynamic tensions which emerged in particular places across geographies in the pre-modern world as art and activity converged.
The event invites papers by graduate students across institutions and disciplines which consider:
- Methodologies for studying and representing ephemeral events in situ.
- The traces left on artistic and architectural programs by impermanent events.
- The way pre-modern art or architecture was designed with specific events in mind.
- How the experience of pre-existing art and architecture shaped rituals and events.
To submit: please send a brief abstract (around 300 words), a CV, and a short biographical statement to ephemera.place2026@gmail.com by January 9, 2026
Important Dates:
- January 9, 2026 → deadline to submit
- Late January, 2026 → notification of acceptance
- April 17, 2026 → date of conference
Schedule:
Poster:
