14th Annual Imago Conference, University of Haifa, January 12, 2021 (and/or online via zoom)
In light of the global turmoil caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, the 14th Annual Imago conference will examine the cultural and artistic impact of epidemics, diseases, and healing in the art of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. We invite papers from broad and diverse points of view: case studies of iconographies dealing with disease or healing, studies of the artistic responses to specific epidemics, and comparative studies between East and West, the Christian and the Islamic worlds, etc.
Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to:
Artistic expressions of medicinal practices
Visual components in medical manuscripts
Artistic responses to the Black Death
Physical and spiritual health
Disease and otherness – xenophobic, racist, and anti-Semitic polemical visual expressions
Disease – theological and moral conceptions
Gendered aspects of disease and healing
Disease and healing between East and West
Leprosy and its cultural and artistic representations
Saints, relics, pilgrimage, and healing
Disease and apotropaic practices
art in hospitals and cemeteries
Images of doctors and nurses
Representations of suffering and sickness
The conference will take place on January 12, 2021, at the University of Haifa.
* Should the ongoing Covid-19 situation prevent the conference from being held on campus, it will be held online via Zoom.
* All speakers will be allowed to deliver their paper via Zoom, even if the conference will take place physically on campus.
We will broadcast the entire conference to participants via Zoom.
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to Dr. Gil Fishhof (gfishhof@staff.haifa.ac.il) no later than September 1st, 2020. Abstracts should include the applicant's name, professional affiliation, and a short CV. Each paper should be limited to a 20-minute presentation, to be followed by a discussion and questions. All applicants will be notified by October 1st 2020 regarding acceptance of their proposal. For additional information or further inquiries, please contact Dr. Fishhof.
Organizing committee: Dr. Gil Fishhof, Ms. Mazi Kuzi, Prof. Jochai Rosen, Dr. Margo Stroumsa-Uzan