Summer Research Academy
Encounters in World Art History

Getty Research Institute
Los Angeles, California
August 9–September 7, 2012

Call for applications from art history doctoral students studying in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

Art history is rapidly being reconceptualized to meet new social, political, and aesthetic demands. Essential contributions to these developments will come from junior scholars in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, whose research questions, methods, and objects of study may be informed by the intellectual, linguistic, and political contexts of their practice. This first Summer Research Academy seeks eight doctoral students from those regions to research and converse with eight doctoral students and eight senior scholars from the International Consortium on Art History.

The theme for the 2012 Summer Research Academy is “Encounters in World Art History.” We seek submissions that address artistic and art historical encounters, such as how encounters are staged, works of art as products of encounters, and how such artworks are received. The topic will be explored using library resources and special collections at the Getty Research Institute as well as collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Research
Scholars will embark on individual research projects of their choice, which relate to specific holdings in the Getty collections. They will demonstrate how these specific holdings relate to the broader theme. Examples include:

• The staging of artistic and art historical encounters. Encounters may be staged through visual media; the mobility of people and objects; and the presentation of art as it is framed, grouped, and shown by artists, curators, museums, and galleries.
• The work of art. An artwork may be a product of encounters between “high" and “low" art; art and literature; art and sciences; cultures; and forms, materials, and media. Its narrative content may reflect meetings, discoveries, couplings, and conquests.
• How artworks are viewed and received. This may be informed by meetings of culture, language, or religion and may affect international and intercultural relations from local to global, between East and West, North and South.
• Other aspects of encounters that are persuasively presented.

Exchange
The schedule allows for sustained periods of individual research, presentation of hypotheses and results, and small, informal discussions of methods, objects, and sources.

Setting and Hosts
The Summer Research Academy (SRA) is hosted by the Getty Research Institute, organized by the International Consortium on Art History and the Chaire de Recherche du Canada en histoire de l’art de l’Université de Montréal, and funded in part by the Getty Foundation and the Getty Research Institute.

The Getty Research Institute’s library and special collections as well as the collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum will be the major research resources. The SRA will introduce participants to the rich holdings and diverse expertise of the Getty and its staff as well as to the vibrant cultural milieu of the Los Angeles area.

Organizers
Todd Porterfield, Canada Research Chair in Art History at the Université de Montréal, directs the SRA, with the support of the Université de Montréal, the collaboration of the International Consortium on Art History, and in consultation with the Getty Research Institute.

Senior Researchers
All senior researchers are members of the International Consortium on Art History and include:

• Dario Gamboni (Université de Genève)
  
• Thomas Kirchner (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)
  
• Anne Lafont (Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art)
  
• Johanne Lamoureux (Université de Montréal)
  
• Iris Lauterbach (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte)
  
• Ségolène Le Men (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense)
  
• Maria Grazia Messina (Università degli Studi di Firenze)
  
• Atsushi Miura (University of Tokyo)
  
• Todd Porterfield (Université de Montréal)
  
• Alexis Sornin (Centre Canadien d’Architecture)
  
• Henri Zerner (Harvard University)
  
• Michael Zimmerman (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)
  

Junior Researchers
The junior researchers include eight International Consortium on Art History doctoral students and eight doctoral students based in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Long-Term Goals
The program aims to share ideas, forge links among participants, and foster subsequent publications, research projects, and programs, all with the purpose of connecting art history across cultural, linguistic, national, and methodological traditions.

Support
The Université de Montréal has been awarded a grant from the Getty Foundation’s initiative “Connecting Art Histories,” which covers travel costs and living expenses for the eight doctoral students from Africa, Asia, and Latin America that are selected. The Getty Research Institute will provide housing for all participants.

Questions and Applications
If you have any questions about eligibility for, support for, or activities of the SRA, please contact us at SRA2012@histart.umontreal.ca.

Application
Please submit the following:

• A curriculum vitae, including a statement on reading and oral language comprehension, and your contact information, including e-mail address and telephone number. Note: The ability to speak and comprehend English are required.
  
• A one-page, single-spaced summary of the doctoral dissertation project and its current state of progress.
  
• A two-page, single-spaced proposal clearly stating your research question and summarizing the focus of your SRA research. Please consult the Getty Research Institute’s collections using the online search tools in order to prepare the application. Identify the title and the library catalog or accession number of up to ten items that will be central to your investigation. Indicate your intended methodology and how your SRA subject relates to the broader theme of encounters (refer to the research examples listed above). Also briefly state the anticipated impact the experience may have on your research and professional activities.
  
• Two references from individuals who can comment on your research and dissertation project. Include their names, e-mails, and phone numbers so we may contact them.

Application Deadline and Formatting Protocols
Send applications in PDF format to SRA2012@histart.umontreal.ca by March 1, 2012. All applications must be in English; a duplicate application in another language may also be considered.

Review Process
Selections will be determined on a competitive basis. Applications will be evaluated by a committee of the International Consortium on Art History based on the following criteria:

• The overall quality of the application.
  
• How the proposed project bears upon the research theme, “Encounters in World Art History.”
  
• The applicant’s past achievements and future potential.
  
• Functional proficiency in English (speaking, comprehension, and reading skills).
  
• How the project would benefit from the resources at the Getty, in particular its library and collections.
  
• How the doctoral student’s participation might contribute to connecting art history across cultural, linguistic, national, and methodological traditions.

Notification
Applicants will be notified of the competition results in mid–April 2012.

Travel Documents
Travel documents (visas, passports, etc.) may be necessary. It will be the responsibility of the potential participants to acquire those documents in a timely fashion at the country of origin. Definitive acceptance will depend on it.