Art and Authority: Visualizing Influence, Negotiating Control

28 May 2025

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the upcoming doctoral
conference, which will take place on Wednesday, 28 May.

This semester’s theme is: Art and Authority: Visualizing Influence,
Negotiating Control

Art is deeply entangled with structures of power—political, religious, and
economic - yet it also has the capacity to challenge, subvert, and reconfigure
these frameworks. This theme explores how artistic expression navigates systems
of control, whether through patronage, censorship, institutional constraints,
or acts of resistance.
How have artists, patrons, and institutions engaged with authority? In what
ways do propagandistic commissions, subversive iconography, or contested
spatial interventions reveal shifting power dynamics? Possible subjects span
all epochs, including the role of art in constructing national identities, the
patronage networks behind religious architecture, and the tensions between
state power and artistic autonomy in modern-day Central Europe. At its core,
this theme engages with scholarly debates on the politics of representation,
institutional critique, and global art histories, encouraging a
nuanced exploration of the forces shaping artistic production and reception.


We kindly ask you to submit your abstracts (maximum 250 words) by 30
April.


Please find the poster with further details attached.


Thank you, and we are looking forward to receiving your proposals.


Best wishes,

On behalf of the organizing team

Michaela Hojdysz