CAA News Today
Register for CAA Summer Publishing Webinars!
posted by CAA — June 24, 2024
This summer, CAA will hold webinars in response to an influx of requests for guidance on and advice about academic publishing. Organized and moderated by Christy Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of The Art Bulletin and professor of the History of Architecture at University of Toronto, a panel of publishing experts will discuss and answer audience questions on the topics of turning longer research into an article and responding to readers reports and revisions. Our aim is to help demystify the academic publishing process, expand access to publishing education and professional development, and ultimately increase diversity in publishing.
July 31, 2–4 p.m. ET
In Print: From the Archive to the Essay
Getting Your Research Into Print
Shaping a large amount of research into a powerful essay can be more difficult than writing a book. A successful article needs a strong argument, clear organization, and effective use of images. In this workshop we will discuss some guidelines on developing an essay for The Art Bulletin or other journals. Join Christy Anderson, the Editor-in-Chief of The Art Bulletin and other scholars for a roundtable discussion with time for your questions.
August 7, 2–4 p.m. ET
Contending with Critique: How to Effectively Respond to Readers’ Reports
Each essay in The Art Bulletin has been through multiple revisions in response to comments from readers and the editor. If you are asked to ‘revise and resubmit’ how do you respond to readers’ reports? This workshop will demystify the peer review process and help you to incorporate the best of the advice into your writing.
Publishing webinars are free for CAA members and students.
Non-member registration is $15 per webinar or $20 to register for both.
Not currently a member of CAA? Join for $8 per month to attend both summer publishing webinars for free and receive discounted CAA Annual Conference registration!
Publishing webinars sponsored in part by:
CAA Signs on to the American Council of Learned Societies Statement on 2024 Campus Protest
posted by CAA — May 13, 2024
CAA has signed on to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Statement on 2024 Campus Protests, which, like the American Historical Association (AHA) statement last week, was issued in response to recent decisions by colleges and universities to encourage police intervention and suppress protests.
Both AHA and ACLS statements resonate with CAA’s mission to advocate for the visual arts through “intellectual engagement and a commitment to the diversity of practices and practitioners,” as more broadly this speaks to a commitment to advocating for diversity of ideas. Opposing ideas, whether expressed via visual art or through protest, can disturb and trigger discomfort. However, per the ACLS statement, “while administrators have every right and duty to secure the safety of their campus communities, they cannot and should not shield students or others from the experience of hearing strongly worded statements which might make them deeply uncomfortable. It is the nature of protest to be loud, sometimes discourteous, and contentious. But, as scholars, we believe that suppressing the expression of unpopular or uncomfortable ideas by students or faculty engaged in peaceful protest does not do justice to the values at the heart of the university.”
Visit the ACLS website to view the full list of individuals, societies, and institutions who have signed on to this statement.
Join the CAA Board of Directors
posted by CAA — May 06, 2024
Now accepting Board of Directors nominations for the 2025–29 term! CAA seeks individuals passionate about shaping the future of the organization and the field. The Board is responsible for all financial and policy matters related to CAA, as well as promoting excellence in scholarship, curation, design, and art practice. CAA’s Board is also charged with representing and advocating for the membership regarding current issues affecting the visual arts and humanities.
Nominations and/or self-nominations must include the following:
- Nominee name, affiliation, and e-mail address
- Nominator name, affiliation, and e-mail address (if different from nominee)
- Nominee résumé/CV
- Nominee statement of interest (250 words maximum)
Please send all information and/or any questions via e-mail to Maeghan Donohue, CAA Chief of Staff & Director of Strategic Planning, Diversity, and Governance, with the subject line: Board of Directors Nomination.
Deadline: July 12, 2024
CAA Signs on to the American Historical Association’s Statement on 2024 Campus Protests
posted by CAA — May 06, 2024
CAA has signed on to the American Historical Association (AHA) Statement on 2024 Campus Protests, in response to recent decisions by colleges and universities to encourage police intervention and suppress protests. We stand with AHA in recognizing the historical dangers of suppression, “the fundamental value of peaceful protest on college and university campuses,” and the need for administrators at these institutions to reevaluate their forceful handling of such peaceful demonstrations:
“It is appropriate for universities to establish and enforce, through fair and transparent procedures, reasonable and content-neutral restrictions on the time, place, and manner of protests and other assemblies. These procedures should not, however, deprive students, faculty, and staff of their right to gather, speak, debate, and protest.”
AHA’s statement resonates with CAA’s mission to advocate for the visual arts through “intellectual engagement and a commitment to the diversity of practices and practitioners,” as more broadly this speaks to a commitment to advocating for diversity of ideas. Opposing ideas, whether expressed via visual art or through protest, can disturb and trigger discomfort. However, as AHA’s statement underscores, “encountering ideas that might make us uncomfortable is central to the educational process.”
OTHER LEARNED SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS WHO HAVE SIGNED THE AHA STATEMENT
American Association for Italian Studies
American Association of Geographers
American Society for Environmental History
American Society for Theatre Research
American Sociological Association
Association for Asian Studies
Berkshire Conference of Women Historians
California Scholars for Academic Freedom
Dance Studies Association
Disability History Association
Executive Committee of Czechoslovak Studies Association
Historians for Peace and Democracy
International Labor and Working-Class History
Labor and Working-Class History Association
Linguistic Society of America
Medieval Academy of America
North American Conference on British Studies
Network of Concerned Historians
Oral History Association
PEN America
Shakespeare Association of America
Sixteenth Century Society
Society for French Historical Studies
Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Society for the History of Children and Youth
Society for US Intellectual History
Southern Association for Women Historians
Southern Historical Association
Western Society for French History
World History Association
Apply for CAA Committee Service!
posted by CAA — April 24, 2024
Join one of CAA’s twelve Professional Committees, the Annual Conference Committee, or the Publications Committee as an at-large member! Each committee works from a charge established by the Board of Directors. For many CAA members, committee service fosters professional relationships, community, and facilitates impactful contributions to pressing issues in the visual arts and higher education.
Important Committee Service Information:
- Committee members serve a three-year term. Service for this committee cycle begins in February 2025 at the CAA 113th Annual Conference and concludes in February 2028 at the 116th Annual Conference.
- All applications are reviewed by current committee members as well as CAA leadership.
- Appointments will be announced by November 1, 2024. New members will be introduced to their committees during their respective business meetings at the 113th Annual Conference in New York City (February 12–15, 2025).
- If appointed, applicants are expected to attend committee meetings, participate actively in the work of the committee, and contribute expertise to defining the current and future work of the committee.
- Appointees must be current CAA members before the start of their committee service, but do not need to be CAA members to apply.
- All committee members volunteer their service without compensation.
Visit our website using the links below to review the mission of each committee as well as the current roster of committee leadership and members.
CAA ANNUAL CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
The Annual Conference Committee is responsible for shaping the program of the Annual Conference, ensuring that the program reflects CAA’s goals: to make the conference an effective place for intellectual, aesthetic, and professional learning and exchange, to reflect the diverse interests of the membership, and to provide opportunities for participation that are fair, equal, and balanced.
CAA PROFESSIONAL COMMITTEES
CAA’s twelve Professional Committees represent the constituent interests of the organization by addressing standards, practices, and guidelines in the professions of our individual and institutional members.
- Committee on Design
- Committee on Diversity Practices
- Committee on Intellectual Property
- Committee on Research and Scholarship
- Committee on Women in the Arts
- Education Committee
- International Committee
- Museum Committee
- Professional Practices Committee
- Services to Artists Committee
- Services to Historians of the Visual Arts Committee
- Student and Emerging Professionals Committee
CAA PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
The Publications Committee oversees CAA’s publishing activities and supervises the editorial boards of The Art Bulletin, Art Journal/AJO, and caa.reviews.
Please Note: At-large members of the Publications Committee represent the voice of our membership, and perform the role of committee secretary, taking minutes at three Publications Committee meetings per year in February, May, and October.
If you are interested in applying to serve on a CAA committee, please click the APPLY TO SERVE button below to fill out the application form and upload your CV as well as a brief personal statement describing your interest and experience. If you are applying to more than one committee, please submit a separate personal statement tailored to each of the committees to which you are applying, noting why you’d like to serve on that specific committee.
Contact Maeghan Donohue, CAA Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Planning, Diversity & Governance with any questions.
Deadline: August 8, 2024
CAA Board President’s Open Letter to North American College and University Presidents
posted by CAA — February 09, 2024
On behalf of the College Art Association (CAA) and its Advocacy Committee, I write in support of an open letter from the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) written on December 18, 2023. As a partner learned society under the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), we urge you to uphold and protect academic and creative freedom on your campuses.
Since October 2023, we have seen a surge in threats to faculty, students, and college staff. The current Gaza-Israel conflict has generated widespread academic and scholastic debate; we call upon you during this difficult time to protect free speech and to defend academic freedom for all campus community members. We also urge you to refrain from censoring artist exhibitions in your campus galleries and museums.
CAA honors diversity and reflects an extraordinary range of cultures, perspectives, education, and experiences that make the advancement of art and design integral to our global constituencies and to culture at large.
CAA is committed to ensuring academic freedom and freedom of artistic expression and exhibition. We agree with MESA that “free speech is essential for any democratic polity, and this country’s institutions of higher education should be places in which even the most controversial and unpopular views can be expressed, debated and criticized. At the same time, all students deserve equal access to education, free from harassment and discrimination. Unfortunately, we are witnessing a dramatic increase in antisemitic, anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim harassment and discrimination on our campuses.”
As university leaders, you bear responsibility during charged political times to safeguard academic freedom, freedom of expression and artistic practice, as well as the physical welfare of all members of your community. We urge you to protect students, faculty, and staff and honor their right to freedom of speech without fear of intimidation, harassment, or retaliation.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Rissler, PhD
President, Board of Directors
CAA | Advancing Art and Design
caa.reviews Seeks Two Editorial Board Members and Field Editors in Seven Areas
posted by CAA — February 08, 2024
caa.reviews seeks two new Editorial Board Members to each serve a four-year term, July 1, 2024–June 30, 2028.
CAA encourages applications from candidates with a strong record of scholarship who are committed to the imaginative development of caa.reviews. An online, open-access journal, caa.reviews is devoted to the peer review of recent books, museum exhibitions, and projects relevant to the fields of art history, visual studies, and the arts.
The Editorial Board advises the Editor-in-Chief, guides Field Editors in their process of identifying books, exhibitions, and review authors suitable for the journal, and proposes new initiatives for the journal’s editorial programs. Editorial Board Members stay abreast of trends and issues in the field by attending and reporting on sessions at the CAA Annual Conference, as well as other academic conferences, symposia, and events in their fields.
The caa.reviews Editorial Board meets three times a year, twice in the spring and fall and once at the Annual Conference each February. Meetings in the spring and fall are currently held by videoconference, while the February meeting typically occurs in person. Members of all editorial boards at CAA volunteer their services without compensation or financial support for travel to and accommodations at the Annual Conference
Candidates must be current CAA members and should not currently serve on the editorial board of a competing journal or another CAA editorial board or committee. Nominations and self-nominations are welcome. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a letter of nomination. Please email a letter of nomination or self-nomination, describing your nominee’s interest in and qualifications for appointment, the nominee’s CV, and contact information to Eugenia Bell, Editorial Director, ebell@collegeart.org. Please include the subject line caa.reviews Editorial Board Member.
Deadline: Monday, May 6.
CAA is also inviting nominations and self-nominations for individuals to join the caa.reviews Council of Field Editors for a three-year term July 1, 2024–June 30, 2027 (renewable once). An online, open-access journal, caa.reviews is devoted to the peer review of new books, museum exhibitions, and projects relevant to art history, visual studies, and the arts. Candidates may be artists, art historians, art critics, art educators, curators, or other art professionals with stature in the field and with experience writing or editing books and/or exhibition reviews; institutional affiliation is not required.
CAA is searching for Field Editors in the following fields:
- Art of the Ancient Mediterranean, Europe, and West Asia
- Latin American Art
- Photography
- Art of the Ancient Americas
- Exhibitions: Southeast
- Exhibitions: Southwest
- African Art
Working with the caa.reviews Editor-in-Chief, the caa.reviews Editorial Board, and CAA’s staff editor, each Field Editor selects content to be reviewed, commissions reviewers, and considers manuscripts for publication. Field Editors for books are expected to keep abreast of newly published and important books and related media in their fields of expertise, and those for exhibitions should be aware of current and upcoming exhibitions (and other related projects) in their geographic regions.
The Council of Field Editors meets once a year in February at the CAA Annual Conference. Members of all CAA committees and editorial boards volunteer their services without compensation or financial support for travel to and accommodations at the Annual Conference.
Candidates must be current CAA members and should not be serving on the editorial board of a competing journal or another CAA editorial board or committee. Nominations and self-nominations are welcome. Nominators should ascertain their nominee’s willingness to serve before submitting a letter of nomination. Please email a letter of nomination or self-nomination describing your nominee’s interest in and qualifications for appointment, the nominee’s CV, and contact information to Eugenia Bell, Editorial Director, ebell@collegeart.org. Please include the subject line caa.reviews Field Editor.
Deadline: Monday, May 6.
CAA Signs ACLS Statement on Proposed Cuts at West Virginia University
posted by CAA — September 14, 2023
CAA has signed on to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) statement, Fighting for an Ambitious Vision of Public Higher Education in America, in response to proposed cuts at West Virginia University. CAA stands with ACLS in the belief that the stewards of the university are “duty-bound to protect the creation and circulation of knowledge for the public good in all its diverse aspects, across disciplines and interdisciplinary areas.”
“By proposing major cuts in its undergraduate and graduate programs, including engineering, environmental planning, languages other than English, law, linguistics, mathematics, music, public administration, and theater, the university is denying its students and the people of West Virginia access to the wide range of knowledge necessary to fulfill that mission. The path WVU is treading is unprecedented for a public flagship and dangerous for American higher education and society.”
Other learned societies and higher education institutions who have signed the ACLS statement:
American Academy of Religion
American Folklore Society
American Historical Association
American Society for Environmental History
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Association of University Presses
College Art Association
Dance Studies Association
Linguistic Society of America
Medieval Academy of America
North American Conference on British Studies
Rhetoric Society of America
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Society for Ethnomusicology
Society for Music Theory
SCOTUS Ruling on Affirmative Action: CAA ED Response
posted by CAA — June 30, 2023
The US Supreme Court ruling invalidating race-conscious admissions considerations at colleges and universities is antithetical to CAA’s mission, specifically our commitment to the diversity of practices and practitioners in the visual arts and academia. This is another in a series of blows to the field, the reverberations of which will be felt for generations to come.
Justice Clarence Thomas dismissing affirmative action policies at universities as “rudderless, raced-based preferences” demonstrates a deliberate suppression of the entire history of institutional racism in this country, which by design actively obstructs opportunity and access for so many.
Now more than ever, we must come together as an organization and develop alternative strategies for ensuring equity and representation in a meaningful way, without performativity or tokenism. Even with affirmative action policies in place, many important voices were relegated to the margins; this ruling will only serve to repress them further. We have a responsibility to continue fighting to center and amplify such voices.
Despite this current era of national regression in the realm of human rights, I still have faith we can have an impact, learn from a problematic past, and reshape the future of the field. Join me in continuing to transform pain into purpose.
Meme Omogbai
Executive Director & CEO
CAA | Advancing Art and Design
Join the CAA Board of Directors!
posted by CAA — May 01, 2023
CAA seeks nominations of individuals passionate about shaping the future of the organization by serving on the Board of Directors for the 2024–2028 term. The board is responsible for all financial and policy matters related to CAA, promoting excellence in scholarship, and encouraging creativity and technical skills in design and art practice. CAA’s board is also charged with representing the membership regarding current issues affecting the visual arts and humanities.
Nominations and/or self-nominations must include the following:
- Résumé/CV
- Brief statement of interest (250 words maximum)
- Nominee’s name, affiliation, and e-mail address
- Name, affiliation, and e-mail address of nominator (if different from nominee)
Please send all information and/or any questions via e-mail to Maeghan Donohue, CAA Chief of Staff & Director of Strategic Planning, Diversity, and Governance, with the subject line: Board of Directors Nomination.
Deadline: July 10, 2023.