[spectre] CFP: Art, Extraction, and Knowledge in Central Europe & Beyond (Prague, 19-21 May 27)

[Andreas Broeckmann]

From: Tina Asmussen
Date: Sep 12, 2026
Subject: CFP: Art, Extraction, and Knowledge in Central Europe & Beyond 
(Prague, 19-21 May 27)

Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, May 19–21, 2027
Deadline: Oct 1, 2026

Metals, Minerals, and Material Worlds: Art, Extraction, and Knowledge in 
Central Europe and Beyond.
An International Symposium of the Minescapes Research Project.

We invite proposals for papers for an international symposium, Metals, 
Minerals, and Material Worlds: Art, Extraction, and Knowledge in Central 
Europe and Beyond, to be held at the Institute of Art History of the 
Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague on May 19–21, 2027. Proposals are 
due October 1, 2026 (see submission details below).

This symposium, organized by Tina Asmussen (German Mining Museum Bochum: 
Leibniz Research Museum for Georesources) and Pamela Smith (Center for 
Science and Society, Columbia University), with Sylva Dobalová and 
Martin Mádl (both Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences), 
is part of the ongoing series Minescapes: Socio-Natural Sites of 
Resource, Extraction, and Knowledge that investigates the complexity and 
dynamics of human-environmental interactions in mining landscapes using 
the concept of a “material complex.” Research on a material complex 
begins in a study of the natural materials and follows them through 
reciprocal interactions with human bodily practices, techniques, and 
skills into substances and objects that are given meaning, used, 
consumed, desired, and studied by human communities. Each of these 
stages—the materials; the human–material interactions via skilled 
practice; and the objects and subjects and their meanings in production, 
use, consumption, and afterlives—can and often do form self-contained 
sites of study and analysis. In contrast, the Minescapes events aim, 
through drawing upon the archives of nature (mines, forests, water 
systems) and society (archives, libraries, art collections), to bring 
together these often rich separate areas of study into a unified field 
in order to raise fruitful questions for individual disciplines as well 
as for the whole.

The Prague symposium brings together scholars from across disciplines to 
examine the material worlds of metals and minerals—following them from 
the geological and mineralogical conditions of their formation, through 
their extraction, smelting, processing, transport, and trade, into the 
objects, images, and substances they become, and on to their use, 
consumption, and afterlives. Central Europe—with its long and densely 
documented history of metal and mineral extraction, its 
merchant-capitalist enterprises, and its movement of materials across 
local and global networks—offers a rich setting for these questions, 
while contributions that extend the perspective beyond the region are 
equally welcome.

We welcome proposals from scholars in any discipline and at any career 
stage whose work speaks to the symposium theme. We are especially 
interested in contributions that bridge the disciplinary boundaries by 
which the study of metals and minerals has conventionally been divided. 
Relevant fields and approaches include, but are not limited to:
- the history of art and art conservation, including technical art 
history and conservation science, with particular interest in early 
modern sculpture, metalwork, and the material culture of metals and minerals
- the history of early modern science, technology, and medicine, 
including metallurgy, mineralogy, and alchemy
- environmental, economic, and political-economic history, including the 
organization of mining, labor, capital, and trade
- the history of mining and of mining knowledge
- the natural sciences, including geology, geochemistry, geography, 
forest science, and materials science

By bringing these conventionally separate fields into conversation, the 
symposium aims to construct a more integrated history of art and making 
as human engagement with the materials of the natural environment.

Practical information
This symposium is generously supported by the Getty Foundation's 
Connecting Art Histories program, through the project The Material 
Complex of Copper in Central Europe and Beyond. In keeping with the 
program’s aims, the symposium seeks to bridge the historical 
geo-political divisions that have long separated research networks 
across Europe, and therefore especially encourages the participation of 
scholars based at Central and Eastern European institutions. Scholars 
from all regions and institutions are warmly invited to apply; please 
note, however, that the symposium's capacity to provide full financial 
support for travel and accommodation will be limited.

Proposals should include full name, current affiliation, and email 
address; a paper title; an abstract of no more than 300 words; a short 
CV (max. 2 pages with PhD or other terminal degree completion year or 
expected completion).

Submissions are due October 1, 2026, and should be sent to 
minescapes2027 at gmail.com.


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CFP: Art, Extraction, and Knowledge in Central Europe & Beyond (Prague, 
19-21 May 27). In: ArtHist.net, Sep 12, 2026. 
<https://arthist.net/archive/54168>.