Call for Papers: "Matèria. Revista internacional d’Art", 24th issue
Monograph: “Research and teaching in Art History. Current challenges”
Publication date: first half of 2025
Coordination: Rosa Alcoy and Lucía Lahoz
The aim of this monograph is to introduce reflection and debate on the challenges and problems currently facing art history, whether in the field of research or teaching. The objective is to address a discipline with a long history, which has experienced different stages and forms of implementation that depend on those who have been able to represent it. The discipline currently coexists with forms of study that are often linked to patterns of analysis that, with diversified objectives, originate from contact with other branches of knowledge. It is therefore necessary to consider this commitment in order to determine how far it is acceptable to deviate from past objectives and to what extent we can understand the parameters that really bring us closer to what are considered to be the focal elements of our studies.
The debate on this subject affects those interested in art materials and advancements. In this sense, it opens us up to the conquest of very important challenges on which the evaluation of our work also depends. Art history is capable of integrating contents and forms of artistic expression that are imposed to operate on the basis of the real, or the real model, without evading the game with the ideal and the imaginary. It studies what has been projected and has advanced from creativity, without us ever having the power to control it all or to aspire to subject this global creativity to our ideals.
The year 2025 may be a pertinent time to share these reflections that we will have built up from now on. We do not aspire to publish a monolithic pamphlet on what art history should be, nor to reveal a flawless theory or to define a standard to be followed without overcoming obstacles. The idea is to get to the heart of the issues that affect the current assessment of art history. For this reason, we consider it appropriate to integrate approaches and reflections that have emerged from a serious study of each question and that show a commitment to our field of study. If all of this, after examining certainties and disagreements, helps us to refute or improve some of the consolidated rules and tendencies - those that perhaps do not adapt well to the demands of our discipline or are susceptible to change - we will have achieved our goal.
Here are a number of major points for discussion, which may help to frame the articles in this monograph:
The programming (and prospective view) of objectives in the study of art
The world of journals and articles: regulations, formats, and content
The concept of the research book in the framework of art studies
Impact indexes and citations. Local and global, national, and international (...)
Methodologies. The universe of ideas and positivism. Interdisciplinarity and disciplinary methodologies).
Artificial intelligence. New technologies and the world of knowledge
Research and dissemination. Transfer and its objectives. Research groups, individual research and projects.
From degree to doctorate. Research and the teaching plan. Optional and compulsory subjects in the different stages of education. Research training.
It must be understood that these are not the only subjects to be dealt with and also that, quite plausibly, not all of them can be developed at sufficient length. Also, many of them can be interrelated when appropriate according to the perspective adopted in each article.
The monographic volume, no. 23 of the journal Matèria, opens the call for articles on the theme “RESEARCH AND TEACHING IN ART HISTORY. CURRENT CHALLENGES”, placing the compendium fully in our time, although the starting experience and the fields of our studies can refer to all artistic manifestations in any of their periods, applications, and interactions.
Articles must be submitted via the website by 1 December 2024.
