Gender in Southeast Asian Art Histories I

Studies focused on gender in Southeast Asian societies have emerged, in recent decades, in approximate concurrence with the development of regionally focused Southeast Asian art histories. The founding premise of this international symposium is that there has to date been insufficient intersection between these two fields.

As the first symposium of its kind, Gender in Southeast Asian Art Histories aims to establish the parameters of current research, and to develop inter-disciplinary and transnational frameworks for future studies in the field. Bringing together a range of scholars working on the pre-modern, modern, and contemporary, we seek to consider new perspectives and methodological approaches brought to the fore in art history through studies that are attentive to gender, or how we might reassess art historical narratives through the lens of gender.

The symposium will be launched by a keynote address from Professor Ashley Thompson, the Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Asian Art at SOAS, University of London. Symposium participants and up to twelve additional attendees, on a competitive basis, will also be invited to participate in a half-day masterclass led by Professor Thompson, and a professional development workshop.

Gender in Southeast Asian Art Histories is convened by Yvonne Low, Roger Nelson, Clare Veal, and Stephen Whiteman. The event is generously supported by the Asian Studies Association of Australia, the Power Institute, the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, the School of Literature, Art and Media and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney.

Read Yvonne Low's full report on the symposium here

Program

Keynote

The symposium will be launched by a keynote address from Professor Ashley Thompson, the Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Asian Art at SOAS, University of London. (More information here).

Professor Thompson will also run a masterclass. (Read her introduction to the readings here). 

Other Speakers

Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol, Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan
Chang Saetang’s Self-Portraits and the Inversion of ‘Barami’

Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez, Assistant Professor, Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippine
Art on the Back Burner: Gender as the Elephant in the Room of SEA Art Histories

Eksuda Singhalampong, Lecturer in Art History, Silpakorn University
Picturing Femininity: Portraits of the Early Modern Siamese Women

May Adadol Ingawanij, Reader and Co-director, Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, University of Westminster
The Essay Film as Feminist Cinema in Southeast Asia: Nguyen Trinh Thi and Anocha Suwichakornpong

Qui Ha Nguyen, PhD candidate, University of Southern California
Womanhood and Modernity: Revisiting Cinematic Representation of Women’s Social Transformation in Vietnamese Revolutionary Cinema during the Wartime (1945-1975)

Roger Nelson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Women as Passengers, Men as Drivers? On Urban Movement in Post-Independence ‘Cambodian Arts’

Soumya James, Independent Scholar, New Haven, CT
Exploring the Feminine in Angkor’s Visual Imagery

Tina Le, PhD candidate, University of Michigan
Crafting the Indigenous: Paz Abad Santos and the Feminine Arts

Wulan Dirgantoro, Postdoctoral Fellow, Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices 2016/2017 program, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, Germany
Correcting, Interrogating: A proposal for feminist framework for Indonesian visual arts

Yvonne Low, Sessional Lecturer in Asian Art, Department of Art History, University of Sydney
Recovering the Nation’s Woman (Artists): Mia Bustam and Lai Foong Moi