The Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University invites current and recent graduate students to submit paper abstracts for the 51st Annual Cleveland Symposium, Love and Desire in the Visual Arts, by July 21, 2025. Held in partnership with the Cleveland Museum of Art as part of the joint program between CWRU and CMA, the Cleveland Symposium is one of the longest-running annual art history symposia in the United States organized by graduate students. This year’s symposium welcomes innovative research papers that explore themes of love and desire as manifested in any medium as well as in any historical period and geographic location. Different methodological perspectives are welcome.
Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Expressions of romantic love and desire
- Platonic love and tenderness
- Depictions of heartbreak and lovesickness
- Visualizations of passion, emotion, and devotion
- Self-love and inner desires
- Divine love and the significance of love and desire in religious devotion
- Nudity, sexuality, eroticism, and the body
- Gendered and queer love
- Power dynamics in the experience of love and desire
- The tactile and sensuous quality of media
Current and recent graduate students in art history and related disciplines are invited to submit an abstract of up to 350 words and a CV to clevelandsymposium@gmail.com by Monday, July 21, 2025. Selected participants will be notified by mid-August. Presentations should be between 15–18 minutes in length. The symposium is planned as an in-person event. Speakers will be responsible for their own travel, but lodging with CWRU graduate students will be arranged for interested participants. Please send any questions to Claudia Haines and Rachel Sweeney at clevelandsymposium@gmail.com.
