Panel: Sculpture and the Non-Normative Body

The editors of Sculpture Journal invite paper proposals for the panel Sculpture and the Non-Normative Body, to be held at the 2026 CAA Annual Conference.

Abstract:

The normative body has been the traditional subject of sculpture since antiquity. Its ubiquity, however, has led to the invisibility of the diversity of bodies in the history of art: from the Old Drunkard female seated sculpture and disabled body of Aesop from the Hellenistic Era, and the ‘hermaphrodite’ from antiquity to the ‘grotesque’ or ‘monstrous’ from the Renaissance garden to the polychrome ‘ethnographic’ portrait busts from the nineteenth century. We want to question these categories and address bodies that have been under-represented in sculpture, either through representational strategies, materials that reflect on lived experience, and/or sculptural practice itself. 

We encourage abstracts that rethink the traditional methods of sculpture in art history in relation to gender, sexuality, race, class and/or disability. We invite proposals for contributions that stem from but are not limited to the following: fragmentation and decay; queer and trans perspectives; health and disability; age and representation; processes of othering; materiality; redefinitions/responses to normativity/the normative body; artists engaging in their work via lived experience or through materiality. We are looking at this issue transhistorically and globally, across a range of sculpture practices, from ancient to the contemporary, and the figurative to the abstract. 

This panel is organized by the editors of the Sculpture Journal, as part of their ongoing commitment to foster current discourses on sculpture in a broad sense. We welcome applicants across all time periods and related fields. 

Submission Guidelines: 

Please submit a paper title and abstract (250 words maximum) through the CAA portal by August 29, 2025, 11:59 PM EST:  https://caa.confex.com/caa/2026/webprogrampreliminary/Session16447.html

You can find more detailed instructions here: https://caa.confex.com/caa/2026/webprogrampreliminary/meeting.html

Applicants will be notified about their proposed presentations by September 16, 2025. Accepted participants (not applicants) must be or become members of CAA by October 14 and pay the conference registration fee. CAA offers registration and travel grants as well as other forms of support for some members. More information is located here: https://collegeart.org/programs/support-grants

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