Dr. Laura Holzman recently published two chapters in the book Socially Engaged Art History and Beyond, edited by Cindy Persinger and Azar Rejaie.
The first chapter is tiled “Cultivating an Engaged Art History from Interdisciplinary Roots” and the second is “Structuring Academic Jobs for Engaged Art History.”
About this Book
What is socially engaged art history? Art history is typically understood as a discipline in which academics produce scholarship for consumption by other academics. Today however, an increasing number of art historians are seeking to broaden their understanding of art historical praxis and look beyond the academy and towards socially engaged art history. This is the first book-length study to focus on these growing and significant trends. It presents various arguments for the social, pedagogical, and scholarly benefits of alternative, community-engaged, public-facing, applied, and socially engaged art history. The international line up of contributors includes academics, museum and gallery curators as well as arts workers. The first two sections of the book look at socially engaged art history from theoretical, pedagogical, and contextual perspectives. The concluding part offers a range of provocative case studies that highlight the varied and rigorous work that is being done in this area and provide a variety of inspiring models. Taken together the chapters in this book provide much-needed disciplinary recognition to socially engaged art history, while also serving as a springboard to further theoretical and practical work.
Laura Holzman is an Associate Professor and Director of the Museum Studies Program, IU School of Liberal Art at IU Indianapolis.