The Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), and Universidad de Los Andes (Uniandes, Bogotá) invite graduate students and junior scholars (with Ph.D. completion no longer than three years before the application deadline) working in art history and related fields, as well as museum staff, to submit applications for the research seminar “The Amazon Basin as Connecting Borderland.”  This program is supported by the Getty Foundation as part of its Connecting Art Histories initiative (https://www.getty.edu/projects/connecting-art-histories/).

The seminar, which brings together scholars from and/or based in South America, is the second part of a two-year project focused on the art history of the Amazon in the early-modern period, as a bridge that articulates the pre-Columbian past and modernity.

It will be composed of a series of virtual meetings starting in August, 2024 (with one introductory meeting in June), as well as a 10-day in-presence seminar in Belém do Pará in the second half of March, 2025. Virtual activities will run through July, 2025, with monthly meetings held on Saturdays between 11:00 and 14:00 BRT.

The traveling section of the seminar will focus on the visual and material culture of the Amazon in the early modern period. At the same time, the series of virtual meetings will prepare these gatherings by giving a broad understanding of the history and culture of the Amazon basin.

Possible research subjects may include, but are not limited to:

– Cartographic representations of the Amazon from an art historical perspective;

– The value of ethnohistoric accounts for art history;

– Transcultural negotiations between missionaries and spiritual representatives of native societies;

– Indigenous artistic production from the pre-Columbian period to the present;

– Global circulation of objects, transference agents and exchange circuits;

– Indigenous knowledge used to transform nature for art materials and techniques;

– Collecting practices and exhibition of objects from the Amazon region in South America and Europe;

– Picturing the Amazon in early modernity and beyond.

Participation in the traveling seminar will be funded for scholars who do not live in Belém. Additionally, two junior scholars (postdocs) will receive a small stipend related to specific teaching, coaching and research responsibilities within the project. Participants are expected to produce one contribution for the project’s blog, one public presentation and one article by the end of the academic year.

The working languages will be Spanish and Portuguese, with readings in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Participants with indigenous backgrounds and scholars working in the Amazon region will be given special consideration.

Further information about the project can be found at: https://facart.es/GettyAmazonBasin/en/

Application materials:

• Cover letter specifying current academic status (500 words)
• C.V. (2 pages max)
• Research proposal (700 words)
• One letter of recommendation

For full consideration the materials should be send by April 1st, 2024 using this form. Participants will be notified of the results by May 1st.

Any questions may be addressed to: amazonbasinconnecting@gmail.com

Project leaders: Carmen Fernández-Salvador (USFQ), Maria Berbara (UERJ), Patricia Zalamea (Uniandes).