CALL FOR PAPERS

International Conference

The Evolution of Artistic Representations of Marginalized Identities in the Americas (19th–21st centuries): Ruptures and/or Continuities?

25–27 November 2026
UNIVERSITY OF LILLE

The end of the 20th century witnessed major transformations in the world-system. In this context of questioning Western universalist discourse, new theories and concepts such as postmodernity, alternative or multiple modernities, postcoloniality, and decoloniality emerged to rethink the realities of a multipolar and globalized world.

The aim of this conference is to take stock of current research on the evolution of representations and imaginaries of identity and alterity in/of the Americas, as well as the power dynamics they entail, through artistic and cultural practices and productions, and to lay the foundations for the creation of an international research network in this field. Reflection on content will be inseparable from reflection on forms and narrative and aesthetic conventions as “cognitive instruments” that convey either adherence to or critique of the Western colonial paradigm of knowledge and power (Guardiola). At the same time, from an intersectional perspective, the conference will focus on artistic practices that problematize the relationships between coloniality and gender, race, class, and sexuality, among others, by examining the upheavals caused in Amerindian societies by the imposition of a Eurocentric gender system, or by foregrounding the experiences of racialized women and racialized LGBTQIA+ people.

Awareness of the universalist character of hegemonic Western narratives, and of the exclusions and hierarchies upon which they were built, has produced a desire for alterity in Westernized societies, which now seek spaces in which to “listen” to voices previously silenced within their own discourses, moving toward a pluriversal narrative rather than a universal one.

While this openness to the Other has, on the one hand, enabled the incorporation of marginalized narratives and expressions, it has also created a dynamic that risks reproducing power relations between center and periphery and contributing to the valorization of subaltern discourse as “periphery-as-asset” (Barriendos). Within this dynamic, artistic expressions are primarily valued as peripheral art, thus underscoring their subaltern position in relation to centers of artistic power.

Torn between these aspirations and often contradictory interests, the practices, discourses, and cultural objects produced by local actors adopt all kinds of “strategies for entering and exiting modernity” and give rise to hybrid expressions that are less concerned with “preserving purity than with the productivity of mixtures” (García Canclini).

We invite researchers to submit proposals that explore these lines of inquiry, without limitation:

1. The evolution of representations of the Other in the Americas: How have representations of the Other evolved? What constants can be identified in the imaginaries of marginalized identities, and how do they differ depending on the position of the artist producing the discourse? How has the treatment of alterity evolved in the 21st century within artistic institutions or cultural industries?

2. Decoloniality of discourses and narrative/aesthetic forms: To what extent do supposedly decolonial narratives rely on narrative patterns that refer back to coloniality? Can discourses be decolonized without decolonizing the narrative and aesthetic forms inherited from coloniality?

3. Gender and decolonial/Indigenous arts: What is the place of gender in reflections on decolonial and Indigenous arts? How do decolonial and Indigenous artistic practices problematize the relationships between coloniality and gender?

4. Integration of community-based sensitive practices: Can Indigenous sensitive practices be integrated into museums, performance venues, cinema, or art galleries without decontextualizing them?

5. Imaginative work and counter-hegemony: What is the role of the “work of the imagination” in constructing new alternative or counter-hegemonic cultural logics?

6. Rehabilitation of marginalized modes of representation: How can modes of representation, artistic forms, and sensibilities that have been displaced or marginalized by the coloniality of knowledge and being be rehabilitated?

Paper proposals (maximum 500 words), accompanied by a short biography, should be sent by 1st March 2026.
The conference languages are French, Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

Organizing Committee:
Juan Carlos Baeza (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord / Pléiade), Marcelle Bruce, Roberta Previtera, Vinicius Cordeiro, Mikael Toulza, Diego Alonso Arévalo (Université de Lille / CECILLE)