One of only 30 symposia in the country and the oldest of its kind, the 33rd annual Art History Symposium will be held Friday, April 4, at the University of Arizona Museum of Art’s Retablo Gallery from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Organized by the School of Art’s Art History Graduate Student Association (AHGSA), the 2025 event — “Imbue and Inhabit” — seeks to address the spiritual and emotional ties to space and place that form identity.
How are place, space, and environment formed, and how do people meaningfully connect with or create them? Coined by a University of Wisconsin geographer, Yi-Fu Tuan, the concept of topophilia refers to the sense of place or the affective bond formed with one’s environment. The psychological study of space using the topophilia framework has traditionally informed urban planning and the creation of spaces designed for positive mental impact. This practice infers that individuals interact with their environment through emotional processes that produce meaning — a framework that is applicable to cultural sites, museums and art. seeks to address the spiritual and emotional ties to space and place that inform identity.
Free to the public, the symposium features graduate and advanced undergraduate scholars from Art History, Art, Anthropology, Archaeology, History, Museum Studies, Environmental Studies, Philosophy and related fields.
Dr. Chelsea Haines, an assistant professor of Art History & Museum Studies at Arizona State University, is the keynote speaker. Haines is a historian of global modern and contemporary art. The talk of her title is “Drylands: Desert as Material, Metaphor, and Political Landscape.”
“Focusing on my ongoing curatorial work with artist Tali Keren, who will premiere her new immersive video installation, Water/Power, in Arizona in 2026, this lecture explores histories and potential futures of the Sonoran Desert and discusses how contemporary art can forge new imaginaries for life both in our region and in comparison to other desert ecosystems,” Haines says in her abstract.
Other speakers are:
- Terri Reilly, “Place and Collective Memory.” Reilly is an adjunct full professor and curator in the Dept. of Art, Design and Art History at Webster University in St. Louis.
- Elizabeth Akant, “Competing Visions: Postcards of Üsküdar and the Politics of Place in Late Ottoman Constantinople.” Akant is a PhD candidate in art history at the CUNY Graduate Center and a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney Museum.
- Analisa Soverns-Reed, “Sacred Soil: The Early Christian Use of Holy Land Dirt as Relics.” An educator, art historian and digital humanist, she is working towards her Master’s in Art History and Visual Culture at Lindenwood University.
- Mariko Azuma, “Staging Spaces: Japan’s Western-Style Hotels of the Late-19th and Early-20th Century.” She is a PhD candidate in art history at Duke University with a focus on modern Japanese art and visual culture.
- Sedona Heidinger, “‘To Fill Space in a Beautiful Way’: The Influence of Arthur Wesley Dow.” She is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Art History & Education at the University of Arizona School of Art.
- Roland Swedlund, “Anotherworldly: Christopher Alexander And Postmodernity.” He is in the second semester of the MA in Art History program at the University of Arizona School of Art.
- Phoebe Charpentier (title not yet received). Charpentier is an interdisciplinary scholar at the University of Arizona, studying Art History, Museum Studies, and American Indian Studies.
- Faye Dowling, “Futures past: The hauntological landscapes of the American South.” Dowling is an Art History graduate student at the University of Arizona School of Art.
Schedule
9:00-9:20 Welcome
9:20-10:45 Panel 1, on Religion and Spirit
10:45-12:10 Panel 2, on Resistance
12:10-1:15 Lunch Break
1:15-2:40 Panel 3, on Memory and Identity
2:40-3:50 Keynote
3:50-4:00 Closing
