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 am 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.
