Working Groups

Oceans Book Club! We're reading Ray Nayler's The Mountain in the Sea (2022).
Grab the book, give it a read, and join us for a discussion led by Alison Glassie (Northeastern University).

Approaches to Color

Or, more on the multivalency of color.

How do the combination of disciplinary expectations, research materials, and personal preferences shape approaches to (regard for, use of) color? 

In this meeting, we will  look at the different frameworks for color in arts, humanities, social sciences, and color science. Plan on an open discussion with opportunities to share your outlook as a researcher and consumer of color. 

Romuald Tchibozo (Université d'Abomey-Calavi): Plants in Contemporary Art: The Case of Meschac Gaba in Benin

Dominik Wujastyk (University of Alberta)

The Compendium of Suśruta in Time and Space: Mapping a Medical Tradition

Kamil Ahsan, Yale University

Shane Morrissy,  "Art, Authority, and the Phantasmagorias of Color at the Panama Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco, CA), 1915"

Commentator: TBA

Nuance:

Organizer: Sarah

Edwin Coomasaru (London): Plantation Ecologies in Sri Lankan Art: Gender, Sexuality and Environmental Aesthetics

Mannat Johal (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG))

TBD

Scott Erich, Washington College

Henry Noltie (RBGE), ‘Flora Indica: Recovering lost stories from Kew’s Indian drawings’

In the talk I’ll discuss the retrieval of 5, 500 drawings from Kew’s worldwide illustrations collection, their rearrangement into their original collections and subsequent cataloguing. This work lies behind the exhibition of the same title, co-curated with Dr Sita Reddy, on show at Kew from October 2025 to April 2026, which will also be discussed.

Philippa Barr, "The Divided Sky: Regulating Atmospheric Crisis in Early Modern Milan"

Kilian Laclavetine, on color analyses in tarot cards

Nuance: Lejie Zheng on synthetic indigo in China

Organizer: Elizabeth

Christéle Barois (IEA Nantes)

Embryogenesis narratives and the history of ancient Indian medicine

Sonya Schoenberger, Stanford University

NOTE SPECIAL DATE

Guillermo Pupo on trade in anatto in European markets

Commentator: Deirdre Moore, European University Institute

Nuance:  Silas Edwards on chromolithography, aniline inks and butterfly collecting

Organizer: Sarah

Mistura Allison (Villa Romana) and Helena Uambembe (Berlin): tbc

Sonia Wigh (University of Cambridge)

TBD

SaeHim Park, Chinese University of Hong Kong 

**NOTE: SPECIAL TIME! 8-9:30 PM EST!*

NOTE SPECIAL DATE