Cindy Persinger - Socially Engaged Art History and Beyond: Alternative Approaches to the Theory and Practice of Art History

Cover illustration: Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China. Getty Images / aaaaimages

Cover design: eStudioCalamar

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

This co-edited volume on socially engaged art history provides a platform for the consideration and dissemination of practices that produce art historical knowledge through alternative, socially engaged approaches. Its need became apparent over the course of the last six years during which we noted a growing interest in community-engaged, public-facing, engaged, and socially engaged art historical approaches. A variety of factors related to the political climate were converging in ways that made these practices seem not only viable but necessary given their potential social benefits by addressing inequities. Conversations about socially engaged art historical practices were increasingly visible at academic conferences and on social media but rarely if at all in publications. The scholarly weight and rigor of these practices that participate in the production of art historical knowledge indicate their status as research. This book arose out of these concerns and our desire to spark further conversation and projects in this vein.

Many people have shaped this book. We would like to acknowledge: faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, especially, Barbara McCloskey, Kirk Savage, Terry Smith , David Wilkins, and John Williams, for their roles in shaping our scholarly dispositions; colleagues Gretchen Holtzapple Bender, Rebecka Black, Carolyn Butler-Palmer , Amy Hamlin , Laura Holzman , Karen Leader , Christopher Leclere, Nenette Luarca-Shoaf, Maureen Vissat, Kelly Wacker, and Tiffany Washington, for their crucial roles in the development of engaged practices that were shared at conferences between 2015 and 2018 and that facilitated a growing social network of like-minded individuals; Erika Sowers, for her editorial support; Craig Fox for his continued conversations; and students in classes at California University of Pennsylvania who participated in socially engaged projects.