Upcoming Events
CAA 2026, CFP. The Islamic Material Text: Local Traditions and Intercultural Dialogue
The goal of this session is to explore textual artifacts that have originated or been adapted for use in one or more of the cultural traditions of Islam. The interplay between cultures, including relationships between different Islamic cultures or between Islamic and other cultures, will be a particular focus. Papers that address any period up to 1914 will be prioritized. A variety of media will be considered, including objects, architecture, manuscripts, and printed materials. Examples of possible topics include the use and reuse of items bearing epigraphy in any language; the reinterpretation of imagery from elsewhere to illustrate Islamic texts; the early European historiography of Islamic materials. While attending to the specificity of local traditions, the session will consider the significance of these textual artifacts in intercultural and historiographic perspective. The geographical definition of “Islamic” is open.
- This session will be held in person in Chicago.
- Deadline for proposals: August 25, 2025. NB: It is not necessary to be a CAA member to submit a proposal, but all participants will need to be CAA members at the time of the conference. BSA membership is not required.
- Send proposals (title & 250-word max abstract) and CV to the session co-chairs: Hiba Abid, Curator for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, The New York Public Library hibaabid@nypl.org, and Jeanne-Marie Musto, BSA liaison to CAA musto.jeannemarie@gmail.com.
- If you are a current CAA member, please include your CAA member number with your proposal.
For further details about the conference, please see CAA’s conference webpage; for details about this session, please write Hiba and Jeanne-Marie.
Past Events
Session Chair, “The Material Text in Latin America: Local Traditions and Intercultural Dialogue”
This session, sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of America, explores indigenous Mexica and Quecha manuscripts created between the 14th and early 17th centuries in what is today Mexico and Peru. The impact of European colonial culture on the manuscripts’ creation and interpretation will be analyzed through a variety of approaches. The presentations will also consider how the manuscripts’ creators conveyed their lived cultures, and whether the manuscripts enable otherwise ephemeral aspects of those cultures, such as music and movement, to be recovered.
Examining the sixteenth-century Mexica manuscript Cantares Mexicanos through sound studies and a performative lens, Gema Valencia-Turco proposes that the texts, influenced by both pre- and post-conquest contexts, constitute a genre in themselves. Rather than purely literary expression, they represent a type of early-colonial libretto constituting a new generation’s response to an imposed new life. George Thomas focuses on an early 17th-century Quecha manuscript, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala’s New Chronicle. Through comparing the New Chronicle with printed illustrations in imported works of literature, Thomas demonstrates how Guaman Poma appropriated their imagery and, in so doing, presented a critique of Peruvian colonial rule. Taking a historiographical perspective, Seonaid Valiant discusses Zelia Nuttall, a self-trained scholar who raised awareness of the indigenous manuscripts of Mexico through her facsimile editions. Drawing on the manuscripts’ depictions of astronomical practices, Nuttall developed a ceremony to demonstrate the “shadowless moment” sacred to the Mexica. She then worked to institute a school festival based on this ceremony, hoping to impart the significance of ancient Mexica culture to future generations.
Session Chair, “Restorative Justice?”
These papers examine questions of restorative justice after the Holocaust. They deal with restitution in Austria, the recovery of Jewish cultural artifacts, and legal processes. The provide new approaches to these topics, broadening our understanding of different national and legal responses to Holocaust losses, ultimately raising the question of whether and how justice for the Holocaust can be served.
Organizer & moderator, “Chinese Book Culture in Art-Historical Context”
Art historians Ruiying Gao and Amy McNair will introduce and explore two types of books with ancient roots in Chinese culture: materia medica and seal catalogs. Materia medica convey the healing properties of the natural world. Focusing on illustrated manuscripts, Professor Gao will reconstruct the historical roots of Chinese materia medica, which proliferated from the 7th century. Chinese seals have long been prized for their historical and artistic qualities. Professor McNair will address seal catalogues, attested since the 12 th century, and their utility to collectors, artists, and patrons. Bibliographer and book historian Devin Fitzgerald will provide remarks following the presentations.