"Unusual Scenes: A Series of Unorthodox Conversations in Art History" is a combined lecture and workshop series presented by the Department of Art History and Archaeology and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA).

This series reflects contemporary changes in the field of Art History and proposes new, necessary changes for the future. By beginning dialogues between art historians and other disciplines (for example, Art History and Spirituality, Art History and Ecology, Art History and Public Policy, etc.), ​Unusual Scenes ​engages multiple fields to create a venue for interdisciplinary scholarship. ​Unusual Scenes i​s an example of the kind of forum that highlights and fosters the interdisciplinary scholarship, which is pivotal to the field of art history, and will help the development of emerging scholarship. The mission of ​"Unusual Scenes"​ is to cultivate a greater network of art historians whose work expands the conception of what art history is and can be.

The first session, titled "Art History and Spirituality," will take place on September 30, 2020 at 6PM EST via Zoom. This session will engage a conversation between Dr. Laura E. Pérez, Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies & Chair of the Latinx Research Center at the University of California Berkeley; Author of: Eros Ideologies: Writings on Art, Spirituality, and the Decolonial, 2019 and  Dr. Solimar Otero, Professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and Editor of the Journal of Folklore Research at Indiana University Bloomington; Author of: Afro-Latinx Residual Transcriptions of the Dead, 2020.

This series is organized by Gwen Unger, PhD Candidate, and Julián Sánchez-González, PhD Student, Art History Department, Columbia University.

Image credits for poster: Sergio Miguel, China Cambuja desecrando al sagrado corazón (1/3), 2020, oil on masonite.