CUJAH 2025 Conference - VISUAL INSURGENCIES

Art and visual culture have long been central to expressing and contesting sovereignty and self-determination. Across historical contexts, artists, movements, and cultural producers have used visual practices—spanning painting, sculpture, performance, film, and new media—to challenge colonial domination, reclaim heritage, and reimagine futures. This conference explores how art disrupts imposed boundaries, reshapes political imaginaries, and opens new possibilities for autonomy.

Schedule

9.30 AM Breakfast

9.50 AM Opening Remarks

10.00 AM Curatorial Panel

Curating Resistance | Commissarier la résistance

Moderated by Emitees Tajdari (Concordia University, Art History BFA)

Rebecca Duclos, PhD (Concordia University, Professor of Art History)

Bettina Pérez Martínez, MA (Concordia University, Art historian and Curator) | Seascape Poetics: A Caribbean Exploration in Digital Placemaking

12.00 PM Lunch

Catered by Mama Khan

1.30 PM Dark Opacities Lab Workshop

2.30 PM Coffee Break

2.45 PM Undergraduate Panel 1

Institutional Insurgence through the Image | Insurrection institutionelle à travers l’image

Moderated by Louis-Philippe Savard (Concordia University, Art History MA)

Anne-Lise Mocanu (McGill University, Honours Art History) | Icons of Resistance: Indigenous Art and the Legacy of Christian Assimilation

Alexe Grignard (Concordia University, Photography) | Dreaded: Decolonization of Museums in Eurocentric Visual Art

Yann Kwete Nymilongo (Université du Québec à Montréal, Art History) | L’image comme lien de mémoire

4.00 PM Coffee Break

4.15 PM Undergraduate Panel 2

Feminist Sovereignties and Radical Self-Determination | Souverainetés féministes et la autodétermination radicale

Moderated by Mehrnoosh Alborzi (Concordia University, Art History MA)

Mahin Sekendra (Concordia University, Liberal Arts & Art History) | Feminist Melancholy: Amrita Sher-Gil’s Paintings of Indian Brides and Wives

Sawyer Tomlinson (Concordia University, Painting & Drawing) | Using the Spirit of Ulrike Meinhof: Hauntings, Language and Traces of the Revolutionary Body in Chiara Fumai’s Der Hexenhammer

Marilou Bonfils Nadeau (Université de Montréal, Art History) | La pratique du collage féministe à Montréal : Résistance artistique dans l’espace public

5.30 PM Closing Remarks & Evening Reception