Arts of the Indian Ocean Conference (In-person)

Saturday, 27 April 2024 (online) | Thursday, 2 May to Saturday, 4 May 2024  (in person)

Arts of the Indian Ocean brings together knowledge producers working on the Indian Ocean’s arts from diverse backgrounds and scholarly arenas to present and discuss research and work on the materialities and artistic expressions in the Indian Ocean world, across geographies—from eastern and southern Africa, through the Gulf and Red Sea to South and Southeast Asia and the south China Sea—as well as across temporalities—from antiquity up until the present-day. Through the examination of the creation, production, and circulation of material culture in a wide range of forms including the visual arts, portable objects, manuscripts and maps, ships and navigational instruments, landscape, architecture and the built environment, textiles and dress, photography and film as well as the digital and plastic arts, the conference seeks to: provide a platform for scholars and artists to exchange current research; map the field of Indian Ocean arts; and open up new questions on Indian Ocean pasts, presents and futures.

Register and/or find the conference program here.

The conference is organized by: Ruba Kana’an (University of Toronto Mississauga), Zulfikar Hirji (York University), Sarah Fee (Royal Ontario Museum) and Sanniah Jabeen (University of Toronto).

YCAR is pleased to co-sponsor this conference.