AIWAC is the Annual International Women in the Arts Conference
Fifth edition november 04-06, 2025
Spectacle and Spectatorship. Interrogating the Female Gaze
Convened by Consuelo Lollobrigida (Uark Rome Center ) and Adelina Modesti (University of Melbourne) Organized by: University of Arkansas Rome Program
PROGRAM
NOVEMBER 4
5.30 pm – Inaugural Ceremony
Francesco Bedeschi, Welcome Greetings
Consuelo Lollobrigida, Five Years of AIWAC
Adelina Modesti, Presentation of Celebrative Volume “AIWAC at the University of Arkansas Rome Program”
Dr. Sheryl Reiss, Raphael and the Ladies – Keynote address (online)
Visit to the Baroque Wing of Palazzo Taverna
7.30/8 – *Reception at University of Arkansas Rome Center
*Registration required
NOVEMBER 5
9 am – First Morning Session – The Gaze of Patrons, Collectors, and Dealers
9.10 – Kimberly Dennis (Professor of Art History and Director of the Office of External Fellowships & Scholarships, Rollins College in Winter Park, FL) & Gretchen Meyers (Professor of Classics, Franklin & Marshall College) – USA
Domus omnipotentis Olympi: Rethinking Pietro da Cortona’s Galleria Ceiling Fresco in Palazzo Pamphilj Through the Gaze of its Patron, Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj
9.30 – Johnatan Saso, Independent scholar -Belgium
The Evil Queen Dances: Spectacle, Female Agency, and the Politics of Queenship under Sophie Amalie of Denmark
9.50 – Agnieszka Ficek, Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas at Dallas – USA
(Un)Fragile Passions: Maria Amalia’s Porcelain Salottino and Queenly Patronage
10.10 – Fiona Ricklow, Independent art and architectural historian, London – UK
The Baroness’s Eye: Emma Schroder, Portraiture, and Cultural Vision in Edwardian Britain
10.30 – Ilaria Sola, PhD candidate in Cultural Heritage – University of Turin – Italy
Curating the Female Gaze: Ida Gianelli and the Spectatorial Politics of Exhibiting Women in Italy
10.50- Paula Gauss, Braunschweig University of Art – Germany
Focusing the pioneer and art collector Galka Scheyer: The beginning of modern art in Los Angeles through a female eye
*Julie Codell, Arizona State University – USA
Art Dealers’ Female Gaze: Berthe Weill and Lilian Browse.
This paper will be delivered online at 5.30 pm (CET)
11.10/11.30 – Q&A
11.30/12 – Break
12 pm – Second Morning Session – Early Modern Heroines
12 – Rachel Kline, PhD candidate in History of Art & Architecture, Boston University – USA
Subjects of Desire: The Female Gaze and Nude Figures Inside Florentine Marriage Chests
12.20 – Alexandra Massini (Professor of Art History, Accademia Vivarium novum) & Sara Patta (Independent researcher, History of Theatre) – Italy
Acting it out: ‘Isabella’s madness’, gendered role-play, and female self-projection in late XVI Century Italy
12.40 – Sivan Maoz, PhD student in Art History at Ben-Gurion University – Israel
Constructing the Heroine: Judith as Spectacle and the Female Gaze in Lavinia Fontana’s Painting
1 – Agata Stepien, Interdisciplinary artist, PhD in Humanities – Poland
Pentimento as a Language of Resistance: Hidden Feminine Narratives in the Layers of the Image
1.20 /1.30 – Q&A
1.30 /2.30 – *Lunch Break
2.30 pm – First Afternoon Session – Penned Legacies: The Gaze into Memory, Language and Gender
2.40 – Alessia Muroni, Independent researcher – Italy
Gli occhi di un’artista: l’arte, la vita, il mondo, nel lavoro e nelle memorie di Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun
3 – Emma Quiriconi, PhD student in Languages, Culture and Modern Societies – Ca’ Foscari University, Venice – Italy
Spectacular Modesty: Sarah Fielding and the Rhetoric of Reputation
3.20 – Camilla Fabretti Campagnol, Independent scholar – Italy
Seeing Her in Style: Lidia Dosio De Liguoro, Lidel, and the Fashioning of the Female Gaze in Fascist Italy
3.40 – Fabienne Dumont, Université Jean-Monnet-Saint-Etienne – France
Françoise d’Eaubonne’s feminist perspective in «Histoire de l’art et lutte des sexes» (1978)
4 – Allison Belzer, Professor of History, Georgia Southern University – USA
Reversing the Gaze: Amelia Almagià Ambron’s Portraits of Male Intimacy in Early 20th Century Italy
Online
4.20/4.45 – Q&A
4.45/5.30 – Break
5.30 pm – Second Afternoon Session – Rescheduled Presentations
*5.30 – Julie Codell, Arizona State University – USA
Art Dealers’ Female Gaze: Berthe Weill and Lilian Browse
Online
This paper is delivered online as part of The Gaze of Patrons, Collectors, and Dealers’ session
It’s been re-scheduled due to the time difference between US and Italy
*5.50 – Irene Calvi (PhD student, Department of Arts, University of Bologna) and Pasquale Fameli (Associate Professor, University of Bologna) – Italy
Cyborg Bodies, Patriarchal Codes: Reconfigurations in Visual Culture
This paper is delivered as part of The Photographic, Cinematic, and Performative Gaze’s session
It’s been re-scheduled due to the presenters’ professional obligation
6.10/6.30 – Q&A – End of Sessions
7.15 – *Dinner
NOVEMBER 6
9 am – Morning Session – The Gaze of Aristocrats and the Bourgeoisie
9.10 – Marie Barras, University of Geneva – CH
Sartorial Connoisseurship. Women, Fashion and Gaze in the 19thCentury Parisian Salons
9.30 – Julia Ruegger, University of Hildesheim – Germany
Between hyper-visibility and invisibility. Approaching the gaze of the female flaneur
9.50 – Gonzalo Munoz-Vera, School of Architecture, Virginia Tech – USA
An Overlooked Gaze: Mary Stewart’s 1823 Panorama of Edinburgh
Online
10.10 – Marja Lahelma, Finnish National Gallery /Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki – Finland
Esoteric Visionaries: Nordic Women Artists and Spiritual Evolution at the Turn of the 20th Century
10.30 Emma Davis, Doctoral student, University of Sussex – UK
The female gaze on female leisure – Thérèse Lessore and the depiction of inter-war popular pleasure
10.50 /11.10 – Q&A
11.10/11.30 – Break
11.30 am – Keynote Speech – Dr. Laura Leuzzi, Robert Gordon University – UK
From the body to the feminist gaze and back: renegotiating visibility and representation through video art and new media
1/2.30 pm – *Lunch Break
2.30 pm – First Afternoon Session – A Gaze on the Body
2.30 – Patricia Rocco, John Cabot University – USA and Italy
Female spectators and the female nude: creation and reception
2.50 – Juliet Simpson, Full Professor of Art History, Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities, Coventry University, UK
Nude Ambition in a Man’s World: Henrietta Rae and Re-imagining the Artist’s Gaze, 1880s-1900s
3.10 – Suzanne Scanlan, Trinity College – Hartford, CT – USA
The Art of Disrobing: Intimacy and Performativity as imagined by Esther Estelle Pressoir
3.30/3.45 – Q&A
3.45/4.15 – Break
4.15 pm – Second Afternoon Session – The Photographic, Cinematic, and Performative Gaze
4.20 – Filippo Yahia Masri, PhD student in Digital Humanities, University of Genoa – Italy
Between Stone and Flesh: Lisetta Carmi’s Female Gaze from Staglieno to Galliera
4.40 – Elisabeth Stoney, Independent Researcher, AU
Letizia Battaglia and the act of photography
5 – Anneliese Ostertag, Goethe University Frankfurt – Germany
Disorganizing the Gaze: Durational Disobedience in Queer-Feminist Performance
5.20 – Raphaelle Occhietti, Independent Scholar – Italy
Women Performing Finance. Jamming the Frequencies of a Male-Dominated Sector
*Irene Calvi (PhD student, Department of Arts, University of Bologna) and Pasquale Fameli (Associate Professor, University of Bologna) – Italy
Cyborg Bodies, Patriarchal Codes: Reconfigurations in Visual Culture
This paper will be delivered on the 5th at 5.50 (CET)
5.40/6 – Q&A – End of Sessions
*TO PARTICIPATE IN THE WELCOME RECEPTION, LIGHT LUNCH, AND DINNER, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.
REGISTRATION CAN BE COMPLETED UPON ARRIVAL, SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY.
STREAMING
UARK ROME CENTER – PALAZZO TAVERNA – Via di Monte Giordano, 36 – 00186 Roma – Tel. 06 6833298 – info@aiwac.eu