[Commlist] CFP | AAH2026 | Practice Research at 100: Writing the long history of practice research in the art school

*CALL FOR PAPERS - Session at AAH 2026, Cambridge, UK*
https://forarthistory.org.uk/events/cfp-association-for-art-history-2026-annual-conference/ 
<https://forarthistory.org.uk/events/cfp-association-for-art-history-2026-annual-conference/>
*
*
*Practice Research at 100: Writing the long history of practice research 
in the art school*

The emergence of practice research in art schools in the UK is 
frequently traced to early definitions of practice-led research (e.g. 
Frayling 1993) or the inclusion of ‘practical outputs’ in the 2001 
Research Assessment Exercise (HERO 1999). However, the first recorded 
creative practice PhD dissertation in the United States was awarded in 
1929, and subsequent to this US education leaders debated the role of 
practice doctorates at regular intervals (Fanning 1940; Koch 1941; 
Huntly 1941; Weller et al 1960; Gertler and Meltzer 1970), alongside 
occasional calls to ‘express research as art’ (Jeffers 1993). These 
periodic returns suggest that there is a richer and deeper international 
history to be written on the emergence of the idea of creative practice 
as research in art, and on the conditions that led to the flourishing of 
ideas and opportunities in the 1990s and early 2000s.

This session invites papers that contribute to the longer history of 
practice research in the art school up to the 1990s. Suggested areas of 
focus include (but are not limited to):

  *
    early debates in international higher education;
  *
    international and transnational emergence of theories of practice or
    creative research;
  *
    the impact and influence of structural changes in the educational
    landscape for art schools;
  *
    the influence of key theories, texts, events and dialogues;
  *
    case studies and examples of practice research before the 1990s; and
  *
    the changing role of the art professor.


Particularly encouraged are papers that explore the longer history of 
practice research beyond the Anglophone.

Submit your Paper via this form: 
https://app.box.com/s/e1r529tdk6ef6ycfc6gqkxnry9bn4e0u 
<https://app.box.com/s/e1r529tdk6ef6ycfc6gqkxnry9bn4e0u>
Please download, complete and send it directly to the Session 
Convenor(s) below by Sunday 2 November 2025:

Damian Sutton, Coventry University, (ac2719 /at/ coventry.ac.uk)

Sian Vaughan, Birmingham City University, (Sian.Vaughan /at/ bcu.ac.uk)

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