Call for Paper - 2nd CCVA PhD Forum

The 2nd CCVA PhD Forum update

We are pleased to announce that in collaboration with Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, we will be staging a Chinese contemporary art exhibition, Spirit Matters, supported by China National Art Fund, at School of Art, Birmingham City University, from 5 to 26 July 2024. To coincide with the Exhibition Opening (6 to 7.30 pm) on 5 July Friday, we have decided to move our Second CCVA PhD Forum to the same day. We are sorry if any inconvenience it might cause, but we are sure that participants will enjoy both the Forum as well as the exhibition, which includes works by Fan Bo, Guo Gong, Liang Shaoji, Liu Jianhua, Peng Wei and Xiao Yu. Fuller details will be available soon. Due to the change of the date of the Forum, we would like to extend the deadline of abstract submission from 31 March to 15 April Monday.

The 2nd CCVA PhD Forum 

Date: Friday 5 July 2024
Venue: School of Art, Birmingham City University, UK (In-person only event)

Call for Paper

The Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA) at Birmingham City University aims to foster new understandings and perspectives of Chinese contemporary arts, design, and visual culture through interdisciplinary practices and theoretical studies. Following the 16-year success of our CCVA Annual Conference, which invites researchers, curators, artists, designers, and practitioners at all stages of their careers to share the latest research development on the theme proposed each year, we inaugurated the first CCVA PhD Forum on 30 June, 2023. This new forum provided a platform for scholars and doctoral students from the UK, China, and Austria, among other locations, to present and engage in dialogue about their doctoral research.

In response to the increase of doctoral projects in the field of Chinese arts, design, media, and visual culture, this CCVA PhD Forum is designed as a UK-wide platform to support PhD students further, enhance intellectual exchanges of ideas and critical debates, expand participation of young generation scholars, and celebrate our achievement of up-to-date doctoral research. As a summer event to complement our winter conference, the CCVA PhD Forum aims to provide a unique space for all students within and beyond the UK, who are conducting doctoral research, new PhDs (awarded within 12 months), as well as for supervisors, advisors, and examiners, and those who are interested in pursuing a PhD in the future, to share, debate and innovate. 

Unlike our Annual Conference, the CCVA PhD Forum will not be themed. It welcomes proposals to present their PhD projects in any subject area of the arts and design but in relation to China and its dramatic transformations in the social, political, and cultural contexts. We see China as a method to encourage and foster cross-disciplinary discussion, new understanding, and knowledge production, and at the same time, as a focus to bring us closer to each other. 

Presentations should last no more than 20 minutes. Forum fee: £40. Please note that this Forum will be in person only.

To apply, please include all the following information in one file and send it to Yining.He@mail.bcu.ac.uk and ccva@bcu.ac.uk, with the email subject ‘CCVA PhD Forum 2’, by 15th April 2024. 

Information (one side of A4) to be included in the application file:
1) Name
2) Email address
3) University and Department
4) PhD topic
5) PhD start year
6) Shot biography (not extending 100 words)
7) Abstract (not extending 300 words)

Submitted proposals will be reviewed by CCVA PhD Forum Panel. Successful proposals will be notified within two weeks after the deadline.