Shannon presents research at College Art Association conference

Lindsay Shannon, North Central College assistant professor of art history, presented a paper, titled “Crossing Boundaries: Public Monuments and the Image of Female Citizenship,” at the College Art Association (CAA) conference Feb. 4 held in Washington, D.C.

Her presentation was part of a session titled “Mobilities in/of American Art” with a panel of scholars from Yale University, University of California, Indiana University and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Shannon noted that public monuments honoring women in the United States were first commissioned after 1900. These monuments attempted to validate “new” women’s contemporary demands for female citizenship by normalizing it in public spaces, and also helped shape distinctive visual representations of the movement. They were created within the context of growing national concerns about immigration, urbanization and continuity with the past. By depicting subjects with both physical mobility and transitional social status, public monuments justified a wide array of ideal characteristics for female citizenship while also signifying its highly contested nature in the United States.

The CAA is the preeminent international leadership organization for the visual arts in higher education. The annual conference brings together more than 4,000 artists, art historians, museum directors and curators, arts administrators, scholars and educators.

Click here to view Shannon’s faculty profile.