ICMA Town Hall on Diversity, Medieval Art History, and 2020
Friday, November 20, 2.00pm-3.30pm ET (on Zoom)
The ICMA, in response to the events of the past few months, but also cognizant of the longstanding need for the field of medieval art history to undertake a sustained campaign of reflection and self-critique, is convening a Town Hall, open to all interested members, on Friday, November 20 from 2.00pm-3.30pm ET. The Town Hall will provide an opportunity for us, both as an organization and as individuals, to discuss issues of diversity, the state of our discipline, and the needed actions and changes we envision. The Town Hall, which is organized by the newly formed IDEA (Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) Committee of the ICMA, will serve as a listening session and forum for sharing and collecting experiences, testimonials, calls to action, and proposed strategies for ICMA members. The Town Hall is intended to serve as a starting point for self-study, brainstorming, and planning as the ICMA moves to address the biases and inequities, historically entrenched and yet recently magnified, of the structures and practices of our work.
The Town Hall, which will be moderated, will consist of structured discussions among attendees. Everyone is most welcome, most enthusiastically: feel free to come to listen and observe, or to ask questions, or to share an experience or an idea. Please register for the Town Hall here.
In addition, we want to incorporate your own ideas into the planning of the Town Hall. To that end, if you feel so inclined, we encourage you to submit a question, a topic of conversation, a personal anecdote, or anything else you would like us to consider in advance of the Town Hall. Please use the Google Form linked here. The Co-Chairs of the IDEA Committee will review the submissions, which will be otherwise kept anonymous, and incorporate some of the submissions into the structure of the Town Hall. If you would like to make a submission via the Google Form we ask that you do so before the end of the day on Monday, November 16th, 2020. Please note that the Google Form is optional, and it is separate from registration - you are not obligated to complete it to attend.
If you have questions about the Town Hall, please feel free to reach out to the Co-Chairs of the IDEA Committee, Andrea Achi (andrea.achi@metmuseum.org) and Joe Ackley (jackley@wesleyan.edu). It is our goal that this Town Hall be a safe space for the full breadth of the ICMA membership, from established scholars to beginning graduate students, to come together to talk, listen, and learn - and, it will be the start of a longer conversation. We do hope to see you on November 20.
All best,
Andrea Achi and Joe Ackley, Co-Chairs, IDEA Committee