On Thursday 25th and Friday 26th of January the Humanities Department of the Open University the Netherlands organizes the international conference ‘The Icon as Cultural Model: Past, Present and Future’. The conference brings together scholars from various disciplines such as art history, literary studies, media studies, philosophy and history, to stimulate interdisciplinary reflection on how the study of cultural icons may contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of culture in general. How do specific historical events, persons or places become iconic? How do artifacts such as novels, paintings, sculptures, and films construct iconic images of the past and/or future? Who attributes power to the icon? How, why and by whom is its cultural meaning altered? And why at present does the search, and explication of, cultural models occurs to be highly relevant?

Keynote speakers are:

• prof. Kees Ribbens (NIOD/Erasmus University)
• prof. Ann Rigney (Literary Studies, Utrecht University)
• prof. Jeroen Stumpel (Art History, Utrecht University)
• prof. Ginette Vincendeau (Film Studies, King’s College London).

The conference takes place in Amsterdam and is supported by NICA (Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis).

See the website for more information on the program and the registration form

We hope to welcome you in January!

Questions? Contact Marieke Winkler via marieke.winkler@ou.nl