Various critical themes have shaped AAH conferences in recent years, and provided a focus for disciplinary self-reflection. We seek to continue in this reflective spirit, but rather than organise the conference thematically, the 2010 conference is a general one from which different themes are expected to emerge.

The year 2010 marks the beginning of a new decade in 21st-century art historical investigation and an ideal moment for a reassessment of historical objects, issues, and methods, as well as acknowledging newer works of art and criticism developed across disciplines, periods, media and practice boundaries. Papers that address or employ new methods and issues are welcome, but equally important will be state-of-the-discipline investigations and critical assessments that may be uni- or multi-disciplinary, object-based, pedagogical, interrogative, theoretical, or performative. While we hope that the full historical and methodological range of the discipline will be represented, and the proposal of sessions devoted to the widest possible range of periods and cultures is encouraged, the 2010 conference particularly welcomes proposals related to medieval and Renaissance topics.