The conference will probe, challenge and expand upon the academic narrative of male homosociality through the lens of art history. It aims to establish an overview of a variety of male bonds that underpinned nineteenth-century art, and to consider the theoretical and methodological implications of the study thereof. In so doing, it seeks to build a bridge between traditional art-historical scholarship and the fields of gender and gay and lesbian studies: an interdisciplinary exchange of which the full potential for scholarship on the nineteenth century remains to be exploited.

Keynote speakers: Abigail Solomon-Godeau (UC Santa Barbara), Anthea Callen (University of Nottingham and the Australian National University) and Michael Hatt (University of Warwick). With speakers from institutions such as: Courtauld Gallery, New York University, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Lumière University Lyon 2 and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Check out the full program here: http://www.malebonds.ugent.be/program/