The Association for Art History’s 2026 Annual Conference at the University of Cambridge began today and it included a roundtable focused on the challenge faced by museums and collections containing looted artefacts stolen during the colonial period or the methodologies used in art history and museums to frame theses objects and their resonance today. This session included some amazing contributions from #TuvaMossin from the University of Bergen, #Olena Bogdanova on artefacts from Ukraine in Russian collections, #CarlaKessler from the Courtauld Institute on wider theoretical points related to decolonizing Art History, #SedaÖznal from Loughborough University on the Odalisque figure, #AlexandraFraser from the University of Chicago on migratory history and decolonization, #ZhiZhiChia from Freie Universität Berlin and a painting by Chinese artist Pan Yuliang, #PatriciaLopezSanchezCervantes from University of St. Andrews on Mayan artists and her research and fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico and my own research on the brand of decoloniality exercised in the UAE.

There is an urgent need for wider vocabularies in art history to reference the global majority and I am delighted that a day-long session has been devoted to it by the Association for Art History in such an illustrious setting! Thank you to the organizers and to the AAH for this conference and for bearing with my odd schedule and allowing me to attend and present virtually.

The AAH has produced a booklet on Decolonizing Art History by my esteemed colleague, Catherine Grant and Dorothy Price: click here

I am also a proud member of the Association for Art History’s Higher Eduction Committee (HEC) and here is a flier highlighting the resources that we have created for the teaching of art history throughout curriculums at higher university level.