Symposium on Arab American Art

Wed, April 9, 2025 12:00 AM - Sat, April 12, 2025 12:00 AM at MSU Broad Art Museum

The upcoming symposium Aesthetics of Solidarity by Arab American and Arab/SWANA Diaspora
Artists in the US, 1948–Present, taking place April 9–12, 2025, at the MSU Broad Art Museum
and MSU Libraries.

Aesthetics of Solidarity interrogates the way that Arab American and Arab diaspora artists in the
United States use their artistic practice to show solidarity with those facing socio-political
injustices in the US and around the world. The program includes a welcome reception; two days
of panel discussions with 22 speakers; a keynote lecture by renowned filmmaker and artist
Mariam Ghani; the exhibition Nabil Kanso: Echoes of War, on view February 15–June 29, 2025,
at the MSU Broad Art Museum, which is the artist’s first American museum survey; the
exhibition Entangled Solidarities, on view February 7–May 30, 2025, at the MSU Libraries; and a field trip to the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The Aesthetics of
Solidarity symposium is also the 2025 Association for Modern + Contemporary Art of the Arab
World, Iran + Turkey (AMCA) conference and the 18th Annual Muslim Studies Program Faculty
Symposium.

The symposium was conceived by Winter in collaboration with Professor Salah Hassan,
Director of Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities at MSU. Organized by Winter, Hassan,
Sociology Professor Soma Chaudhuri (MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context), Professor
Mohammad Khalil (MSU Muslim Studies Program), Tad Boehmer (MSU Libraries), and AMCA
collaborators Professor Nada Shabout (University of North Texas), Professor Sarah Rogers
(Middlebury College), and Professor Jessica Gerschultz (University of St. Andrews), the
symposium promises to offer an important contribution to the field of Arab American art history.

The Aesthetics of Solidarity symposium is free and open to all. For those unable to attend in
person, the panels will be livestreamed on Zoom. Registration for the symposium is now
available at broadmuseum.msu.edu/events.