Facing the Mongol Empire: The Role of Art History
In the vibrant field of Middle Period art history, the study of cultures across Northeast Asia, the region from the Korean peninsula to the edges of the Taklamakan desert, is beginning to stand out. In this area Kitan/Liao, Tangut/Xia, Jurchen/Jin, Uighur, Chinese/Song, Korean/Goryeo and latterly Mongol/Yuan cultures, among others, co-existed and/or succeeded one another over the Middle Period (10th-14th centuries). This session seeks to centre and correlate the role (or roles) of art historical practices in approaches to this age in two parts, the first ranging from the Kitan period through to the unification of the Mongols by Chinggis Khaan (r. 1206-27) under the Great Mongol State and the second on the varied state and cultural manifestations under the successors of Chinggis. Proposals that bridge the two halves are also welcome.
Suggested areas of enquiry include: 1) Regional and transcultural/transhistorical character — how did the diverse ecologies of NE Asia shape the arts and patterns of artistic production across dynastic and political boundaries? 2) The priority of sources —scholarship on the groups that inhabited this region have historically relied on texts for information: how are these contradicted, or complicated, by objects and visual histories? 3) Buddhism, especially Himalayan and other esoteric strands of doctrine, and its relation to other religions. 4) Hierarchy of media within art history. 5) How nomad polities shaped the roles of women, and women as role models in cultural production and the generation of value systems. 6) The problematic notion of universal culture under a world empire.
This session will be in two parts. In the first, we consider the arts and the role(s) of art history in the context of nomad-sedentary relations from the arrival of the Kitans in around 908 to the unifying reign of Chinggis Khaan, which marked the launch of the Mongols’ quest to dominate the world. In the second, we shift attention to the ensuing rapid and vast expansion of the Mongol empire under Chinggis’ heirs and successors, whereby many regions of Eurasia far distant from the Mongol homeland in Northeast Asia were now incorporated or else entered into various new diplomatic, confessional, tributary and other relations with the Mongols. Proposals that bridge the two halves are also welcome. We anticipate 3-5 papers per half of the session, followed by a discussion and Q&A.
Submit your Paper via this form. Please download, complete and send it directly to the Session Convenor(s) below by Sunday 2 November 2025:
Eiren Shea, Grinnell College, sheaeire@grinnell.edu
Shane McCausland, SOAS University of London, sm80@soas.ac.uk