Women and Diplomatic Art

This panel intends to explore the multifaceted ways in which women have engaged with diplomatic art in various geographical and temporal contexts. As politics has been for long a domain dominated by men, women appeared publicly rather exceptionally as leaders or influencers. Although relegated to the margins in terms of visibility, women played crucial roles on the political arena in diverse capacities via diplomatic art. This panel seeks papers that employ methodologies at the intersection of feminist, gender, and women studies, on the one hand, and diplomatic art and gift studies, on the other hand, in order to bring to light women as creators, agents, and recipients of diplomatic art. Such particular cases should illuminate on how women internalized and negotiated politics as well as societal rules regardless of prescriptive limitations that coordinated patriarchal societies. Considering traditional definitions of diplomatic art, questions about the necessity to amend them to address women’s nuanced contribution will be posed. This panel is open to all geographical areas and time periods.