Symposia and Colloquia Proposals
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection invites proposals for scholarly conferences in the three programs of study that we support: Byzantine Studies, Pre-Columbian Studies, and Garden and Landscape Studies. For more information about provision for events, eligibility, and selection criteria, please refer here.
For Garden and Landscape Studies proposals, please submit by email a project title, 250-word proposal, and a CV to the Program Director of Garden and Landscape Studies.
Awards for Students
See here for information about the Virtual Bliss Symposium Awards available to students to support symposium attendance.
Upcoming Events
Environmental Histories of the Black Atlantic World: Landscape Histories of the African Diaspora
May 12–13, 2023 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies; N. D. B. Connolly and Oscar de la Torre, Symposiarchs
May 22–June 9, 2023 | Dumbarton Oaks, the Center for Cultural Landscapes at the University of Virginia, and Morven Sustainability Lab
2000–2010 | 2010–2020 | 2020–present
2022–2023
The Enchantment of the Living World
February 9 to 11, 2023 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium; Luke Morgan and D. Fairchild Ruggles, Colloquia-archs
Radical Nonviolence, Interracial Utopias, and the Long Civil Rights Movement
January 27, 2023 | Public Lecture with Victoria W. Wolcott
Changing Climates, Changing Histories: Perspectives from the Humanities
October 21–22, 2022 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium
2022 Summer Graduate Workshop
May 15 to June 3, 2022 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies
2021–2022
“My Brilliant Career & Long and Winding Road”
June 9, 2022 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Martha Schwartz
Landscapes in the Making
May 6–7, 2022 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies; Stephen Daniels, Dell Upton, and Thaïsa Way, Symposiarchs
Landscapes of Civil Rights in the District of Columbia and the National Capital Area
February 25, 2022 | Mellon Colloquium, in partnership with the National Park Service, the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites at the University of Pennsylvania, and Tulane University
Toward Black Environmental Imaginations
CANCELLED | October 21, 2021 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Carlyn E. Ferrari
Hidden Landscapes of the Past: Uncovering the Ancient World through LiDAR
June 16–July 28, 2021 | Interdisciplinary Summer Lecture Series
2021 Summer Graduate Workshop
May 10–28, 2021 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies
2020–2021
Land Back: Indigenous Landscapes of Resurgence and Freedom
April 29, May 13, May 27, and June 10, 2021 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies; Michelle Daigle and Heather Dorries, Symposiarchs
Where Was Jim Crow? Living in Frank Lloyd Wright’s America
March 4, 2021 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Dianne Harris
Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City
November 12, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, A. K. Sandoval-Strausz
Teaching Urban Landscape History and Democracy
October 23, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Study Day, in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies; Thaïsa Way and Anatole Tchikine, Organizers
Memoryscapes of King Philip’s War: Revisiting Indigenous and Colonial Places, Histories, and Legacies
October 1, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Christine DeLucia
2020 Summer Graduate Workshop
May 17–June 5, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop
2019–2020
Segregation and Resistance in America’s Urban Landscapes
July 1–September 14, 2020 | Garden and Landscape Studies Virtual Symposium, Thaïsa Way, Symposiarch
Interpreting Landscapes of Enslavement
October 25, 2019 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium, Thaïsa Way, Colloquiarch
Plant Humanities Summer Program
July 1–26, 2019
2019 Summer Graduate Workshop
May 12–June 1, 2019 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop
2018–2019
Landscape, Sport, Environment: The Spaces of Sport from the Early Modern Period to Today
May 3–4, 2019 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Sonja Dümpelmann, Symposiarch
Learning from Detroit: Restoring Neighborhood Landscapes
February 14, 2019 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Maurice Cox
Botanical Gardens and the Urban Future
November 2, 2018 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium, John Beardsley and Anatole Tchikine, Organizers
2018 Summer Graduate Workshop
May 13–June 2, 2018 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop
2017–2018
Military Landscapes
May 4–5, 2018 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Anatole Tchikine and John Davis, Symposiarchs
Outside/IN: Martha Jackson Jarvis at Dumbarton Oaks Opening Event
April 13, 2018 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture
How Designers Think
November 3, 2017 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium
The Power of Place: Preserving the Legacy of African American Settlements
September 20, 2017 | Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies Public Event, jointly sponsored with the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum
2017 Summer Graduate Workshop
June 5–23, 2017 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop
2016–2017
Landscapes of Pre-Industrial Cities
May 5–6, 2017 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Georges Farhat and John Beardsley, Symposiarchs
Success in the City: Social and Environmental Urban Design for the 21st Century
April 21, 2017 | Smithsonian Earth Optimism Summit Panel, John Beardsley and Jeanne Haffner, Chairs
Between Land Art and Landscape Architecture: A Dialogue with Udo Weilacher and John Beardsley
March 30, 2017 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Udo Weilacher and John Beardsley
Glorifying the City in Counter-Reformation Italy: Girolamo Righettino Rediscovered
November 9, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Denis Ribouillault
Landscapes of Housing
October 14, 2016 | Mellon Colloquium, Harvard University. Sponsored by the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative and the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks; Jeanne Haffner, Organizer
Hubert Robert and French Garden Culture
September 27, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA)
2016 Summer Graduate Workshop
June 6–18, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop
2015–2016
Landscape and the Academy
May 6–7, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Daniel Bluestone and John Beardsley, Symposiarchs
Olympic Landscapes: Green and Greener
April 14, 2016 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Mary Margaret Jones
Film Screening: Containment
March 23, 2016 | Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies and Garden and Landscape Studies, in collaboration with the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital
Frontiers in Urban Landscape Research
November 20, 2015 | Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies Graduate Workshop
The Monster in the Garden: Early Modern Landscape Design and the Grotesque
October 15, 2015 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Luke Morgan, Monash University
2014–2015
River Cities: Historical and Contemporary
May 8–9, 2015 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Thaïsa Way, Symposiarch
Culture, History, and Context: Inspiring Contemporary Landscapes
April 30, 2015 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Thomas Woltz, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Landscape and Sacred Architecture in Pre-Modern South Asia
November 14, 2014 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium, John Beardsley and Subhashini Kaligotla, Colloquiarchs
2013–2014
Sound and Scent in the Garden
May 9–10, 2014 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, D. Fairchild Ruggles, Symposiarch
How to Read the Chinese Garden? Qianlong Emperor’s Retreat in the Forbidden City
March 20, 2014 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Eugene Wang, Harvard University
Travel and Translation
November 1, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium
Le Notre and Versailles in Modernity (20th to 21st Centuries)
September 23, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Georges Farhat, University of Toronto
2012–2013
Cultural Landscape Heritage in Sub-Saharan Africa
May 10–11, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium
Gardens and the Work of Environmental Memory
April 11, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Lawrence Buell, Harvard University; Sponsored by the Director’s Office
The Future of Mud: A Tale of Houses and Lives in Djenne
March 21, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Film Screening, Susan Vogel, Director; in collaboration with the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital
Working with Farrand/Farrand at Work
March 8, 2013 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium
History and Memory in the Manchu Imperial Park of Bishu Shanzhuang
December 5, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Stephen Whiteman, A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, CASVA
Management and Conservation in the Historic Villas and Gardens of Rome
November 14, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Informal Talk, Alberta Campitelli, Director of the City of Rome’s Office of Historic Villas and Parks
2011–2012
Food and the City
May 4–5, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Dorothée Imbert, Symposiarch
Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot, Cloud Terrace Installation
April 5, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture
Before the Memorial
February 8, 2012 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Peter Walker, Principal, PWP Landscape Architecture
Landscapes of Enchantment: Cosmology, Ritual and Ideas of Place in the Ancient Yaruba City-State
September 22, 2011 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Suzanne Blier, Harvard University
2010–2011
Technology and the Garden
May 6–7, 2011 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; Published 2014
University of Pennsylvania
Lawrence Halprin (1916–2009)
December 11, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium; In Collaboration with Landscape Journal; Published in Landscape Journal 31, nos. 1–2 (2012).
Primitive Ways in an Accelerated World
September 21, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Artist’s Talk, Patrick Dougherty
2009–2010
Designing Wildlife Habitats
May 14–15, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, John Beardsley and Alexander Felson, Symposiarchs; Published 2013
Working in Mughal Paradise: Restoring Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi & Bagh-e Babur, Kabul
April 19, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Ratish Nanda, Projects Director, Aga Khan Trust for Culture
Museum Sculpture Gardens: A Brief Illustrated History
March 25, 2010 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture and Film Screening, John Walsh, Director Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Museum
A Second Suburb: The Landscape of Levittown, PA
November 18, 2009 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Dianne Harris, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
biglittleskipthemiddle
October 1, 2009 | Garden and Landscape Studies Vaslef Public Lecture, Ken Smith, Principal, Ken Smith Landscape Architect
2008–2009
The Interlacing of Words and Things in Gardens and Landscapes: Beyond Nature and Culture
May 8–9, 2009 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium, Stephen Bann, Symposiarch; Published 2012
Wild Urban Plants
March 30, 2009 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Peter del Tredici, Harvard University
Sustaining Beauty: The Performance of Appearance
December 4, 2008 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Beth Meyer, University of Virginia
The New Vernacular: Redefining Urbanity in Contemporary China
October 1, 2008 | Garden and Landscape Studies Public Lecture, Kongjian Yu, Peking University
2007–2008
Recent Issues in Italian Garden Studies: Sources, Methods, and Theoretical Perspectives
2007 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; Published 2011
Middle East Garden Traditions: Unity and Diversity; Questions, Methods, and Resources in a Multicultural Perspective
Spring 2007 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; Cosponsored by the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; Published 2007
2006–2007
Archaeology of Garden Imagination
Spring 2006 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; Cosponsored by The Huntington; Published 2008
2005–2006
Existence and Experience in Contemporary Garden Design
May 4–7, 2005 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium
2004–2005
Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations, and Cultural Changes
2004 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution of Botany and the United States Botanical Garden
2003–2004
Lay Ritual Practices in Gardens and Landscapes
2003 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium
2002–2003
Gardens of the Roman Empire
February 14–15, 2003 | Joint Byzantine Studies and Garden and Landscape Studies Colloquium
Sacred Ritual Practices in Gardens and Landscapes
2002 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium
2001–2002
Social Reception of Baroque Gardens
May 11–12, 2001 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium; Published 2005
2000–2001
Landscape Design and the Experience of Motion
2000 | Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium