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. Our traditional formats for conferences are symposia (two days) and colloquia (one day). Dumbarton Oaks will cover travel, accommodations, and specified meeting expenses for participants in symposia and colloquia. We are looking for proposals that focus on innovative topics, make a clear contribution to scholarship, and have the potential to bring to Dumbarton Oaks both established and earlier-career scholars of distinction. Find out more.
Awards for Students
Advanced undergraduate and graduate students may apply for Bliss Symposium Awards to support attendance at the annual Pre-Columbian Studies symposium.
Upcoming Events
1967–1970 | 1970–1980 | 1980–1990 | 1990–2000 | 2000–2010 | 2010–2020 | 2020–present
2021–2022
Tenochtitlan: Imperial Ideologies on Display
April 8–9, 2022 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Leonardo López Luján, Barbara E. Mundy, and Elizabeth H. Boone, Symposiarchs
Heads, Skulls, and Sacred Racks
April 21, 2022 | Pre-Columbian Studies Public Lecture, Vera Tiesler
November 4, 2021 | Pre-Columbian Studies Public Lecture, Frances Hayashida
Hidden Landscapes of the Past: Uncovering the Ancient World through LiDAR
June 16–July 28, 2021 | Interdisciplinary Summer Lecture Series
2020–2021
The Empire of the Ancestors: The Wari of the Middle Horizon
May 7–8, 2021 | Pre-Columbian Studies Colloquium, Mary Glowacki and Anita Cook, Organizers
Faces of Rulership in the Maya Region
March 26–27, 2021 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium
Celebrating the Life of Colin McEwan
March 28, 2021
December 11, 2020 | Pre-Columbian Studies Colloquium, Cristóbal Gnecco and Adriana Dias, Organizers
When Cortés Met Malinche, and Montezuma Met Cortés: Alternative Facts and Disturbing Truths
November 4, 2020 | Pre-Columbian Studies Public Lecture, Matthew Restall
2019–2020
October 11–12, 2019 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Christopher S. Beekman and Colin McEwan, Symposiarchs
2018–2019
Reconsidering the Chavín Phenomenon in the 21st Century
October 5–6, 2018 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Richard L. Burger and Jason Nesbitt, Symposiarchs
Mesoamerican Codices: New Discoveries and New Directions
March 12–13, 2019 | Pre-Columbian Studies Colloquium, Diana Magaloni Kerpel and Barbara E. Mundy, Organizers
Keys to the Empire: Wari Religion and Politics in City and Country
April 25, 2019 | Pre-Columbian Studies Public Lecture, Anita G. Cook
2017–2018
Looking Ahead to the Past: An Ethnographer’s Perspective on Archaeology in the Andes
April 12, 2018 | Pre-Columbian Studies Public Lecture, Catherine Allen, George Washington University
Imaginary Aztec: Three Views of Mesoamerica’s Central Places
December 1, 2017 | Pre-Columbian Studies Public Lecture, Davíd Carrasco, Harvard University
Teotihuacan: The World beyond the City
October 6–7, 2017 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Barbara Arroyo, Kenneth Hirth, and David Carballo, Symposiarchs
2016–2017
March 16, 2017 | Pre-Columbian Studies Public Lecture, Eduardo Neves, University of São Paulo
Mirrored Reflections: Spanish Iconoclasm in the New World and Its Reverberations in the Old
February 16, 2017 | Director’s Office Public Lecture, Thomas B. F. Cummins, Harvard University
Interpreting Pre-Hispanic Peru through Its Textiles
December 1, 2016 | Pre-Columbian Studies Public Lecture, Ann Pollard Rowe, The Textile Museum
Sacred Matter: Animism and Authority in Pre-Columbian America
October 7–8, 2016 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Steven Kosiba, John Janusek, and Thomas Cummins, Symposiarchs
2015–2016
A Crack in the Mirror: Desires for Pre-Columbian and American-Made Colonial Art, Then and Now
December 4, 2015 | Pre-Columbian Studies Public Lecture, Thomas B. F. Cummins, Harvard University
Smoke, Flames, and the Human Body in Mesoamerican Ritual Practice
October 9–10, 2015 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Vera Tiesler and Andrew Scherer, Symposiarchs
2014–2015
Processions in the Ancient Americas: Approaches and Perspectives
October 10–11, 2014 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Susan Toby Evans and Stella Nair, Symposiarchs
2013–2014
Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the Pre-Columbian World
October 11–12, 2013 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Cathy L. Costin, Symposiarch
2012–2013
The Measure and Meaning of Time in the Americas
October 5–6, 2012 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Anthony Aveni, Symposiarch
2011–2012
Conflict, Conquest, and the Performance of War in Pre-Columbian America
October 14–15, 2011 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Andrew Scherer and John Verano, Symposiarchs
2010–2011
Merchants, Trade, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World
October 8–9, 2010 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Kenneth G. Hirth, Symposiarch
2009–2010
Past Presented: A Symposium on the History of Archaeological Illustration
October 9–10, 2009 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Joanne Pillsbury, Symposiarch
2008–2009
Scripts, Signs, and Notational Systems in Pre-Columbian America
October 11–12, 2008 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth Boone and Gary Urton, Symposiarchs
2007–2008
The Place of Sculpture in Mesoamerica’s Preclassic Transition: Context, Use, and Meaning
October 5–7, 2007 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, John Clark, Julia Guernsey, and Barbara Arroyo, Symposiarchs
2006–2007
October 6–7, 2006 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Gabrielle Vail and Christine Hernández, Symposiarchs
2005–2006
The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican Cities Represented Themselves in Architecture and Imagery
October 7–8, 2005 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, William L. Fash and Leonardo López Luján, Symposiarchs
2004–2005
New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization
August 6–8, 2004 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Jeffrey Quilter, Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, and Andrés Alvarez Calderón Larco, Symposiarchs
2003–2004
Classic Veracruz: Cultural Currents in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands
October 11–12, 2003 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Philip Arnold Ⅲ, Christopher Pool, and Richard Diehl, Symposiarchs
2002–2003
En Niño, Catastrophism, and Culture Change in Ancient America
October 12–13, 2002 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Daniel H. Sandweiss and Jeffrey Quilter, Symposiarchs
2001–2002
A Pre-Columbian World: Searching for a Unitary Vision of Ancient America
October 6–7, 2001 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Mary Ellen Miller and Jeffrey Quilter, Symposiarchs
2000–2001
Pilgrimage and Ritual Landscape in America
October 7–8, 2000 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, John B. Carlson, Symposiarch
1999–2000
Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia
October 9–10, 1999 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Jeffrey Quilter and John Hoopes, Symposiarchs
1998–1999
Ancient Palaces of the New World: Form, Function, and Meaning
October 10–11, 1998 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Susan T. Evans and Joanne Pillsbury, Symposiarchs
1997–1998
Variations in the Expression of Inka Power
October 18–19, 1997 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Ramiro Matos, Craig Morris, and Richard Burger, Symposiarchs
1996–1997
Recovering Gender in Pre-Hispanic America
October 12–13, 1996 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Cecilia Klein, Symposiarch
1995–1996
Archaeology of Formative Ecuador
October 7–8, 1995 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Richard Burger and J. Scott Raymond, Symposiarchs
1994–1995
Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture
October 8–9, 1994 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Stephen Houston, Symposiarch
1993–1994
Social Identity, Ceremony, and Cosmology in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica
October 9–10, 1993 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, David Grove and Rosemary Joyce, Symposiarchs
1992–1993
Native Traditions in the Post-Conquest World
October 2–3, 1992 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth Boone and Tom Cummins, Symposiarchs
1991–1992
Tombs for the Living: Andean Mortuary Practices
October 12–13, 1991 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Tom Dillehay, Symposiarch
1990–1991
Collecting the Pre-Columbian Past
October 6–7, 1990 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth Boone, Symposiarch
1989–1990
On the Eve of the Collapse: Ancient Maya Societies in the Eighth Century, A.D.
October 7–8, 1989 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Jeremy Sabloff and John Henderson, Symposiarchs
1988–1989
Art, Polity, and the City of Teotihuacan
October 8–9, 1988 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Janet Berlo, Symposiarch
1987–1988
Wealth and Hierarchy in the Intermediate Area
October 10–11, 1987 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Frederick Lange, Symposiarch
1986–1987
Latin American Horizons
October 11–12, 1986 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Don Rice, Symposiarch
1985–1986
The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor
October 12–13, 1985 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Maria Rostworoski and Michael Moseley, Symposiarchs
1984–1985
The Southeastern Classic Maya Zone
October 6–7, 1984 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Gordon Willey, Symposiarch
1983–1984
The Aztec Templo Mayor
October 8–9, 1983 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, George Kubler and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Symposiarchs
1982–1983
Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes
October 8–9, 1982 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Christopher Donnan, Symposiarch
1981–1982
Painted Architecture and Polychrome Monumental Sculpture in Mesoamerica
October 10–11, 1981 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Donald Robertson and Elizabeth Boone, Symposiarchs
1980–1981
Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Mesoamerican Highland-Lowland Interaction
October 18–19, 1980 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Arthur Miller, Symposiarch
1979–1980
Ritual Sacrifice in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
October 13–14, 1979 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Organizer
1978–1979
Falsifications and Misreconstructions of Pre-Columbian Art
October 14–15, 1978 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1977–1978
Art and Iconography of Late Post-Classic Central Mexico
October 22–23, 1977 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer, in collaboration with Elizabeth H. Boone
1976–1977
Mesoamerican Sites and World Views
October 16–17, 1976 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1975–1976
Pre-Columbian Metallurgy of South America
October 18–19, 1975 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1974–1975
The Sea in the Pre-Columbian World
October 26–27, 1974 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1973–1974
Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America
October 27–28, 1973 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1972–1973
The Junius B. Bird Conference on Pre-Columbian Textiles
May 19–20, 1973 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, given jointly with the Textile Museum, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer, in collaboration with Ann Pollard Rowe and Anne-Louise Schaffer
1971–1972
Mesoamerican Writing Systems
October 30–31, 1971 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1970–1971
The Cult of the Feline: A Conference in Pre-Columbian Iconography
October 31–November 1, 1970 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1968–1969
Conference on Chavín
October 26–27, 1968 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer
1967–1968
Conference on the Olmec
October 28–29, 1967 | Pre-Columbian Studies Symposium, Elizabeth P. Benson, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Organizer