2025 Symposium: Devouring Time

HASA is thrilled to announce the theme for our Eleventh Annual Undergraduate Symposium, Devouring Time.

“Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws,  

And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;  

Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws, 

And burn the long-liv’d Phoenix in her blood;”  

- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 19

The nature of beauty has long been celebrated as a fleeting moment of happiness within life’s inexhaustible fullness, although necessarily bound by decay and death’s inevitability. Devouring Time delves into the transitory nature of beauty and the tension between its brief enchantment and the looming reality of destruction. From antiquity to contemporary times, artists have pondered time’s passage, capturing the vibrancy of youth and the subsequent melancholic decline.

This symposium explores these multifaceted representations of beauty and time in art. How do art and its creators confront or resist inevitable decay? How is the ephemeral nature of beauty immortalized in our culture? From conservation practices to depictions of decay, we welcome you to explore how time encapsulates and transforms art’s beauty.

How you can get involved with the symposium

Submit your paper to be presented

Deadline to submit:

January 6, 2025