Emerging Scholars Forum

Since its founding, one of TIAMSA most important goals has been to bring together people from many disciplines; from the academic, museum, legal and art business worlds, to facilitate knowledge sharing about art markets at a global level. In 2025, we launched a new initiative to support graduate students and recent post-docs working on/in the art market.

The Emerging Scholar Forum (ESF) is an opportunity to focus on the next generation of art professionals.

Its aim is the organization of a series of events throughout the year that provide emerging scholars, graduate students and recent PhDs with a forum for knowledge sharing, skills development and networking opportunities.

This forum is interdisciplinary by nature and intended to support students from diverse academic fields dealing with art market-related topics: art history, economics, history, museum studies, art business, visual art administration, sociology, finance, psychology/cognitive sciences, anthropology, contemporary art.

The ESF provides a structured program of events that include:

• The opportunity to present one’s work (in the form of a 10-minute oral presentation) and participate in methodological workshops which will focus on the specificities of researching the art market

• Engage in a critical peer to peer review process

• Access to mentorship opportunities: TIAMSA board members and members and access to art history/art market professionals and academics across disciplines.

• The opportunity to develop a network of peers

• Masterclass or practical workshop at the annual conference

• A special version of the Live Book Discussion

To participate, applicants need to meet these criteria:

• Undergraduate and self-funded participants: a letter of recommendation, employer if relevant (internship supervisor ok) or supervisor or prospective supervisor

• MA. PhD students: evidence of enrollment in a MA/PhD program

• Prospective postdocs or recent postdocs: PhD certificate/diploma, letter of support

• Opened to members and non-members of TIAMSA, the non-members receive a one-year free membership

Most of the events will take place online, with a special session in-person at the TIAMSA annual conference.

We aim to organize two events a year, one in the first half and one in the second half of the year.

Applications are open from May to mid-July each year, guidelines for 2026 applications will be posted on the TIAMSA website in May 2026.

For more information contact us.