About us
Founded in 2015, ACORSO (Appearances, Bodies and Societies) is a Research Interest Group dedicated to the study of appearances, dress practices and the ways in which the body is adorned in European societies, from the Renaissance to the present day. It promotes a resolutely multidisciplinary (history, art history, anthropology, sociology, information sciences, etc.) and international approach. At the time of its second renewal, in 2026, it had 27 institutional members from 10 European countries (link to the members’ page).
ACORSO aims to place artefacts at the heart of its research activities, as these objects clarify, nuance and sometimes contradict what can be established from textual and iconographic sources. Studying them requires bringing together two areas of research that have remained too distant from one another for too long: museums, as custodians of collections whose history and artefacts they document, and the academic world, which is often more at ease with texts and images than with physical objects. The GIS aims to foster this rapprochement by serving as a forum for meetings and exchanges between professionals from museums and universities.
Drawing on the diversity of its members, ACORSO has set itself several operational objectives:
To bring together researchers from all backgrounds interested in the theme of bodily and sartorial appearances;
To help foster a shared culture and overcome disciplinary, institutional and national barriers;
To support collaborative projects led by its members;
To generate knowledge;
To facilitate the dissemination of research findings to decision-makers and the general public, with a view to informing contemporary debates on bodily and sartorial appearances.