Material Matters
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Saturday, April 14, 2012

The Center for Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware
invites submissions for papers to be given at the Tenth Annual Material
Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars.

Focus: Object-based research has the potential to expand and even reinvent
our understanding of culture and history. In honor of the tenth anniversary
of the MCSES, we seek a broad range of papers from emerging material culture
scholars. Whether exploring the latest theories, viewing existing material
through a new lens, or reinterpreting standing historical conversations with
an object-based focus, proposed papers should exemplify the possibilities in
material culture research. In exploring these material matters, we hope to
promote an interdisciplinary discussion on the state of material culture
studies today.

Disciplines represented at past symposia include American studies,
anthropology, archaeology, consumer studies, English, gender studies,
history, museum studies and the histories of art,architecture, design and
technology.  We welcome proposals from graduate students, postdoctoral
scholars, and those just beginning their teaching or professional careers.

Format: The symposium will consist of nine presentations divided into three
panels. Each presentation is limited to twenty minutes, and each panel is
followed by comments from established scholars in the field. There will be
two morning sessions and one afternoon session, with breaks for discussion
following each session and during lunch. Participants will also have the
opportunity to tour Winterthur's unparalleled collection of early American
decorative arts and to engage in a roundtable discussion on Friday, April
13. Travel grants of up to $300 will be available for presenters.

Submissions: The proposal should be no more than 300 words and should
clearly indicate the focus of your object-based research, the critical
approach you take toward that research, and the significance of your
research beyond the academy. While the audience for the symposium consists
mainly of university and college faculty and graduate students, we encourage
broader participation. In evaluating proposals, we will give preference to
those papers that keep a more diverse audience in mind.

Send your proposal, with a current c.v. of no more than two pages, to
emerging.scholars@gmail.com.

Deadline: Proposals must be received by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, November 16,
2011. Speakers will be notified of the vetting committee’s decision in
January 2012.

www.udel.edu/materialculture/emerging_scholars.html

Anne Reilly
<reillya@udel.edu>