Material. Culture. Now.
Winterthur Museum & Country Estate
Saturday, April 12, 2008

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

Focus: The symposium provides graduate students and other emerging scholars
with a venue for interdisciplinary dialogue relating to the study of
material life and culture.  Participants are free of chronological and
topical restraints but are strongly encouraged to engage with contemporary
issues pertaining to the study of objects and to give particular attention
to their own use of objects, whether as evidence, within a theoretical
discourse, or within a comparative context. Past symposia have included
presenters from the fields of American Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology,
Consumer Studies, English, History, and the Histories of Art, Architecture,
Design and Technology.

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 over lunch. 
Participants will also have the opportunity to tour Winterthur's
unparalleled collection of early American decorative arts.

Submissions:  The proposal should be no more than 300 words, and should
clearly indicate both the topic and the critical approach taken. Preference
will be given to papers that address contemporary issues in material culture
studies and that are analytic rather than descriptive in nature. Send your
proposal, along with a current c.v. (no more than two pages), to
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Deadline:  Proposals must be received by Monday, November 12th, 2007.
Speakers will
be notified of the vetting committee's decision by early January 2008.
Confirmed speakers will be asked to provide symposium organizers with
digital images for use in publicity and are required to submit a final draft
of their papers by February 25, 2008. Travel grants will be available for
all speakers.

Website:  http://materialculture.udel.edu 

Lu Ann De Cunzo, Ph.D., RPA
Professor of Anthropology and Early American Culture
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
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