by Christine | Oct 22, 2015 | symposium |
Possessed: The Material Culture of Ownership Call for Proposals – 2016 Emerging Scholars Symposium Friday April 22 – Saturday, April 23, 2016 The Center for Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware invites submissions for papers to be given at the 14th Annual Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars held in Newark, Delaware on Friday April 22, 2016 and Saturday April 23, 2016. We seek papers that investigate the possessability of objects and ideas, that explore the nature of ownership, and that question the relationship between humans and the things they call their own. In response to recent global data breaches, information leaks, and copyright infringements, people from different places and backgrounds have asserted their right to own the material and the immaterial in politically significant ways. At stake is the enduring question–who owns what and how is that ownership exercised? Can immaterial goods like data and designs ever be possessed? What structures interfere with or uphold the right to own something? What happens when a thing gets taken away? Possible topics include, but are not limited to: The meaning of ownership of material and immaterial things Things that resist or desire ownership Exchanged, circulated, and transitional objects Pirated, stolen, and leaked things Confiscated and repurposed things Artistic ownership, forgeries, and copies The weight that rights of ownership bear upon an object Hierarchies between owner(s) and object How rituals and traditions shape the ownership of things Heritage, legacy, and ownership The relationship between property and propriety How evolving technologies challenge or support notions of ownership Finally, we encourage papers that reflect upon and promote an interdisciplinary discussion on...
by Christine | Oct 19, 2015 | symposium |
CALL FOR PAPERS The Refuge of Objects/ Objects of Refuge An International Symposium organized by: UD–CMCS and Universität Mainz–SOCUM Open to Faculty and Graduate Students of University of Delaware December 14-18, 2016 Sponsored by Universität Mainz, Germany Dear Colleagues, We invite your proposals for papers or workshops to be given at the first collaborative symposium organized by the University of Delaware’s Center for Material Culture Studies (CMCS) and the Center for Social and Cultural Studies (SOCUM) at the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany. The symposium will take place December 14-18, 2016 and will be hosted by the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany, which will sponsor travel and lodging for all selected participants (pending funding from JGU Mainz; see below). The theme of the symposium is the material culture of “Refuge.” In view of recent political events and natural catastrophes that have displaced millions and created international humanitarian crises, this term has acquired a new sense urgency for students and teachers working in the fields related to material culture studies. Definitions dating back to the great trans-Atlantic migrations of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have characterized “refuge” in mostly spatio-political terms as insular settings of escape or privilege, as colonial enclaves or postnational territories, or as secular or sacred retreats. Rather than rehearse the spatial premise of these terms, however, the aim of this symposium is to reflect historically, methodologically, and theoretically on the material dimensions of “refuge,” that is, on the way in which objects generate or confound refuge, or accompany or encumber refugees, in short, the materiality conditioning both the refuge and refugees. Seeking to develop...
