Photo of tagines in Morocco courtesy of Jafri Ali
The H-Net Network on Material Culture and Vernacular Landscapes and Artifact Preservation will promote and support the study of objects, buildings, sites, structures, landscapes and other material cultural productions as part of the visual record of life.
We are currently seeking reviewers for a large backlog of books on material culture! Please consider becoming a reviewer for H-Material Culture by visiting this page and filling out the form to be included in our reviewer database.
We welcome announcements, CFP's, queries, contributions, and discussions of all things material! To add yours, click the blue "Create" button above and let the process flow!
If you have an idea for a new on-going feature or a one time resource for the field, let us know. Podcasts? Video tours? Image galleries? Digitization projects? Let us know what you're thinking by emailing our site editors at: editorial-material-culture@mail.h-net.org.
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Recent Announcements and other activity appear below. All CFP's posted to the site as well as Jobs in Material Culture Studies can be found under the "About" tab to the right or you can click on the hyperlinked text.
Recent Announcements
The following jobs were posted to the H-Net Job Guide from 11 March to 18 March. These job postings are included here based on the categories selected by the network editors for H-Material-Culture. See the H-Net job guide web site at https://www.h-net.org/jobs/ for more information. To contact the Job Guide, write to jobguide@mail.h-net.org or call +1-517-432-5134 between 9 AM and 5 PM US Eastern time.
The following jobs were posted to the H-Net Job Guide from 4 March to 11 March. These job postings are included here based on the categories selected by the network editors for H-Material-Culture. See the H-Net job guide web site at https://www.h-net.org/jobs/ for more information. To contact the Job Guide, write to jobguide@mail.h-net.org or call +1-517-432-5134 between 9 AM and 5 PM US Eastern time.
Hello H-Material Culture Subscribers--
I would like to let you know that my book has recently been published and may be of interest:
Branding Trust: Advertising and Trademarks in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) by Jennifer Black
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Recent Discussions
Handmade Valentine's Day cards, Wikipedia
A monthly roundup of what we’re reading, watching, or listening to this month in the world of material culture, alongside any updates from our editorial board.
February is the month for many, many things material culture, whether we’re talking about rodents and their shadows, valentines, or wood dragons. In the US, Canada, and parts of Europe, it’s Black History Month, and in the UK, it’s LBGT+ History Month. There are lots of ways material culture studies can be used to highlight, historicize, and critique in these 29 leap days, not to mention taking on
England, mid-18th century, Woman's Pocket, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
A monthly roundup of what we’re reading, watching, or listening to this month in the world of material culture, alongside any updates from our editorial board.
Welcome to 2024, everyone! The year ahead looks to be a tumultuous one in whatever way we want to think about it, be it national and global politics, trade, climate change and – wagering a hypothesis – probably in the way that people relate to their material world. Waste studies couldn’t be more timely, nor the question of “toxic” things and what we can
Dear H-Material Culture subscribers:
The following reviews were published recently across H-Net and may be of interest.
Reviewed for H-Environment by Sarah Wassberg Johnson
Sharpless, Rebecca. _Grain and Fire: A History of Baking in the
American South_. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
2022. Illustrations. x + 333 pp. $30.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-6836-9.
Review - http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=58155
Reviewed for H-Albion by Fredrik Albritton-Jonsson
Elliott, Paul A.. _Erasmus Darwin's Gardens: Medicine,
Agriculture and the Enlightenment Sciences
Hi, I have written on the materiality of the AK47 rifle among Islamist militants and implications on masculinities among them. The article touches upon the theme of the gendered object. You can find abstract and URL below:
The constant presence of various forms and makes of firearm has turned it into an everyday item among some Lebanese. For Hezbollah militants, the AK-47 is an object of humour and fun despite its lethal potential. The weapon is saturated with representative qualities – both material and semiotic, so the author explores its materiality as a crucial nodal point from which to
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Recent Queries
Hello,
I am a researcher at Leiden University, Netherlands. I am trying to build up a network of academics interested in the subject of women collectors and women in museums. The outcome would be a network of people of common interests and also a conference.
If there is anyone interested in this topic I would very much like to hear from you.
You can contact me on h.o.farrell@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Best wishes!
Holly
You might look at thethe contributions to Making Gender with Things, English translation (available on line through JStor of Objets et Fabrication du genre. Autumn, 2014 issue (40) of Clio: Femmes, Histoire, Genre. Editors Leora Auslander, with Rebecca Rogers and Michelle Zancarini-Fournel. On material culture as a source for historians of gender and sexuality.
Best,
Leora Auslander
History, Univ. of Chicago
Jo Paoletti's Pink and Blue: telling the boys from the girls in america is one of my go-to referrals for the topic of children's gendering and material culture.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/809762103
I think looking at the presentation of very young children is especially effective because they were dressed almost without gender until school-age for most of portraited history. And now you'll see some parents push back on boys wearing even a plain daygown because it's a "dress".
Best,
Marliese Thomas, MLIS
Fine Arts Librarian
University of Alabama At Birmingham
Hi Sophie,
I find that Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs by Psyche Williams-Forson (link below), is a great example of material culture and gender converging. I hope you find it useful!
https://books.google.ch/books/about/Building_Houses_Out_of_Chicken_Legs…
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Occasional Objects series
The scrolling images below are from H-Material-Culture's "Occasional Objects" series--a periodic informal examination of objects sent in by our subscribers. View the full collection, read the essays, and add your contribution here in Occasional Objects.