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 welcome announcements, CFP's, queries, contributions, and discussions of all things material! To add yours, click the orange "Start a Discussion" button above this text. 

We also welcome totally new projects. If you have an idea for a new on-going feature or a one time resource for the field, let us know. We are barely scratching the surface of what this website can do and we have a great staff of tech-minded folks at H-Net. If you've got a grand idea, we have people who can help make it happen. Podcasts? Video tours? Image galleries? Digitization projects? We can do those, and more! There are a few thoughts here, but the internet's the limit. Let us know what you're thinking.

And we tweet, too! https://twitter.com/H_Mat_Culture

You can see Recent Queries and Recent Discussions below, and Recent Announcements at the bottom of the page below the scrolling "Occasional Objects" images. All CFP's posted to the site can be found in the links on the right, as can Jobs in Material Culture Studies.

Recent Queries

Discussion published by Brenda Thacker on Monday, August 22, 2016

Re: Looking for bibliography on material culture and the practice of (Islamic) art

Hi,

I would recommend a book called "Religious Objects in Museums" by Crispin Paine. It deals specifically with all the issues surrounding the public display of religious objects, but it also covers the relationship between those objects and the religions they're associated with.

Discussion published by Elizabeth Derderian on Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Re: QUERY: most recent scholarship in vernacular architecture / public art

Hi Mark - what an interesting project! Here are a few suggestions:
1) Yasser Elsheshtawy has a chapter in "The Evolving Arab City" about how Abu Dhabi, UAE has had similar struggles with public art. Citation here: Elsheshtawy, Y. (2008). “Cities of Sand & Fog: The Emergence of Abu Dhabi as a Global City.” In Y. Elsheshtawy (ed.). The Evolving Arab City: Tradition, modernity & urban development. London: Routledge.

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Recent Discussions

Discussion published by Jason Baird on Monday, February 15, 2016

Re: Material Culture Podcasts

Dr. Jon Kay--Director of Traditional Arts Indiana and Curator of Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures has been active in producing material culture podcasts. His series Artisan Ancestors has 40 episodes (so far) on a wide range of material culture topics. It can be found in iTunes and at the Internet Archive. He has recently begun hosting the Mathers Museum of World Culture's own podcast series Conversations on Culture. With students associated with Traditional Arts Indiana he has also produced a foodways podcast called Second-Servings.

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Occasional Objects series

The scrolling images to left 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.

Recent Announcements

Discussion published by Maria Angela Jansen on Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Deadline extended: Call for Host NWFC 2018

 

***DEADLINE EXTENDED TO THE 1ST OF SEPTEMBER 2017***

 

The fifth NWFashionConference (NWFC) is scheduled for the autumn of 2018. The NWFC Steering Committee is looking for a partner to host this next edition.

The NWFC was established to end the stubbornly persistent euro- and ethnocentric underpinnings of dominant fashion discourse and to construct alternative narratives. The NWFC stimulates critical reflection on fashion developments and histories.

Discussion published by Katie Carpenter on Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Book Launch: Conserving Health in Early Modern Culture and Malleable Anatomies

Centre for the Study of the Body and Material Culture

7 July 2017

6pm to 8pm

Senate House, SH261

Join us for the book launch of 

Sandra Cavallo and Tessa Storey, Conserving Health in Early Modern Culture: Bodies and Environments in Italy and England

and

Lucia Dacome, Malleable Anatomies: Models, Makers, and Material Culture in Eighteenth-Century Italy

Comments by Alex Bamji (Leeds) and Anna Maerker (KCL)

Followed by a drinks reception.

All welcome!

Discussion published by Sinah Kloß on Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Dress Matters: Transcultural Perspectives on Belonging and Distinction

Textiles are among some of the oldest materials and objects used worldwide in different manners to protect, aesthetically decorate or distinguish. What is defined in a society as textiles, cloth or clothing, however, varies and is influenced by diverse factors and cultural contexts.

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