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 orange "Start a Discussion" button above this text. 

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.

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

Recent Announcements and other activity appear below. All CFP's posted to the site can be found in the links on the right, as can Jobs in Material Culture Studies.

Recent Announcements

Discussion published by Jennifer Black on Tuesday, December 8, 2020

H-Net Job guide digest, 8 Dec edition

The following jobs were posted to the H-Net Job Guide from
30 November 2020 to  7 December 2020.  These job postings are included here based on the categories selected by the list editors for H-Material-Culture.  See the H-Net Job Guide website at
http://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.



ARCHAEOLOGY

Discussion published by Meghan Vicks on Tuesday, December 8, 2020

The Work of Art in the Age of the Automaton--An online course enrolling now for Jan 2021

Hi all,
I am writing to share info about an online seminar-style course that may be of interest:
 
The Work of Art in the Age of the Automaton, January 7–28, 2021; Thursdays 6–8pm ET; 4 online class sessions over a period of 4 weeks; enrollment is open but limited to the first 20 students.
 
Course descriptio
Discussion published by Alison Fox on Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism-open access download

***We apologise for any cross-posting***

 

UCL Press is pleased to announce a new open access book that is likely to be of interest to list subscribers: ‘Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism’, edited by Susannah Bunce, Nicola Livingstone, Loren March, Susan Moore, and Alan Walks.

Discussion published by Alexey Golubev on Sunday, November 22, 2020

New book: The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia by Alexey Golubev

The Things of Life represents a new perspective on material culture in the fomer Second World through a social and cultural history of material objects and spaces during the late socialist era. It traces the biographies of Soviet things, examining how the material world of the late Soviet period influenced Soviet people's gender roles, habitual choices, social trajectories, and imaginary aspirations.

Discussion published by Alessandra Benedicty on Friday, November 13, 2020

First Americans exhibit artists in conversation -  Elizabeth James Perry, Jacob Meders, Shelley Niro, Yatika Starr Fields, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie

he event is features 5 artists and co-curator Joe Horse Capture. See below.

 

With all best wishes, and should you have any questions, please do not hesitate.

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.

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 Queries

Discussion published by John McCarthy on Monday, January 8, 2018

Confidentiality of Site Locations vs Public Interpretation

Archaeologists, having seen lots of destruction of sites due to looting, some of a commercial (rather than hobbyist) scale, tend to want to hold all information about archaeological sites (location, contents, etc.) as confidential, actually, as secret.  While this is somewhat understandable, this presents a significant challenge to public education and interpretation on archaeologial topics where often “place” and site content are key aspects of a site’s interpretive value.

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.