CFP - Material Culture, Craft & Community: Negotiating Objects Across Time & Place

20-21 May 2011

University of Alberta

Material Culture Institute

This interdisciplinary conference will explore the varied expressions of craft – social, cultural and material – in past and present societies. Craft has a rich history and vibrant present-day practice, sustaining communities while negotiating cultures. Craft-made goods were and continue to be created for domestic or institutional use, for local or international markets; they express gender roles and cultural aspirations, sustaining economies. At the same time, craft practice defined and continues to define communities and groups, in the midst of global trade networks. Moreover, the flow of ideas, goods and peoples animate the making, circulation and meanings of craft goods. These issues will be addressed over the course of the conference.

Keynote Speaker:

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University

Confirmed Speakers:

Eiluned Edwards, London College of Fashion, UK

Edward S Cooke, Yale University

Janice Helland, Queen’s University, Kingston

Laura Peers, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford

Ruth Phillips, Carleton University, Ottawa

Conference Organizer: Beverly Lemire, Department of History & Classics and Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta

Proposals should be sent to: material.culture@ualberta.ca

http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/materialculture/nav01.cfm?nav01=96511