CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Apprehending the Material World in Early Modern Britain and America

The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture invites
proposals for participation in a workshop, "Object Relations in Early
North America," on the material world in early North America (to 1820).
This workshop will be held at the Huntington Library, May 20-21, 2004 in
conjunction with a symposium, "Gender, Taste, and Material Culture in
Britain and America in the Long Eighteenth Century," sponsored by the
Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior.

Workshop participants will be asked to think about how object-driven
studies can address important historical questions. Moving through the
analyzed object to larger arguments about life in the past, workshop
sessions might address such topics as:

* Aesthetic apprehension

* The experience of the perceiving individual, and the collective
construction of meaning

* How objects structure experience

* The production, circulation, consumption, representativeness, and
symbolic character of objects

* How recovering the context of an object can change our understanding
of the historical moment

* The methodological interdependency of data-, text-, and object-based
analyses

Pre-circulated papers by the convener of each session will focus an
intensive discussion of an object or an image (or the representation of
either in a text) and invite alternative explanations for its larger
significance.

Proposals should include:

* a description of the object or image (or collection of related objects
or images)

* an explanation of how the analysis will speak to important historical
issues

* curricula vitae for the session convener (or conveners) and 3-4
discussants

Discussants will be expected not only to respond to the pre-circulated
paper but also to include in their comments questions and insights about
the object and its broader contexts.

We welcome alternatives to the standard conference paper, including an
organized discussion based on questions, observations, and revelations
made possible by object analysis.

The deadline for workshop proposals is Oct. 1, 2003. Proposals should
be addressed to the Workshop Co-Chairs, Christopher Grasso and Karin Wulf,
OIEAHC, P.O. Box 8781, Williamsburg, VA, 23187-8781.

The Arts and Humanities Research Board Centre for the Study of the
Domestic Interior is sponsored by the Royal College of Art, Victoria and
Albert Museum, and Bedford Centre, Royal Holloway, University of London.
The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture is sponsored
by the College of William and Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

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