Call for submissions
Book series from Ashgate Publishing

The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700 – 1950

Series Editor:
Michael Yonan, University of Missouri

The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700- ­1950 provides a forum for the broad study of object acquisition and collecting practices in their global dimensions from the eighteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. The series seeks to illuminate the intersections between material culture studies, art history, and the history of collecting. HMCC takes as its starting point the idea that objects both contributed to the formation of knowledge in the past and likewise contribute to our understanding of the past today. The human relationship to objects has proven a rich field of scholarly inquiry, with much recent scholarship either anthropological or sociological rather than art historical in perspective. Underpinning this series is the idea that the physical nature of objects contributes substantially to their social meanings, and therefore that the visual, tactile, and sensual dimensions of objects are critical to their interpretation. HMCC therefore seeks to bridge anthropology and art history, sociology and aesthetics. It encompasses the following areas of concern:

1. Material culture in its broadest dimension, including the high arts of painting and sculpture, the decorative arts (furniture, ceramics, metalwork, etc.), and everyday objects of all kinds.

2. Collecting practices, be they institutionalized activities associated with museums, governmental authorities, and religious entities, or collecting done by individuals and social groups.

3. The role of objects in defining self, community, and difference in an increasingly international and globalized world, with cross-cultural exchange and travel the central modes of object transfer.

4. Objects as constitutive of historical narratives, be they devised by historical figures seeking to understand their past or in the form of modern scholarly narratives.

The series publishes interdisciplinary and comparative research on objects that addresses one or more of these perspectives and includes monographs, thematic studies, and edited volumes of essays.

A list of current and forthcoming titles in the series can be viewed at:
http://www.ashgate.com/Default.aspx?page=4163

Proposals should take the form of either:

1. a preliminary letter of inquiry, briefly describing the project; or
2. a formal prospectus including: abstract, brief statement of your critical methodology, table of contents, sample chapter, estimated word count, estimate of the number and type of
illustrations to be included, and a c.v.

Please send a copy of either type of proposal to the series editor and commissioning editor:

Professor Michael Yonan, yonanmmissouri.edu
Margaret Michniewicz, Commissioning Editor, mmichniewiczashgate.com