Communities of Things: Materiality, Objects, and Makers.
Sponsored by the International Center for Medieval Art.

Object biography has reshaped the study of medieval art history and material culture studies, revealing the ways in which things and materials function in the medieval world and beyond. The 2027 IMC theme, “Communities,” invites exploration of material culture in terms of how an object-centered approach can redefine contemporary understandings of medieval communities. What can scholarly approaches that center medieval objects and materials and how they circulate reveal about their communities? How can non-anthropocentric approaches towards medieval materiality speak to medieval lived conditions? As objects with biographies, what can medieval objects say about their communities past and present?

There has been much scholarship in recent years about the object biographies of medieval things, and this session calls for papers that extend these biographies of things, including materials, objects, traces, and makers, and how they impact the formation, continuity, or breaking of a community. This session welcomes 20-minute papers exploring the roles of medieval material objects and their makers in medieval and contemporary communities, broadly defined. Papers discussing social lives of things, entanglement, and other methods centering objects and their interactions with community are welcome, as are approaches from any geographic region across the long Middle Ages. We welcome scholars at any stages of their career and encourage graduate students and early career scholars to apply.

Potential topics include: medieval objects and materiality as evidence of community, objects defining communities of their makers, objects and their role within communities of practice, social lives of medieval objects in contemporary communities, or any other approaches that center medieval objects and material culture.

Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words, along with your name, institutional affiliation, and a brief biography of around 100 words to Cortney Anne Berg (archivistc-berg.com) by September 25th.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome around September 30th. For further information, please contact Cortney Anne Berg at archivistc-berg.com