Early Modern Women and Material Culture

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal (EMWJ) invites submissions to an interdisciplinary Forum, Early Modern Women and Material Culture, slated for publication in Volume IV (2009). Contributors to the forum will explore the nature of the material culture of early modern women and girls from different socioeconomic levels and from regions across the globe. Which objects--garments, manuscripts, jewelry, toys, housewares, tools, furniture, and musical instruments--did they own or use? How did such objects construct identity, strengthen social ties, teach social or economic roles, or perform other cultural functions? What objects were commonly associated with women and girls? What unusual objects did they own or use? Were
specific objects associated with certain times in a woman's life, certain places, or particular rituals? What values, ideas, and assumptions were linked to the material culture of women and girls? Submissions may also address how men and women might view the same material objects differently, how they were branded for gender, and how they were used to mediate between men and women. Submissions should be 1300 words in length (plus footnotes). Building on such recent exhibitions as the Victoria and Albert Museum's At Home in Renaissance Italy (2006) and on such recent books as Jacqueline Musacchio's Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy (1999) and Ann Rosalind Jones and Peter Stallybrass's Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory (2001), contributions may focus on a single object or group of objects that still exist, or on references to objects in images, literary texts, or archival documents. Submissions that explore a range of socioeconomic groups and regions across the globe are
especially welcome. Editors will accept submissions as email attachments to emwjournal@umd.edu. The deadline for forum submissions is October 31, 2008.