Calls for Papers

The organizers of Material Collective’s sponsored session at Kalamazoo 2022 seek papers that analyze 19th- and 20th-century collecting and/or building projects within their political, social, economic, and cultural environments, through examinations of the financial structures that enabled their creation, nationalist and colonialist appropriation and collecting strategies, and issues of class such as the relationships between artists and patrons.

From Hitler’s “Third Reich” to Bush’s “crusade” against terrorism, professional politicians have often invoked the Middle Ages to justify their actions. But they are far from alone, for many of their constituents have also deployed medievalism for political purposes, as in condemning impoverished countries for “failing to escape” the Middle Ages.