This biennial symposium, organized entirely by University of Delaware graduate students, provides emerging scholars—graduate students and recent PhDs from a variety of academic disciplines as well as museum professionals—with a venue for interdisciplinary conversations centering on material culture. We encourage discussion across perceived boundaries of discipline, medium, and methodology; past symposia have included scholars and professionals from such fields as anthropology, art history, historical archeology, history, and American studies. Each fall, we welcome paper proposals from graduate students and professionals early in their careers on any topic related to material culture.
At the conference, distinguished scholars provide comments on the papers and lead discussion sessions. Participants also have the opportunity to participate in roundtable discussions and special tours of Winterthur’s collections with graduate students in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, including tours of the Winterthur library and conservation labs.
- 2023 Emerging Scholars Symposium, “From Hogarth to Hypebeast: The Materiality of Popular Cultures”
- 2021 Emerging Scholars Symposium, “Animaterialities: The Material Culture of Animals (including Humans)”
- 2018 Emerging Scholars Symposium, “Hazardous Objects: Function, Materiality, and Context”
- View past symposium schedules and presenter information here.