Author:
MASTERCLASS IN HISTORY OF MATERIAL AND VISUAL CULTURE
We are very pleased to invite you to a masterclass in Material and Visual Culture Studies on May 19th at the Villa Salviati. We invite Dr. Chonja Lee, Lecturer in Early Modern Art History at the Université de Neuchâtel for a workshop to reflect with us on the current state of material culture history, and a lecture about her ongoing research on European printed Cotton Textiles for West Africa in the 18th and early 19th Century and a New History of Style and Media.
The workshop and the lecture are open to everyone. At the start of the workshop in the morning, Chonja Lee will offer an introduction to material culture studies and its current state, which means that even if you’re not familiar with the field, you will be gently introduced to it.
To ensure an informative discussion, we invite anyone interested in material culture to present their research in the workshop. Chonja Lee will react and engage with your presentation.
Please find the draft programme here and the call for abstracts below.
The EUI's History of Science and Medicine Working Group, the Bibliotheca Hertziana Research Group Visualizing Science in Media Revolutions and its leader, Dr. Sietske Fransen, as well as Professor Giorgio Riello will also contribute to the workshop.
Call for abstracts:
For the workshop, we invite you to present any material or visual historical sources that you use as an argument in your research. We welcome documents from any century and geographical provenance. You should present the source in 10/12 minutes underlining how this material and the visual qualities of your source support your argumentation. Chonja Lee will respond to your presentation, helping you foster your use of the primary source and enhance your argument. This is an opportunity to better use non-written evidence in research, so you do not need to be an expert in material culture studies – you’ll be introduced to the field and its methodology.
In your abstract (max. 200 words), please give an impression of the primary source you would like to present, the context it was created in, and what questions this source raises for your research. To allow each presenter enough time for presentation and discussion, spots will be limited. In order for us to be able to make a selection, please send your abstracts to visual-material.history@eui.eu by April 20th, 2026. Successful applicants will be notified by April 23th.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details.
Warm wishes,
Organisers: Alexandre Claude; Solveig Vanniez-Salvesen
Contact details: visual-material.history@eui.eu; solveig.vanniezsalvesen@eui.eu; alexandre.claude@eui.eu