Material Culture, Craft & Community: Negotiating Objects Across Time & Place

This interdisciplinary conference will explore the varied expressions of craft – material, cultural, social – in past and present societies.  Craft practice has a rich history and remains vibrant today, sustaining communities while negotiating cultures. Craft-made goods were, and are, created for domestic or institutional use, for local or international markets. They express gender roles and cultural aspirations, sustain economies, and express aesthetic values and skills of making. Craft practice has long defined communities and groups, and continues to do so in the midst of global trade networks. Moreover, the flow of ideas, goods, and peoples animate the making, circulation, and meaning of craft goods. These and other issues will be addressed over the course of the conference.

Keynote Speaker:

• Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University

Confirmed Speakers:

• Eiluned Edwards, London College of Fashion, UK
• Edward S Cooke, Yale University
• Janice Helland, Queen’s University, Kingston
• Laura Peers, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
• Ruth Phillips, Carleton University, Ottawa