Coordinators : G. Chouard and A. Fennetaux
At the crossroads of history, history of art, anthropology or sociology, material culture has appeared as an emerging field of reserach in the humanities, leading to what some have called a « material turn ». The project, set in the longue durée rather than in a particular time period, focuses on a wide variety of objects (from textile and quilts to photographs, paintings and touch-screen mobile phones). Its aim and purpose is to explore material culture as a field and methodology. With a background in various disciplines (history, literature, visual studies) the members of the project are all specialised in different time periods or countries. Together they are working towards a definition of material culture to interrogate what this intrinsically transdisciplinary approach does to more traditional academic disciplines.
Global Matters is part of LARCA’s trans-axis research project Material culture, which studies global material circulations and the history of techniques. The project is jointly supported by LARCA, CRCAO, ICT, SPHERES and LIED.
