Symposium Call for Papers, 2026: Animal Materialities
All submissions were due Monday, March 9 at 11:59pm ET via this Google Form
Symposium Date: Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 11am ET (Via Zoom)
On behalf of the Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture (CMSMC), the Symposium Committee is circulating a call for papers for our 2026 symposium around the theme of “Animal Materialities.”
“Animal Materialities” invites papers that center animals as material, epistemological, and political actors rather than symbolic backdrops within human histories. As the field increasingly attends to the agency and ‘thingness’ of objects, it is equally important to remember that humans do not share the world with things alone. Agency theory, as noted by scholar Jennifer Roberts, refuses, “any absolute ontological distinction between humans and things. Objects are not and never have been separate from and subordinate to humans, but something closer to collaborators.” Animals are as integral to human history as objects, and perhaps even more visibly so, as they possess their own vital agencies that actively shape how they move through and transform the world through their bodies, labor, and byproducts.
In order to broaden the scope and potential for scholarly inquiry, “Animal Materialities” asks scholars to engage with animals in material culture. What happens to our understanding or interpretation of an object or a work of art when we not only see, but engage, the animal? At the heart of this topic is an assertion that the lives and presence of animals in cultural production is fundamentally related to the history of humanity and as such, deserves due attention in the field.
CMSMC accepts submissions from master’s scholars (those earning or possessing a master’s degree). We are also open to the work of PhD students who are in their coursework and working towards an MA in their program. PhD candidates and higher are not eligible.
CMSMC welcomes papers discussing material culture from history, archaeology, art history, museum studies, and other related fields. Various types of work are welcome, including works in progress, book chapters, interdisciplinary approaches, exhibitions, and more. Proposals for the symposium will be accepted until Monday, March 9, 2026 at 11:59pm ET.
Submission Guidelines
In order to submit a proposal to CMSMC, you will need to provide an abstract (up to 350 words), a partial bibliography, and a CV. Please submit materials via this Google Form (https://forms.gle/PSdXfzTaAQN4znP79). All submissions should be cited in the Chicago Manual of Style. Applicants will be notified of acceptance or rejection during the week of March 18th, following a review of all submissions.
Criteria
All pieces for the 2026 symposium must revolve around the theme Animal Materialites. The presentation should be roughly, but not exceed, 15 minutes and have a visual component (Powerpoint, Google Slides, etc.); this equates to roughly a 2,000 - 2,500 word paper (or 10 pages double spaced).
Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:
Animal bodies as material agents: flesh, bone, hide, hair, feather, and their afterlives
Animals as laborers: work, exploitation, training, care, and resistance
Animal agency and co-presence within human–nonhuman collectives
Animals in museums, scientific collections, and exhibition practices
Indigenous relationships to animals: kinship, sovereignty, knowledge, and reciprocity
Visualizing animal agency in art, material culture, and media
Zooarchaeology and faunal analysis
Animals as epistemological actors: how animals produce, transmit, or disrupt knowledge
Movement and mobility: migration, circulation, captivity, and forced displacement of animals
Animals and environments: landscape, ecology, and multispecies worlds
Human–animal relationships: care, affection, violence, and dependency
Commodification and consumption: animals as goods, resources, and property
Temporality and animal life: lifespan, extinction, futurity, and deep time
Posthumanism, new materialism, and multispecies theory
Animals and resistance to humanist narratives of agency and meaning
The mission of the Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture (CMSMC) is to provide a platform for emerging master’s scholars, who are at a crucial point in their academic careers, to publish their work and contribute to the expanding field of Material Culture. CMSMC seeks to foster interdisciplinary discussions and address a diverse pool of topics. The Coalition desires to amplify emerging voices who can bring fresh and diverse perspectives to the field.
CMSMC looks forward to receiving proposals in response to the call, and is happy to respond to inquiries from interested parties. Questions may be emailed to admin@cmsmc.org. Please visit our website, cmsmc.org, for more information about the 2026 symposium and registration.