Tools of the Trade: A Note from the Editor in Chief on the Fall Symposium

Hope Elizabeth Gillespie

Citation: Gillespie, Hope Elizabeth. “Tools of the Trade: A Note from the Editor in Chief on the Fall Symposium ” The Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture, September 23, 2022.

For this year’s symposium, we chose to look at the unsung heroes of material culture. These are not necessarily the objects we study themselves, but rather the processes behind how we study them and those things we use to complete our analysis. When you hear the word tool, a myriad of images might flash through your mind – a hammer, an axe, a nail. For those of us who study material culture, tools vary from the physical pickaxe to the theoretical framework of postmodern theory, and cover everything in between. These tools are more than useful – they are the foundation upon which our respective fields have been built. They, much like other objects they help to bring to light, are the product of years of hard work, trial and error, and deep thought. 

CMSMC has been lucky in these past two years to have been given the right tools for us to successfully fulfill our mission and much more. Since September of 2020 we’ve published over seventy articles, hosted three symposiums and over twenty professional development and networking events, and have incorporated as a Not-for-Profit corporation in the United States. We’ve met and connected with hundreds of people across nearly fifteen countries, and we will continue to expand in 2023 thanks to all our readers, followers, and patrons. 

So, you might ask, what is the right tool? Well, the right tool is YOU. We ourselves - historians, archaeologists, professors, curators, students, educators, etc - are the most important tools in our trade. We select not only the devices we use to discover, study, and interpret our subjects, but also act as the mechanism through which these arguments and interpretations come to light to be used by others for further study.  We advance discussion, we raise intellectual standards, and we strive to create interdisciplinary fields that allow us to have a more holistic understanding of what we truly study.

Thus, we implore you to show just how important you are to this community. Submit your work and register to attend our symposium this year. We are a company made by master’s students, for master’s students, and we can’t exist without you! The deadline for submissions is October 14th, and even if you don’t have work to present or discuss, join us in audience to support the work of fellow master’s students in their quest; a quest to further study and understand the vast and deeply intricate fields that contribute to the study of material culture. 

We hope to see you all on November 19th.