Material Matters 2025 Issue, Call for Papers:

“Memory and Material Culture”

All submissions and proposals are due Friday, June 6, 2025 at 11:59pm ET

Submit here via this Google Form (https://forms.gle/qGXR9ovj5j2A7oNP8)

The editors of the Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture (CMSMC), a non-profit online publication about material culture run by fellow master’s scholars, invite submissions around the theme of “Memory and Material Culture” for our 2025 issue of Material Matters. 

Scholar Tiya Miles has written, “Things become bearers of memory and information, especially when enhanced by stories that expand their capacity to carry meaning.” Material culture is intimately connected with memory, both individual and collective. Family heirlooms make one recall a deceased loved one, a souvenir serves as a memento from a trip, or an artifact can become a mnemonic device for an important era of a community’s history. Objects are tangible reminders of the past, and shape our thinking about the present and future. Human memory may fade while things live on. One single artifact may represent multiple memories and meanings. 

“Memory and Material Culture” asks how do objects embody memory? How can this change over time? What stories are embedded within everyday items? Do these material memories recover forgotten history? Do they align with existing collective narratives? How does cultural heritage manifest through tangible objects? How do power dynamics influence the creation and interpretation of material culture? What is the interaction of memory and materiality- do objects themselves have a memory? 

The growing scholarship on the interplay of material culture and memory offers new avenues to explore the creation, interaction, and interpretation of artifacts. “Memory and Material Culture” encourages scholars from a variety of disciplines to consider how remembering, or forgetting, interacts with tangible things. From archaeology to art history, performance studies to ethnic studies, we welcome work from diverse fields to explore material culture and memory’s interrelation. 

We accept submissions from master’s scholars (those earning or possessing a master’s degree). CMSMC is 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.

This issue will build upon our 2025 “Memory and Material Culture” symposium held on April 5, 2025. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:  

  • Personal memory: the memory of biography/individuals 

  • Collective memory: the memory of history, shared information tied to group identity

  • Popular memory: how the public remembers and views certain events, and objects associated with them, including pop culture artifacts

  • Nationalism and symbolic objects 

  • Wartime artifacts, trauma, grief, and recovery 

  • Landscapes as repositories for collective memory 

  • Forgetting, neglecting, and detachment from memories and objects

  • “Stolen” memory- expulsion, exclusion, manipulation, and propaganda 

  • Collection and recollection: regaining memories through material culture

  • Affect theory, memory, and “scriptive” things

  • Nostalgic artifacts and the desire to “return to the past”

  • Museum display practices and the role of memory in cultural heritage

  • Knowledge and memory: generational knowledge, craft and memory, Indigenous knowledge and memory

  • False memory: myth-making, deception, illusion, and delusion

  • Psychology and memory; cognitive science and related objects  

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. Furthermore, CMSMC is dedicated to disseminating information that is publicly accessible while maintaining rigorous academic standards.

Submission Guidelines

We invite full submissions for:

  • Scholarly articles (1,500 to 5,000 words)

    • Full draft

    • Original research

We invite proposals (200 words max) for the following pieces:

  • Exhibition reviews (500-750 words) 

    • Ideally exhibitions currently on display or recently closed

  • Book reviews (500-1,000 words) 

    • Ideally reviews of recent books and catalogues

  • Research on the rise (1500 words) 

    • Short, informal works that highlight ongoing research

Please submit via this Google Form (https://forms.gle/qGXR9ovj5j2A7oNP8). When submitting, please remember:

  • All submissions and proposals are due Friday, June 6, 2025 at 11:59pm ET

  • Text must be in the form of a Word document

  • All submissions should be cited in the Chicago Manual of Style

  • We ask that images are limited to 10 images per piece, unless otherwise approved, and it is the author’s responsibility to have image permissions before publication 

  • Please also include a recent CV and a brief 50-word bio

Authors will be notified of the acceptance of their submission or proposal by late June/early July, for publication in October 2025. Please note that authors are responsible for obtaining all image copyright releases prior to publication.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Editor-in-Chief, Hope Gillespie, at admin@cmsmc.org.