Graduate Symposium: Medieval and Early Modern People and their Things

Medieval and Early Modern People and their Things

People perceive the world and their place in it through interacting with objects. Through these subject-object relationships, people experience the potential of materials, both naturally sourced and manmade, as physical resources that can be perceived. A number of concerns arise with the use of these materials amidst acts of meaning-making. How do people use subject-object relationships in negotiating their treatment of objects to define their world views? To innovate new ways of engaging with and replicating the world around them? And how does that process continue to influence how we create future realities for ourselves and others?

This graduate student symposium seeks to explore the multiple ways in which people interact with things and form experiential narratives within Medieval and Early Modern (500 - 1700) contexts. CSULB’s Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Medieval and Renaissance Student Association (MaRSA) approaches “Medieval and Early Modern People and their Things” as an opportunity for graduate students to engage in a scholarly discussion exploring the realities constructed through interactions with their objects. We welcome submissions across all disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches as well in the hopes of generating diverse discourse.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• objects documenting human experiences
• documentation of subject-object relations through histories, inventories, etc.
• uses and costs of materials by underrepresented communities
• sustainable practices and celebratory rituals surrounding food culture
• artistic responses to institutional injustices
• objectification of living things
• emotional attachments to objects
• history of books and print culture
• social stratification through sumptuary laws
• materiality and productions of the stage
• relics and religion
• instruments and experimentalism of the Scientific Revolution
• armor, weapons, and dead bodies in warfare

The symposium will be held in-person on October 23 and 24, 2026 in Room LA3-120 at CSULB. This event is free and open to the public.

Send proposals of up to 300 words for 15 minute presentations, along with a CV to csulbmarsa26@gmail.com by September 14, 2026.