Latin American Studies Association LASA 2012 in San Francisco, California

Street Reader (Valencia Street, Mission District, San Francisco), by Sangroncito

Call For Papers

"The Nature of Things: Material Culture in Latin America"

Deadline: March 18, 2011

LASA May 23-26, 2012

Material culture has played a central role in Latin American history and in the definition of national identities, especially when it has taken the form of objects and commodities. Nevertheless, the links between material culture and cultural production in Latin America pertain to an area of study that is relatively unexplored. The aim of this panel is to examine the relationship between the circulation of material objects and Latin American literature and cinema, by analyzing those spaces where culture and the world of material objects interacts.

The topics of the panel include, but are not limited to: subject/object relationship; commodity fetishism; fashion; theories/philosophies of technology; theories of collecting; thing theory; affect and objects; animate objects.

Please send 250 word abstracts and brief biographical statements (English or Spanish) to Sandra Navarro, svnavar@emory.edu. or Laura Gandolfi, gandolfi@princeton.edu

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