Materials of Culture

While the so-called material turn in the humanities and the social sciences has inspired a vibrant discourse on objects, things, and the concept of materiality in general, less attention has been paid to materials, particularly in cultural studies scholarship. With each of its chapters taking a particular material as its point of departure, this volume offers a palette of fresh approaches to materials within the realm of cultural studies. The contributors call for a materials-based perspective on culture, which has become all the more pertinent in times of climate change, energy crisis, conflict, migration, and the lingering coronavirus pandemic.

Liedeke Plate is professor of culture and inclusivity at Radboud University, where she researches the relationship between art, culture and inclusion. A cultural theorist at heart, she focuses on literature, gender and cultural memory and publishes internationally on the subject of women, reading and rewriting, forgetting, the material turn in literary and cultural studies, cultural memory, and gender and urban space. The red thread throughout her research is an inquiry into in the mechanisms in art and culture that foster or hinder inclusive thinking.

László Munteán is assistant professor of cultural studies and American studies at Radboud University. His publications have focused on the memorialization of 9/11 in literature and the visual arts, American cities and architecture, as well as the architectural heritage of Budapest. In a broader sense, his scholarly work revolves around the juncture of literature, visual culture, and cultural memory in American and Eastern European contexts.

Airin Farahmand is a Ph.D. candidate at Radboud University, where she also obtained her B.A. in arts and culture studies (cum laude) and her research master's in art and visual culture. Her dissertation project focuses on artworks engaging with the plastic crisis. Before moving to the Netherlands, she completed a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering at Tabriz University. In a broader sense, her research interests include questions of agency, representation, body politics, and feminist future-making.