CfP: Journal of Design History Special Issue - Locating Design Exchanges in Latin America and the Caribbean
Type: Call for Papers
Date: January 9, 2017
Location: United Kingdom
Subject Fields: Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Latin American and Caribbean History / Studies
Journal of Design History Special Issue
Locating Design Exchanges in Latin America and the Caribbean
Guest
editors: Patricia Lara-Betancourt (Modern Interiors Research Centre,
Kingston University, London, UK) & Livia Rezende (History of Design
Programme, Victoria & Albert Museum/Royal College of Art, London,
UK)
Call for Papers
The Journal of
Design History is calling for submissions to a special volume of
research articles on Locating Design Exchanges in Latin America and the
Caribbean (LAC) to be published in 2018. Its aim is to unearth
exchanges, connections and comparisons in design and material culture
among Latin American and Caribbean nations and between the region and
other global geographies since 1800.
With 626 million inhabitants
who speak mostly Spanish and Portuguese, but also English, German,
Dutch, Italian and many native languages, the Latin American and
Caribbean (LAC) region is a culturally rich area whose economic
prosperity, social movements, biodiversity and natural resources have
drawn international interest recently. Compared to other parts of the
world, it has performed well after the 2008 financial crisis and is no
longer associated with the problems it faced in the 1980s, when
hyperinflation, recession and debt gripped the region. Latin America
today may be playing a more prominent role as a member of international
policy and economic organizations, yet historically the region has
always actively participated in the making of a global network of
economic, cultural and material exchange, from the colonial (sixteenth
to eighteenth centuries) exploitation of its natural and human resources
to the twentieth-century development of a ‘modern design’ ideology.
From
a scholarly perspective and particularly since the 1960s there has been
growing interest in the region. In the UK, the US but also in several
European countries, there is no lack of undergraduate and postgraduate
studies on Latin America, and the growth of design research in the
region is visible. Furthermore, key museums and cultural institutions
around the world, in their wish to reflect a more global approach to
their collections and activities and respond to growing public interest,
have accordingly increased their funding and resources on Latin
America.
Design historical studies in and about the LAC region,
although emerging, tend to focus on individual designers or design
institutions. In Latin America, the discipline of design history has
been traditionally conflated with the history of the profession and
professionally designed products under a definition that mostly refers
to industrial and communication design excluding, for instance, craft
and interiors, among other practices. This historiography tends to
replicate interpretative models commonly found in economics and politics
that frame the region as dependent on so-called centres of production,
and promote a perception of Latin American design and material culture
as derivative, a second-rate version of a European or United States’
ideal. Moreover, research has tended to analyse design historical
phenomena from nation-specific perspectives rather than regional or
global ones, hindering the study of material, visual and design culture
from a Latin American agency viewpoint, and obscuring its participation
in wider networks of material exchange.
This Special Issue of
the Journal of Design History therefore aims to bring together emerging
and established scholars whose work identify points of comparison and
connection in the design and material cultural histories among LAC
nations, and integrate design histories of Latin America into broader
understandings, discourses and narratives of design history in general.
We
welcome contributions from scholars engaging with original, design
historical-led archival research on topics related to LAC’s design,
visual, spatial and material cultures that explore Latin American
agency. We welcome methodologies that understand design and material
culture within frameworks of appropriation, adaptation, hybridization
and syncretism (of influences, notions, ideas, beliefs, etc.) that might
constitute a Latin-American specific way of engaging with global
processes of material exchange. We ask that articles engage with
in-depth critical analysis, rather than celebratory and/or descriptive
accounts. We search approaches that foreground transnational debates and
comparisons, and/or interregional or global exchanges, rather than
focus on particular Latin American nations.
Among other relevant issues, we invite papers that discuss:
•
The participation of material or visual culture, artefacts, craft
production, making processes, consumption practices, technologies,
institutions, among others, in the formation of modernities and national
identities in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Histories of
technological development, adaptation, innovation and invention framed
in the perspective of Latin American agency rather than as histories of
importation and copy
• Design practice, institutionalization and education as tools for regional development
• The role of manufacturers, commerce, retailers and museums in mediating design and material culture.The role of magazines, journals, books and exhibitions in disseminating design and material culture.
Article on an Archive or Collection.
We also invite contributions that introduce and explore aspects of a
design archive or collection as a resource for design historical
research in Latin America and the Caribbean, including those held by
museums, libraries, businesses, and educational institutions. We
encourage authors to take a critical perspective, i.e. not only
describing the strengths but also analysing weaknesses of an archive or
collection, or uncovering institutional biases and historical gaps and
suggesting ways of resolving these issues. We will welcome contributions
from archivists, curators, designers, historians, museum professionals,
and advanced graduate students. Submissions should provide information
on how to access the archive or collection. Please check further details
on how to submit this type of article at: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/design/ac&c2.pdf
Authors
can contact the guest editors Patricia Lara-Betancourt and Livia
Rezende via the emails below to discuss proposals before submission.
Please address your email correspondence to both of us. Full papers are
expected by 9 Jan 2017. When preparing your submission, please follow
the Journal guidelines: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/design/for_authors/index.html
Key Dates
• 9 Jan 2017: Submission of articles to guest editors via the email addresses given below
• Jan to 28 April 2017: Selection of articles and first round of peer review
• 29 May 2017:
Deadline for article submission via Oxford University Press (OUP)
Manuscript Central (for previously selected manuscripts only)
• Aug 2017: Reviewers’ response
- June 2018: Deadline for second and final re-submission of revised articles via OUP Manuscript Central
• 28 Sep 2018: Special Issue complete manuscript submission
Dr
Patricia Lara-Betancourt is a design historian and research fellow at
The Modern Interiors Research Centre, Kingston University (London, UK), p.lara-betancourt@kingston.ac.uk
Dr.
Livia Rezende is tutor and supervisor at the History of Design
postgraduate programme jointly run by the Victoria and Albert Museum and
the Royal College of Art, livia.rezende@rca.ac.uk
Contact Info:
Authors
can contact the guest editors Patricia Lara-Betancourt and Livia
Rezende via the emails below to discuss proposals before submission.
Please address your email correspondence to both of us. Full papers are
expected by 9 Jan 2017.
Contact Email: p.lara-betancourt@kingston.ac.uk