How did matter temper faith and natural philosophy?
How did gender materialise faith experience?
How did the non-human cadence bodies of knowledge?
Issue 17 of the Journal of Early Modern Studies interrogates how materiality and corporality informed the ontologies and epistemologies of faith and/or natural philosophy in medieval and early modern Europe.
It seeks to explore how early modern women and men created dialogic imaginaries and material expressions of faith and natural philosophy. It understands faith and natural philosophy as cultural bodies of knowledge, concerning the non-human and supernatural, that afford heteroglossic interventions by multiple contributors, who may or may not be in dialogue with each other.
Themes and Perspectives
Issue 17 seeks to explore how a diverse range of individuals and communities responded creatively to making faith and meaning in the natural, non-human, and/or material world, through artistic, topographical, architectural, embroidered, ceramic, and other material or unusual interventions into contemporary natural philosophical and faith frameworks.
We now know how ontologies of belief framed the non-human and material world as ‘resources’ for human use, but what of the reverse? How did the matter of the non-human and material world adjust or strengthen ontologies and epistemologies of belief (faith or natural philosophy), including as ritual and practices?
We know gender matters to people’s access to different forms of creative and imaginative expressions of the world – from embroidery to high art, manuscript and print, and participation in knowledge communities – and that this, in turn, structures what can be expressed. How then did the lived gender-defined body inform imaginative and creative modalities of faith and explorations of natural philosophy?
Contributions are welcome to explore this theme through a wide range of sources and are encouraged to apply innovative methodologies from across the spectrum of humanities and historical approaches.
Submission Information
Manuscripts (maximum 8,000 words, including notes and bibliography) should be submitted in English and prepared according to the Journal of Early Modern Studies Style Sheet.
Each submission should include:
- Title, author’s name, institutional affiliation, and email address
- Abstract (100–200 words)
- 4–5 keywords in alphabetical order
All articles will undergo double-blind peer review according to the journal’s evaluation form. Contributions by non-native speakers of English must be revised by a native speaker before final submission.
Timeline
- Abstract Submission Deadline: 1 September 2026
- Abstracts accepted for full papers 1 October 2026
- Full essays deadline: 1 February 2027
- Publication: March 2028
Contact
Please send proposals to susan.broomhall@acu.edu.au, elizabeth.reid@acu.edu.au, and jems@comparate.unifi.it with the subject line “JEMS 2028 Issue – Faith in the Material World”.
For questions regarding the issue, please contact Elizabeth Reid (Research Fellow, Gender and Women’s History Research Centre, Australian Catholic University) – elizabeth.reid@acu.edu.au
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