Covering everything from Tudor tapestries to ceramics celebrating the French Revolution, A Material World is an ongoing series of lectures and seminars at the Warburg Institute that I co-founded in 2020 with my colleague Dr Rembrandt Duits.
A Material World focuses on the reconstruction of life in the past through objects and materials, the people who made them and the people who used them. Combining public lectures, seminars and live object-based presentations, the series brings together academics and heritage professionals from a wide range of disciplines including history, art history, cultural history, archaeology, anthropology, history of religion and museum studies. The series discusses issues concerning historical objects, their materials, forms, and functions, as well as their conservation, presentation, display, and reconstruction.
Image © Gordon Plumb.
The theme for 2025-2026 is Encounters. Previous themes included: Work v. Play (2024-2025), Gender (2023-2024), Private v. Public (2022-2023), Ritual (2021-2022) and Devotion (2020-2021). Taking place online, we attract a vibrant global audience, which is augmented by our social media presence.
Dr Louisa McKenzie 