The Centre for Sensory Studies is pleased to present Dr. Hillary Kaell, Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Concordia University, as part of the Fall Semester Sensory Studies Research Seminar. Dr. Kaell’s paper examines the mite box (penny collection box), ubiquitous a century ago in North America as a religious fundraising tool, especially for women and children.
Using the Methodist Missionary Society as a case study, this talk examines what such boxes reveal about Christianity and market capitalism from c. 1870-1930. It offers a more complex understanding of religion and capital that includes emotional attachments and material sensation, thereby moving beyond traditional Weberian and Marxist analyses. I argue that mite box giving was a technique for ‘doing’ capitalism that created an imaginative bridge between the immediacy of specific sensory experiences and the projections of social policies and prayers.
This event is sponsored by the Centre for Sensory Studies at Concordia University. All are welcome.