DIMENSIONS OF MATERIAL CULTURE

ARTHIST 563

Interdisciplinary study of the way people use objects and environments to express identities and relationships in households, communities, and larger social/economic systems.

ANTHRO/ARTHIST/DS/HISTORY/LANDARC 764

This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of material culture studies. It is intended for students interested in any professional endeavor related to material culture, including careers in museums, galleries, historical societies, historic preservation organizations, and academic institutions. During the semester, students have varied opportunities to engage with and contemplate the material world to which people give meaning and which, in turn, influences their lives. Sessions combine in some way the following: presentations from faculty members and professionals who lecture on a phase of material culture related to his/her own scholarship or other professional work; discussion of foundational readings in the field; visits to collections and sites on campus and around Madison; discussion of readings assigned by visiting presenters or the professors; and exams and short papers that engage material culture topics.

ARTHIST 863

Interdisciplinary study focusing on the way people use objects and environments to express identities and relationships in households, communities, and larger social/economic systems.

ARTHIST 364

Examines the history of American Art from the period of permanent European settlement through the present. Works of art and other forms of material culture will be explored and discussed within the context of philosophical, historical, social, and cultural developments in the United States and across the globe.

ANTHRO 120

Intensive study of a problem in human variability through study of nontechnical materials. Emphasis on acquiring anthropological concepts through discussion and direct experience of ethnographic, archaeological, or human physical evidence.