Seminar in Historical Analysis (405-0-22)

Topic

Material Culture

Instructors

Ken Alder
847/467-4038
Harris Hall 307

Meeting Info

Harris Hall room 101: Mon 2:00PM - 5:00PM

Overview of class

Topic: Material Culture

This course examines how our interpretations of the past can be transformed by placing material objects at the center of our accounts. To do so, we will juxtapose different theories of material culture with historical case studies: aka "object lessons" drawn from sites across the world, from the Trobriand Islands and early modern Europe to modern America, Asia, and Africa. We will consider such topics as the life cycle of banal objects, the politics of infrastructure, and the ways that liminal objects mediate diverse realms of experience--right up to current debates over AI. All of these will be examined in light of contending theories of material change, including commodity fetishism, the social construction of technology, the anthropology of the gift, gender analysis, evolutionary theory, systems theory, and performance studies. The class will also make use of the History Department's Material History Lab. We will ask: How does technology circumscribe and/or expand human agency? How has digitalization altered the material world? And do artifacts have politics? The goal of the course is to show how histories organized around inanimate objects can illuminate human differences and similarities across time.

A unique feature of this course is that its assignments are themselves "object lessons," in which students practice real-life short-form academic genres: writing a peer review, blurbing a book, introducing an academic speaker, organizing an undergraduate lecture, and writing a "one book" proposal for all NU grad students, etc. For their final assignment, students write a review essay organized around three/four books/articles that interpret a material artifact of their own choice.

Registration Requirements

Graduate Students Only.

Evaluation Method

A unique feature of this course is that its assignments are themselves "object lessons," in which students practice real-life short-form academic genres: writing a peer review, blurbing a book, introducing an academic speaker, organizing an undergraduate lecture, and writing a "one book" proposal for all NU grad students, etc. For their final assignment, students write a review essay organized around three/four books/articles that interpret a material artifact of their own choice. More information will provided in class.

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: REASON: Pre-registration is not allowed for this class. Please try again during regular registration. Prerequisite: MA or PhD History student
Add Consent: Department Consent Required