Visiting scholars brought to UW-Madison through the Material Culture program have enabled students to learn from the wide array of voices that make up the field of material culture studies. On April 29, 2007, BA Harrington (MFA UW-Madison, currently an MA candidate in Art History) spoke informally about her work in the exhibition, This Mango is Now an iPod. In this video interview, Harrington discusses her work on both a personal and professional level, including her interest in the relations between contemporary art and 18th century furniture. The exhibition ran at the Soap Factory in Minneapolis, from April 20 - June 10, 2007. On Thursday, April 19, 2007 Bill Brown, Professor of English at the University of Chicago and one of the world's leading theorists of material culture studies, delivered a talk entitled Things, Others, and Us at 4:00 PM in room 7191 Helen C. White Hall at UW-Madison. The following day, Prof. Brown participated in a Brown Bag discussion Thing/Theory from Noon to 1PM in room 6191 Helen C. White Hall. On Friday, April 13, 2007, Ann Smart Martin , Professor of Art History at UW-Madison , will give a lecture entitled Banish the Darkness: Illumination and Reflection in Early Modern England and America at Noon at the University Club on Library Mall in Madison. This lecture will be sponsored by the UW-Madison Center for the Humanities, and is part of their "Humanities Friday Lunch" series. On March 14, 2007,author and research specialist Kate Fitz Gibbon, lectured on "The Social Life of Cloth: Colonial and Revolutionary Period Central Asia" at the School of Human Ecology. Her talk featured rare and vintage photographs of textiles from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
On September 21, 2006, Cynthia Becker, Assistant Professor
of African Art History at Boston University, made a return visit to
UW-Madison, where she received her Ph.D. She delivered a talk entitled Berber
Women's Body Arts: The Multi-Sensory Aesthetics of Amazigh Dress in
North Africa at the Department of Art History colloquium. This talk
coincided with a three-day visit in which Prof. Becker gave multiple
lectures on her research, as well as hosting an "Amazigh Night" in
Madison featuring Amazigh music, food, and a fashion show. UW-Madison associate professor of English and material culture faculty member Lisa Cooper presented
"Urban Utterances: Merchants, Artisans, and the Alphabet in Caxton's 'Dialogues in French and English'" at the Department of Art History colloquium on April 28, 2006. Charles Hummel, former deputy director of the Winterthur Museum, guided a discussion on "Ethics and White Collar Crime in Not-For-Profits," on April 19, 2006. Attendance included UW faculty and students as well as employees of the Chazen Museum of Art and the Wisconsin HIstorical Museum. This event was sponsored by the Material Culture Program and the Art History Grad Forum. Noted American folklorist Don Yoder presented a talk entitled " Folklore and Folklife in America: A Personal View" on April 12, 2006. Yoder is a Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania. The lecture was sponsored by the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, the Folklore Program, and the Department of German, with funding courtesy of the Anonymous Fund.
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