The Certificate Requirements can be
downloaded in a word document or viewed here. Table of Contents: A. Sponsoring Departments The purpose of the certificate is to create a program of study for graduate students in the area of material culture. Material culture encompasses the study of the creation, uses, meanings, and interpretations of the tangible products of human endeavor. Sponsoring departments for the Material Culture Studies Certificate Program are the Department of Art History in the College of Letters and Sciences, and the Environment, Textiles and Design Program in the School of Human Ecology. In both of these units the primary focus is study of objects from multiple perspectives: historical, iconographical, aesthetic, cultural, scientific and behavioral. However the certificate program will focus on study of the object as evidence through which historical, cultural, behavioral, social meanings can be revealed and studied. This focus is clearly within the missions of both units but is a focus that has application for students beyond both units and thus is appropriate for a certificate program. Because the study of material culture is inherently interdisciplinary in nature, the certificate curriculum is designed so that students are able to complete requirements for the material culture certificate while still meeting those of existing graduate programs in departments throughout the university. This also makes it possible to draw upon the breadth of resources related to material culture in a major research institution like the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A major goal of the program is to introduce professional career paths for students with an interest in the relationship between objects, history and culture, but who are not necessarily committed to careers in academia. Many students completing this program will pursue graduate work aimed toward careers in higher education. However, many others will complete it to prepare for a diverse number of careers and positions in museums, historical societies, architecture and design firms, product design, advertising, historic preservation and journalism. The certificate is intended to help students interested in this area, bridge the academic and professional worlds. A. Dimensions of Material Culture (Art History 464,History 464, ETD 464) 3 credits Rotated among teams of 2 faculty members from the core material culture staff. B. One course on Material Culture Method and Theory 3 credits To satisfy this requirement students must take one of the two following courses. The intent of this requirement is to teach the methods that material culture studies uses, a set of tools for analysis and how they can be used. i. Art History 563 Proseminar in Material Culture: The Decorative Arts of Early America: Material Culture Interpretive Methods (Martin) OR 2. Electives: 9 credits A. Beyond the two required core courses, students are free to fulfill their specific interests through 9 elective credits (3 courses). Students must take 2 of the 3 courses at the graduate level. Choices should be clustered around a focus. For example, one strategy is to take a range of courses related to a specific geographic area, specialization or time period. Other students may choose to pursue a cluster of courses that emphasizes nationally emerging specializations within the field of material culture including courses related to museums/exhibitions, historic preservation, archival technology or product design. Students should work with a member of the Material Culture Advisory Committee to develop this focus. The courses listed in Section D. can be selected as electives. Other courses can be selected as electives from traditional disciplinary approaches and content, but must be approved by the chair of the Material Culture Advisory Committee. Students must work closely with both their graduate advisor and an advisor among material culture advisors to assure that both department graduate program requirements and certificate requirements are fulfilled. B. Internship/Practicum/Field Experience 3. Additional requirements A minimum 3.0 GPA must be maintained. Certificate course requirements cannot be met by courses approved for Credit/No Credit (CR/N) grading. Required courses cannot be fulfilled by students’ exercising the Pass/Fail (S/U) option for courses normally graded A-F. 1. Core Material Culture Faculty: Anna Andrzejewski, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History 2. Adjunct Material Culture Faculty: Department of Art History Anthropology 392: “Ceramics Analysis” (Druc) 2. Department of Art History Art History 300 Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece (Cahill) Art History 303 Hellenistic Art (Cahill) Art History 304 Art and Archaeology of Ancient Rome (Cahill) Art History 349 The Architecture and Art of Cuba (Menocal) Art History 363 American Decorative Arts and Interiors: 1620-1840 (Martin) Art History 364 History of American Art, 1607-present (Andrzejewski) Art History 377 African Art: Paleolithic to the Rise of West African Empires (Drewal) Art History 378 African Art: West African Empires to the Start of the Colonial Era (Drewal) Art History 474 Chinese Ritual Bronzes and Ceramics (Murray) Art History 479 Art and History in Africa (Drewal) Art History 601 and 602 Introduction to Museum Studies (various faculty) Recent Topics Courses Related to Material Culture (400 & 600 Level) Recent Graduate Seminars in Material Culture (800 Level) 3. Department of English English 419 English Drama in the Time of Shakespeare: The Drama of Everyday Life (Turner) English 426 Imaginary Topographies: Early Modern London (Turner) English 845 Victorian Periodicals and their Readers (Bernstein) 4. Department of Environment, Textiles and Design ETD 355 History of Fashion, 1400-present (Gordon) ETD 364 History of American Interiors (Boyd) ETD 420 Twentieth Century Design (Boyd) ETD 421 History of European Interiors (Boyd) ETD 430 History of Textiles (Gordon) ETD 640 Topics in Ethnographic Textiles (Gordon) ETD 655 Comparative Studies of World Costume (Gordon) ETD 720 Literature of Design Theory (Boyd) Recent Topics Courses Related to Material Culture (500 Level) Recent Graduate Seminars in Material Culture (900 Level) 5. Folklore Program Folklore 320 Folklore of Wisconsin (Leary) Folklore 440 Scandinavian American Folklore (Leary) Folklore 490 Field Methods and the Public Presentation of Folklore (Leary) Folklore 630 Seminar in American Folklore (Leary) Folklore 639 Field School: Ethnography of Wisconsin Festivals (Leary) 6. Department of Geography Geography 508 Landscape and Settlement in the North American Past (Ostergren) 7. Department of History Recent Graduate Seminars Related to Material Culture (700 and 900 Levels) 8. Department of History of Science Hist Sci 222 Technology and Social Change in History (Schatzberg) Hist Sci 337 History of Technology 9. Department of Landscape Architecture Land Arch 677 Cultural Resource Preservation and Landscape History (Alanen) Land Arch 710 Theories of Landscape Change Land Arch 777 Methods in Historical/Cultural Resource Preservation
An Interdisciplinary Certificate Program for
Graduate Students
B. Academic Requirements
C. Participating Faculty
D. Selected Courses A. Sponsoring Departments
B. Academic Requirements
The certificate program in Material Culture Studies requires 15 credits. The program requires two core courses, supplemented by electives and an internship/practicum experience. The goal of the requirements is to provide students with a set of interdisciplinary skills including: development of visual literacy and understanding specific methods and theories of material culture analysis as it is most often practiced. A student might select electives to specialize in a particular geographic area of study or type of object, or to provide maximum depth in a certain period of time. At least six credits must be taken outside the student’s home department and in different departments.
1. Core Courses
Prerequisite: 300 level or above course in either Art History or Design Studies.
This course explores the field of material culture, introducing the range of approaches and topics within it. Faculty, staff and professionals from different disciplines and fields are invited to discuss their work and perspective, and discuss current literature that underpins it. Students are encouraged to take a course from the list in Section D to satisfy the prerequisite.
ii. ETD 512 Material Culture Analysis: The Arts and the Consumer Society (Gordon)
Students must complete a 1-3 credit internship/practicum/field experience. This is developed with a faculty member and an outside institution. Credits are determined by the scope of the internship. These credits count as elective credits. Insitutions that have offered internships to students in the past include: the Wiscsonsin Historical Society, the Chipstone Foundation, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and Ten Chimneys Foundation. C. Participating Faculty
Virginia T. Boyd, Professor,
Department of Environment, Textiles and Design
Janet Gilmore, Professor,
Landscape Architecture
Beverly Gordon, Professor,
Department of Environment, Textiles and Design
Jean Lee, Professor,
Department of History
Ann Smart Martin, Associate Professor, Department of Art History
Barbara Buenger, Professor
Nicholas Cahill, Associate Professor
Thomas Dale, Associate Professor
Henry Drewel, Professor
Gail Geiger, Professor
Narciso Menocal, Professor
Julia Murray, Professor
Quitman Phillips, Associate Professor
Department of English
Jeffrey Steele, Professor
Henry Turner, Professor
Folklore Program
James Leary, Professor
Department of History
Colleen Dunlavy, Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture
Arnold Alanen, Professor
School of Music
Susan Cook, ProfessorD. Selection of Courses that can be used as prerequisite to certificate core course or as electives.
1. Department of Anthropology
The study of pottery manufacture by way of ethnoarchaeological inquiry; methods of production, distribution, and the organization of production, and the analysis of ceramic material, including petrographic analysis, SEM, and physio-chemical methods. Both yield complementary information used in archaeological investigation.
Traditions from 1000 BC to 403 BC in architecture, painting, ceramics, sculpture and the minor arts.
The artistic traditions in painting, minor arts, sculpture and architecture from the Peloponnesian Wars to the reign of Augustus, 400 B.C. to 27 B.C.
Art in Italy from Prehistoric times through the end of the fifth century A.D. Major trends in architecture, painting and sculpture with attention to sources in native Italian and foreign traditions
A history of the architecture and art of Cuba from 1519 to the present.
Interdisciplinary study of the design, production, and consumption of household objects and their American domestic settings, 17th through the early 19th centuries.
American art and material culture from 1607 to the present; works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative arts are examined within the broader social, historical, and cultural contexts that give them form and meaning.
Study of African art history from Paleolithic to the Rise of West African Empires, including the rock/paintings of the Sahara and southern Africa, and the art of Egypt, Nubia, Kush, Napata, Meroe, Axum, Nok, Leydenbery and Igbo Ukwu.
Study of African art history from the rise of West African empires to the beginning of the colonial era, including the sculpture, painting and architecture of Jenne, Tellem-Dogon, Kanem-Bornu, Sao, Sapi, Ife, Benin, Kongo, Kuba, Swahili Coast, and Zimbabwe.
Stylistic developments in Shang and Chou bronzes with reference to their larger social and cultural context.
Selected African art traditions in their historical and cultural settings.
History of museums and collection; introduction to connoisseurship; studies and practices in art museum activities; experience in exhibition planning, research, cataloging, and installation.
History of Japanese Ceramics (Phillips)
American Vernacular Architecture & Landscapes (Andrzejewski)
The Arts of Cultural Blending: Race & Ethnicity in American Material Culture (Martin)
Objects Since 1945 (Adamson)
Seminar in Art History: American Furniture (Adamson)
Seminar in Italian Renaissance Art: Art and Life in Renaissance Italy (Geiger)
Seminar (Special Topics): History of Ceramics and Allied Arts in America (Martin)
This course examines plays by three of the most important comic dramatists of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries: Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, and Ben Jonson. Through a close reading of their work alongside selected theoretical essays, we will open an investigation into the major institutions, social structures, and lived habits that shaped everyday life for people at the turn of the seventeenth century.
This course focuses on London during the period of approximately 1580-1640 by examining the many different representational forms produced in the city, including chronicles, maps, building contracts, poems, and pamphlet literature, with a particular emphasis on the drama.
Discussion of 19th Century periodicals with attention given to Victorian ladies’ magazines. Archival research will utilize University of Wisconsin Special Collections, Memorial Library and the State Historical Society.
Changing form and meaning of costume in the West from Renaissance to present. Dress considered in relation to social/cultural milieu and as an art form. Includes treatment of the body, ethnic/class variations, couture and “anti-fashion.” (Crosslisted with Folklore)
Survey of 19th and 20th century major periods and styles of American interior design emphasizing formal analysis of objects as well as the relationship between material culture and those who interact with it.
The course introduces issues central to design of the twentieth century including: introduction of new process, materials and marketing techniques, the search for an aesthetic to express a new age, new roles for designers and competition between consumer driven and designer driven production.
Major period and styles of European interior design emphasizing furniture, wall, window and floor treatments as well as the relationship between material culture and those who interact with it.
Designs, meanings and interrelationships of textiles in selected cultures and time periods.
Ethnographic survey of non-western textiles: technological, aesthetic, function and historical aspects considered. Geographical area varies: African, East Asian, Southeast Asian, Ibero-American or Native American. (Crosslisted with Folklore)
Variations in form, function and meaning of costume in diverse social and cultural contexts; dress as an art form. (Crosslisted with Folklore)
Theories from diverse disciplines pertinent to design fields emphasizing a range of conceptual approaches for the study of material artifacts.
Global Perspectives on Design and Culture (Gordon)
Textile Structures (Gordon)
Researching Historic Textiles (Gordon)
Introduction to folk cultural groups and folklore forms of Wisconsin.
Surveys the Scandinavian American experience, past and present, expressed through such
verbal, musical, customary, and material traditions as family stories of immigration and settlement, dialect humor, sacred songs and secular dance tunes, seasonal celebrations, foodways, handwork, and folk architecture.
This course combines fieldwork practicum with scrutiny of the cultural, political, and ethical dimensions underlying the documentation and presentation of folklore through festivals, exhibitions, publications and audio-visual productions.
Focuses on American folk and popular culture as it relates to expressive behavior using the work of folklorists, anthropologists, historians and literary scholars.
A review of key methodological and theoretical approaches for studying festivals, in situ observation of summer festivals and small town folk and ethnic museums, and supervised writing and photographic assignments.
Settlement processes and patterns—towns, hamlets, farms and land holdings—which define the varied landscape of North America. Changing attitudes to the transformation of the natural landscape and varying perceptions of the modified landscapes.
Seminar: History and Theory (Dunlavy)
Seminar: 19th Century American Capitalism (Dunlavy)
A survey of developments from primitive techniques to nineteenth century power technologies with consideration of the historical interactions of science and technology, comparisons with Chinese achievements. The critical role of steam power and the sources of technological innovation.
A survey of Western technology within its social and cultural context during the past 1000 years. Topics include technology in European expansion, the industrial revolution and the rise of the United States as a technological superpower.
A survey of cultural resource preservation, landscape history and approaches to a more comprehensive framework for environmental management.
Theories of landscape change in the arts and sciences. Contributions of the scientific method and humanistic framework to major issues in landscape architecture.
Methods and cultural considerations necessary for conserving and utilizing historic structures, districts, communities and landscapes.
Program Description
Graduate Certificate Requirements
Undergraduate Certificate Requirements
Courses
Internships
