Syllabus
Syllabus and literature: 1) Introduction of the course, requirements, Q&A.
Introduction into the concept of materiality
For discussion: video What is Material Culture? by Sophie Woodward (Manchester University) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL01mxtRPhA 3 films about things: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?printable=1&id=1612 50 anthropocene objects: https://climatecultures.net/category/a-history-of-the-anthropocene-in-50-objects/ 2) What are things?
Hodder, Ian. 2012. Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.
Chapter 1 - Thinking About Things Differently, 1-14 3) Are things objects?
Barad, Karen. 2003. ‘Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter’. Signs 28 (3): 801-31. https://doi.org/10.1086/345321. 4) Things and objects for the second time
Domínguez Rubio, Fernando. 2016. ‘On the Discrepancy between Objects and Things: An Ecological Approach’. Journal of Material Culture 21 (1): 59-86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183515624128. 5) Meshwork, network, assemblage, material engagement…
Vinzent, Jutta, and Tim Ingold. 2017. ‘From Lines as Geometrical Form to Lines as Meshwork Rather than Network’. In SpatioTemporalities on the Line, edited by Sebastian Dorsch and Jutta Vinzent, 13-19. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110467963-002. 6) Things and nonhumans
Ingold, Tim. 2012. ‘Toward an Ecology of Materials’. Annual Review of Anthropology 41 (1): 427-42. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-081309-145920.
Gan, Elaine, and Anna Tsing. 2018. ‘How Things Hold’. Social Analysis 62 (4): 102-45. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2018.620406. 7) Heritage, place and identity
Tilley, Christopher. Introduction: Identity, place, landscape and heritage. Journal of material culture 11.1-2 (2006): 7-32.
Smith, Laurajane. 2022. ‘Heritage, the Power of the Past, and the Politics of (Mis)Recognition’. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, June, jtsb.12353. https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12353. 8) Heritage and migration
McGuire, Randall H. 2020. ‘The Materiality and Heritage of Contemporary Forced Migration’. Annual Review of Anthropology 49 (1): 175-91. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-010220-074624. 9) Material Culture and Affect
Jonas Frykman & Maja Povrzanović Frykman. 2016. Affect and Material Culture: Perspectives and Strategies, in Jonas Frykman & Maja Povrzanovic´ Frykman (eds.) Sensitive Objects: Affect and Material Culture , Nordic Academic Press: Lund, pp. 10) Making
Wachowich, Nancy. Intimate clips: Sealskin sewing, digital archives and the Mittimatalik Arnait Miqsuqtuit Collective. Museum Anthropology Review (2018): 75-99 11) Life of things
Mendoza-Collazos, Juan Carlos , & Sonesson, Göran. (2021). Revisiting the life of things: A cognitive semiotic study of the agency of artefacts in Amazonia. Public Journal of Semiotics, 9(2), 30-52. https://doi.org/10.37693/pjos.2020.9.22012 12) Test
Spare topics: exchange, consumption, …
Annotation
The study of materiality is crucial for a detailed understanding of what our world is and how we are engaged in and intertwined with it. The seminar’s focus is on concepts and themes such as things and objects, materiality, material culture and heritage. We will also discuss various types of material entanglements including meshwork, network and assemblage; topics of nonhuman/more-than-human, agency and affectivity of material culture and the theme of making.
Learning outcomes:
After completion of this course, you will be able to:
· understand the concepts of materiality, things and objects, material culture and heritage;
· think about how the notions of assemblage, affect and agency are related to materiality.
The course is also focused on developing analytical reading, critical thinking and discussion skills.