If you’d like to learn more about objects, and the stories that objects tell, then choose the minor in American Material Culture Studies. The minor can help you:
- understand the diversity of cultures through the things and places people create.
- gain new perspective on the objects and sites around you, both the everyday and the extraordinary.
- add a material culture dimension to knowledge you’re gaining in your major.
- prepare for a career in teaching or with various cultural institutions, including museums, historical societies, and historic preservation agencies.
- prepare for graduate school in such related fields as art history, fashion design, history, anthropology, English, and art conservation.
In pursuing the minor you’ll sample the University’s acclaimed resources in material culture. These include the University Museums, the Paul R. Jones Collection, the Center for Historic Architecture and Design, and the Museum Studies Program on campus and connections to a network of such outstanding cultural institutions in the community as the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate and the Hagley Museum and Library.
Courses in the minor cover the material world from the intimate environments of the home to larger regional landscapes and cities. They also address the international cultural and social contexts that have shaped America from the colonial period to the present.
You’ll conduct hands-on research in collections and in the field and learn to document, display, and interpret sites and objects. Qualified students also have the opportunity to complete an internship with a local organization that puts them ahead in their careers.
Throughout your activities in the minor, you’ll be engaged with creative and energetic faculty members who are highly regarded internationally for their work in material culture.
