Material Culture & Humanities

William Goodwin (left), John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (second from right), and others discuss plans for preserving historic Williamsburg, Virginia.

Wednesdays 10:00 am–12:45 pm
Surge 101A

Prof. Rachel Gross
rbgross@vt.edu
Office: 211 Major Williams Hall (Links to an external site.)
Office hours by appointment.

Material Culture and Public Humanities Program
Department of Religion and Culture

Syllabus

Course books

Leading discussion assignments

Overview

This graduate seminar is an introduction to the public humanities, providing a background to issues in preserving, interpreting, and presenting art, history, and culture.

This class has three parts:

• Part I: Defining terms and subjects (January 20–February 24, 2016)

• Part II: Power and control in public history (March 2–March 30, 2016)

• Part III: New developments in public humanities (April 6–May 4, 2016)

We will address these issues primarily through case studies, which will enable us to ask larger questions of our subject matter, including but not limited to:

• What is the public sphere?
• Who controls public history?
• What is deemed worthy of preservation and presentation?
• How do gender, race, and class impact public history?

Case studies will focus on American examples but our analysis will be applicable to global circumstances.

Objectives

Upon the successful completion of this course, students will learn to:

• Formulate working definitions of public history, material culture, and the public sphere.
• Discuss the historical construction of public memory.
• Recognize the structures of power and control in public history.
• Reflect on readings and discussion throughout the semester orally and in writing.