Secret Life of Things: Material Culture

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

10 hours per week: total time commitment 120 hours

Usually admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth-year honours in history (or in a relevant program) or enrolment in a relevant coursework Masters program

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For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

What role have objects, artefacts and places played in the shaping of culture? Are we 'prisoners' of objects'? This subject engages critical approaches to objects as emissaries of culture. Field trips and class-based explorations of the everyday world of objects, many of which we take for granted, stress the importance of things as sources of evidence unavailable in written texts or documents. Through addressing the importance and meaning of everyday things, insights will be gained into technology, consumer society, gender, popular culture, ethnic identity, and the built environment. Through discussions of making, losing, exchanging, inventing, collecting, desiring, inheriting, eating and recycling things, students will learn to interpret objects in their historical context.

Students who complete this subject will

• understand significant issues in the theory and practice of material culture analysis
• be able to evaluate and synthesise the research and professional literature in the discipline
• show the application of historical artefact analysis in a practical research area

An artefact statement of significance (1000 words) 25% (due mid-semester), and a research essay of 4000 words 75% (due at the end of semester).

Hurdle Requirement: Students are required to attend a minimum of 75% of classes in order to pass this subject. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 2% per working day. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

Subject readings will be available online.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Students who complete this subject will

• show an advanced understanding of the changing knowledge base in the specialist area.
• be able to evaluate and synthesise the research and professional literature in the discipline.
• have an appreciation of the design, conduct and reporting of original research.