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Material History (HEC-AS-MATHIS-24)

HEC-AS-MATHIS-24

Description

What has the material culture turn meant in historiography? What inspirations did it draw from other disciplines such as anthropology, archaeology, art history? To answer these questions, the seminar will combine theoretical perspectives with case studies, with the aim of understanding how placing the material world of things at the centre of research does not just mean adding an element to the research agenda but changing and reconfiguring it.
The first session will be devoted to the definition of the field, through the analysis of the notion of “material culture” and the idea of “material engagement approach” in the humanities. Thereafter the discussions will deal with many different research trajectories that have developed in recent years around materiality. Themes such as consumption and global interactions; identities and social experiences; political practices; national and gender identities; emotions and memory will be addressed through the lens of material culture.
Researchers are expected to take an active part in the seminar discussion based on the readings for each session. Every sessions will be introduced by a brief presentation of the readings by some of the participants in the seminar. In the final bloc seminar we will host some researchers who are working in this perspective and discuss their ongoing research together.



 

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