Course: HIST 7550 – Seminar in American Material Culture
Semester: Spring 2011
Instructor: Dr. Van West
Course Requirements: Students will demonstrate a commanding knowledge of major patterns of and subfields in the scholarship of American material culture studies; demonstrate the ability to identify and classify artifacts and landscapes according to their thematic, physical, geographical, and chronological contexts; demonstrate the ability to synthesize and analyze scholarly literature in the field of American material culture studies; and, demonstrate the ability to communicate knowledge and assessments effectively both orally and through written reports and documents. Students will conduct significant individual fieldwork and archival research that contributes to the literature of the field or to the student’s thesis or dissertation; write critical scholarly essays that have potential for publication because they reflect original research, contain clear thesis statements, have well-organized and well-developed arguments, are well-written in grammar and style; and have properly formatted citations; write interpretive essays of scholarly literature that demonstrate the ability to examine the patterns and subfields of American material culture critically; and, participate regularly in class discussion, consistently demonstrating comprehension of work assigned to precede discussion.
For more information about projects completed in the class, please click the following links:
Katie Stringer Clary, PhD 