Tuesday, April 19, 2011

NEW UWM COURSES FOR FALL 2011

Title: Hist 700 Intro to Public History
Professor: Jasmine Alinder, Associate Professor and Co-Coordinator of Public History
Seminar on community history, relations between academic history and public history, and uses of material culture and oral history.

Title: Art History 370 Trends in Contemporary Architecture TR 11:00-12:15 MIT 195
Professor: Jennifer Johung, Assistant Professor, Art History
This course examines current trends in architectural practice, focusing on the materiality and temporality of organic, animate, portable, interactive, sustainable and bio-mimetic structures within performative, digital, and virtual architectures. Today, buildings are no longer only conceived as objects, but are designed and constructed according to what they do on site or how they perform in response to their users’ needs. Through a selection of contemporary case studies, we will explore a building’s flexible relationship to its physical or digital environment while analyzing its bodily-like movement and responsiveness to both real and virtual users.

Title: Geography 905: City, Environment, and Nature
Professor: Ryan Holifield, Assistant Professor, Geography

The purpose of this seminar is to introduce graduate students to different ways of conceptualizing, theorizing, and researching urban environments and urban natures. Through close, intensive readings of a series of books and articles, we will examine several different approaches to urban ecology, including approaches grounded in systems theory, environmental history, radical urban political ecology, and actor-network theory. In the process, we'll consider a wide range of substantive themes: urban ecosystems, natural resources, environmental justice, sustainable cities, health risks and hazards, and urban infrastructures, just to name a few. This seminar will be of potential interest to students in geography, urban studies, urban planning, architecture, anthropology, history, sociology, urban education, biological sciences, and others interested in the relationships between cities and nature or the environment.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

UW Madison Fall 2011 Courses

Fall 2011 Material Culture Classes

AH/CLAS 330/700: The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece (Cahill)
TR 8:25-9:40am, L140 Conrad A. Elvehjem Building

Explores the art and archaeology of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period.

AH/LCA 379: Cities of Asia (Chopra)
TR 1:00-2:15pm, 104 Van Hise Hall

Historical overview of the built environment of cities of Asia from antiquity to the present; architectural and urban legacy in its social and historical context; exploration of common themes that thread through the diverse geographical regions and cultures of Asia.

AH 463: American Suburbs (Andrezejewski)
MWF 12:05-12:55pm, L150 Conrad A. Elvehjem Building

This course examines the landscape and material culture of American suburbs, particularly of the twentieth century, for what it can tell us about suburban cultures in the United States. The class will include a historical examination of suburban architecture and landscapes from the nineteenth century through the present, but will also focus on topics related to suburbia that include considerations of race, class, gender and region, as well as how suburban life has been represented in print and visual culture. Students will work on research projects related to Madison area suburbs as well.

AH/DS/HIST 464: Dimensions of Material Culture (Andrzejewski and Gordon)
W 2:25-4:55pm, 1310 Sterling Hall

Approaches to the interdisciplinary study of the material world in order to analyze broader social and cultural issues. Guest speakers explore private and public objects and spaces from historic, ethnographic, and aesthetic perspectives.

AH 479: Art and History in Africa (Drewal)
MW 1:05-2:20pm, L150 Conrad A. Elvehjem Building

Selected African art traditions in their historical and cultural settings.

AH 563: Art, Craft & Industry: Arts & Crafts to Present (Lasser)
R 2:00-4:00pm, L166 Conrad A. Elvehjem Building

Interdisciplinary study of the way people use objects and environments to express identities and relationships in households, communities, and larger social/economic systems.

AH 579: Exhibiting Africa in a Museum (Drewal; Honors Seminar!)
M 6:00-8:00pm, L170 Conrad A. Elvehjem Building

AH 805: Seminar-Ancient Art and Architecture (Cahill)
R 400-6:00pm, L166 Conrad A. Elvehjem Building

AH865: US Modernism and the Culture of Things (Kroiz)
M 4:00-6:00pm, L166 Conrad A. Elvehjem Building

This seminar will introduce students to the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of “thing” theory to examine the relationships of objects, subjects and things. We will consider the materiality and agency of inanimate objects themselves, as well as the role of objects in establishing and mediating social relationships. In addition to our theoretical focus on things, we will also focus historically to consider U.S. modernism as a phenomenon formulated within a culture of proliferating consumer goods. We will draw on methodologies from art history and material culture studies, as well as literature studies, anthropology, and political science. We will also examine primary source materials from the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century.

ANTH 354: Archaeology of Wisconsin. (Schroeder; fulfills ethnic studies req.)
T 6:00-8:30pm, 6102 Sewell Social Sciences

Introduces students to the archaeological evidence for the diverse Native American cultures of Wisconsin over the past 12,000 years.

CLAS 430: Troy: Myth and Reality (Aylward)
TR 8:25-9:40am, 114 Van Hise Hall

Explores topics in the archaeology of ancient Greece and Rome, such as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the archaeology of Greek and Roman religion, or Late Antique Palaces.

DS 430: History of Textiles (Gordon)
TR 2:30-3:45pm, 1335 Sterling Hall

Designs and meanings and interrelationships of textiles in selected cultures and time periods.

DS 642: Taste (Chopra)
T 4:00-6:30pm, 399 Van Hise Hall

Exploration of the idea of taste - both "good" and "bad", in "popular" and "high" culture. Cross-cultural readings from theoretical and historical perspectives, relating to architecture, landscape, public space, art, and clothing.

Note: Janet Gilmore on sabbatical next year. Julie Allen on leave next year.