Seminars meet each weekday morning, with afternoons free for course-related field trips, individual study, or exploring the many places of interest in and around the city.
Monday
Introducing Visual Culture: Artefacts, Archaeology and British History
We start the course by considering some of the key attributes of an archaeology of the material world in its British context. What are the characteristics and contexts of artefacts that identify them as a significant part of British History? This session includes a fieldtrip to the Tradescant Collection at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Tuesday
Representation and Matter: Material Histories and Identities
In this session we take a closer and critically engaged look at material culture as representation, with a focus on the culture of faces in British history. Our coverage includes the head of Sulis Minerva (Roman Baths, Bath), The Alfred Jewel (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) and the stone moai from Rapa Nui, Easter Island (British Museum, London).
Wednesday
Objects and Agency: Technology and Material Lifeways
Here, we explore technologies of enchantment through an object biography approach to material culture studies. Our coverage includes Trajan’s Column replica (V&A Museum), Guy Fawkes lantern (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), a witch bottle (Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford) and the Rosetta Stone (British Museum, London).
Thursday
Material Culture in Context: Fieldtrip to the British Museum and V&A Museum, London.
A day of two museum cultural immersions. First, the British Museum where we engage with the concept of the universal museum ‘of the world, for the world’. Second, on the legacies of the British Empire at the V&A Museum.
Friday
New Ways of Thinking: Metaphor, Materiality and Interpretation
In this session, we take an interpretative stance and consider the concept of expressive materialities through an engagement with metaphor and interpretation. We evaluate how this approach informs our understanding of the diversities of people and cultures that comprise British histories. This session includes a fieldtrip to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
Field Trip
Destination:
British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
Website:
www.britishmuseum.org
www.vam.ac.uk
www.prm.ox.ac.uk
Excursion Rating: Moderate - up to two hours' walk on even ground or up to an hour's walk on rough and/or steep ground or up lots of stairs and steps.