American Material Culture: Nineteenth-Century New York
NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers
At the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture, New York City, July 7-31, 2015.
Objects matter. Material culture scholars use artifactual evidence such as consumer goods, architecture, clothing, landscape, decorative arts, and many other types of material.
The Bard Graduate Center will host a four-week NEH Summer Institute on American Material Culture presented by David Jaffee, Project Director. The institute will focus on the material culture of the nineteenth century and use New York as its case study because of its role as a national center for fashioning cultural commodities and promoting consumer tastes. We will study significant texts in the scholarship of material culture together as well as in tandem with visiting some of the wonderful collections in and around New York City for our hands-on work with artifacts. The city will be our laboratory to explore some of the important issues of broad impact that go well beyond New York.
We welcome applications from college teachers and other scholars with some experience doing object-based work, as well as those who have never taught or studied material culture. Application materials and other information about content, qualifications, stipends, housing, etc. is available at http://www.bgc.bard.edu/neh-institute.
The application deadline is March 2, 2015.
For more information, please contact:
Zahava Friedman-Stadler
Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture
38 West 86th Street
New York, NY 10024
212.501.3026/ nehinstitute@bgc.bard.edu