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Objects can be viewed from many different perspectives to reveal multiple, and sometimes contested, meanings.Ìý While we may start with object focused questions such as: What is it made of? How was it made? Where is it from? When was it made? How was it used?Ìý Answers to these questions open up further research areas about how objects connect people and express knowledge and cultural values.Ìý For instance an eighteenth-century ceramic tea pot could provide the focus for a discussion of taste and sociability, gender relations, craft production and industrialisation, mining and commodity values, chemistry and experimentation, form and design, slavery and colonial plantations, trade and consumerism, as well as the dynamics of social change.

Object Lessons will take students through a broad range of approaches to the study of material things, drawn from differnet disciplines, and equip them you with the skills you need to analyse an object and make meanings from the evidence it presents. The module will be delivered by a specialist team of academics, researchers, curators and other museum professionals, offering a unique range of expertise and skills for students to draw upon as they learn. It will also offer unprecedented access to the objects and spaces of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê’s museums and collections and, by working closely with our curators, facilitating the discovery of a fascinating world of object-based learning and research.

Teaching Delivery

In ten weekly one-hour lectures and ten weekly two-hour seminars (all the classes are team taught, with a range of lecturers for the Tuesday lectures and a team of lecturing staff, PGTAs and Collections Curators jointly leading the Friday Seminars.ÌýÌý

Indicative Topics

• Introduction to object-based learning (OBL)Ìý
• Object handling and object analysisÌý
• Understanding MaterialsÌý
• Making, growing objects and the chaine operatoireÌý
• Object biographies and the social life of thingsÌý
• The psychosocial role of objectsÌý
• Collecting, collectors and collections (a history of museums and collections)Ìý
• The colonial legacies of museums and collectionsÌý
• Caring for collections and caring for peopleÌý
• Understanding audiences and curating exhibitionsÌý
• Exhibition ethics (including working with human remains)Ìý

Module Aims and Objectives

On completion of the module students should be able to:Ìý

• conduct independent (object) research, observation, recording, and presentationÌýÌý
• undertake independent research (especially working with material culture) be able to work successfully in a teamÌý
• to compile, edit and present information in various formats (e.g. reports, articles/chapters, illustrations, web pages)Ìý
• Ìýcritically evaluate how other people present dataÌý
• work in collaboration with museum curators and other specialistsÌý

Recommended Reading

See online reading list: ÌýÌý