Below you’ll find a list of the latest graduate course offerings at UD that engage significantly with material culture. Don’t forget to also check out the amazing grant opportunities sponsored by CMCS.
Fall 2025 COURSES
ARTH 619 – Studies in Art of the Iberian World, 1400-1800
Professor Mónica Domínguez Torres
RELIGION AND MATERIALITY IN THE IBERIAN WORLD. Explores religious manifestations in diverse regions of the Spanish and Portuguese empires paying particular attention to the materials employed in their production; not only the techniques and properties associated with each material choice, but also the ways in which such substances were sourced and traded. Open to graduate students only; requires permission from the instructor.
ARTC 667 – Preventive Conservation Research and Applications
Professor Joelle Wickens
MCST/ENGL/HIST/ARTH/EAMC 610 – Introduction to Theories of Material Culture Studies
Professor Arwen Mohun
This seminar introduces graduate students to the theories, practices and methodologies
of “material culture studies” broadly defined. The course is designed to help students
both gain a better understand their own discipline and acquire a new set of tools and
perspectives. Our method will be both eclectic and interdisciplinary. Through discussion
of weekly readings, site visits, and “object lessons,” we will explore how scholars and
practitioners from a wide range of disciplines have utilized both theory and empirical
research methods to understand objects in relation to their social and cultural contexts.
Topics covered will include how and why different fields name and define the object of
study; different approaches to human and object agency; and research methods across
different disciplines.