Undergraduate Courses

Welcome, undergraduate students! Below you’ll find a list of the latest course offerings at UD that engage significantly with material culture. Don’t forget to check out the amazing grant opportunities sponsored by CMCS. Note: the Center is currently reviewing the status of the Material Culture Studies Minor; new MCST minors are not being accepted during this time.


Spring 2025 Courses

Anth324Old World Archaeology
Professor Rocek

The course surveys world prehistory, excluding the Americas, from the origins of hominins to the appearance of states.  This survey is used to introduce concepts of biological and cultural evolution, and variation in technological, economic and social complexity. We begin with an introduction to method and theory in archeology, and then proceed chronologically through the sequence of cultural development.

ANTH/MCST216-710 – Introduction to Material Culture Studies
Professor de Kramer

This course is about the study of people and their things. This includes the clothes we wear, the tools we use, the food we eat, the art we make, the brands we like and the places we go. Material culture consists of all the “stuff” of our daily lives, which are all products of culture, and which often have deep meaning. In this class, you will learn about American material culture and how to study it. Guest speakers from different disciplines will come explain their specific way of studying things.

UAPP418/MCST418 – Traditional Architectural Materials
Professor Reedy

Overview of composition, fabrication methods, deterioration mechanisms, and preservation needs of stone, ceramic, metal, glass, mortar, plaster, paint, and wood components of traditional architecture from a variety of cultural contexts.

ANTH/MCST/HIST 216 – Introduction to Material Culture Studies
Professor DeCunzo

This course introduces the field of material culture studies, the study of all the things
people make, and the ways people alter the physical world. Considers numerous
approaches to understanding material and physical dimensions of life, including
architecture, technology, consumer goods, and place. Case studies are drawn from
around the world.

ANTH 257 – Archaeology of Delaware Native Americans
Professor Custer

Examines the diverse cultures and lifeways of Native Americans in the Delaware region,
with a focus on the historical period prior to European contact and colonization.
Emphasis on the dynamic relations between past societies and their ecological
environments.

ARTH332 – Art and Archaeology of Asia
Professor Rujivacharakul

Examines history of art, architecture, and archaeology in Asia through critical
discussions of objects, sites, built-environment, material culture, and archival texts.
Topics include: First Empire's Material Culture, Song-Yuan Paintings, Pax Mongolica
Cultural Exchange, Archaeological Sites of India, Buddhist Art and Archaeoogy of
Afghanistan, Temples and Shrines in Asia, among others.

MSST/HIST/ARTH 201 – Introduction to Museums
Professor Ott

Introduction to the history, operations and future of museums, historic sites, archives
and related cultural organizations. Examines collecting and collection management,
conservation of collections, exhibition development, public programs and museum
education, and digital outreach. Museum careers and volunteer engagement are
explored.


SPRING 2024 COURSES

HONR 291084 — Honors Colloquium: History and Culture Topics: BANNED BOOKS Professor Ahern

Twenty years ago, To Kill a Mockingbird was required reading for every middle school student. Today, Mockingbird is being challenged and removed from curricula. What made this novel so important then yet so dangerous now? What makes a book so powerful? This course will seek to answer such questions by considering the history of print and print censorship from the advent of the printing press to today. We will look at the role printing played in the development of different cities and cultures, why censorship has fluctuated throughout time and place, and how censorship shapes historical memory. Writing assignments include analytical essays corresponding with the three main themes of book banning: religion, race, gender and sexuality; and a final research paper. Readings may include excerpts from Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Please note that you will not be required to purchase books that you feel oppose your personal values.

HONR 291085 — Honors Colloquium: History and Culture Topics: HAUNTED BY OUR MEDIEVAL PAST
Professor Vause

“The ghosts of the Middle Ages are unquiet”, wrote Professor David Matthews in his book Medievalism: A Critical History (2015). That is because the medieval past keeps “haunting” us in the form of literary texts, artwork, theater, films and television series, coming back to life on a daily basis. Our contemporary world is filled with different images of medieval pasts circulating in popular culture, from “documentaries” on the Knights Templar to fantasy series like The Witcher. Darker and problematic interpretations also resurface in misunderstandings and misuses of medieval imagery by white supremacist groups. The question of why we keep returning to the medieval is central to the field of Medievalism. This course will explore this phenomenon through a study of how the Middle Ages has been perceived and recreated by different cultures in different times.



PREVIOUSLY OFFERED COURSES

ARTH627 — The Photograph and the Magazine (Spring 2022)
Professor Hill

ANTH 344 —  Anthropology of Clothing and Fashion (Spring 2022)
Professor Thomas

ARTC467/667 — Ethics and Value in Collections Care: Storage, Treatment, and Display (Spring 2022)
Professor Owczarek and Professor Hagerman

AFRA 447 / MSST 447 — Curating Hidden Collections & the Black Archive (Spring 2021)
Professor McGee

ANTH 104 — Intro Archaeological and Biological Anthropology (Spring 2021)
Professor Rocek

ANTH 105 — Archaeology of the Modern World (Spring 2021)
Professor DeCunzo

ANTH 218 — Solving Archaeological Mysteries (Spring 2021)
Professor Neitzel

ANTH 229 — Indians of North America (Spring 2021)
Professor Custer

ANTH 232 — Anthropology of Global Youth (Spring 2021)
Professor Neitzel

ANTH 320 — Prehistory of North America (Spring 2021)
Professor Rocek

ANTH 326 / AFRA 326 — The African Diaspora and the World (Spring 2021)
Professor Guerrón Montero

ANTH 342 — American Culture Archaeological Perspectives (Spring 2021)
Professor DeCunzo

ANTH 344 — Anthropology of Clothes (Spring 2021)
Professor Thomas

ANTH 381 — Visions of Native Americans (Spring 2021)
Professor Custer

ARTC 302 — Care and Preservation of Cultural Property II (Spring 2021)
Professors Hagerman & Owczarek

ARTC 467 — Technology of Cultural Materials: Basketry (Spring 2021)
Professor Owczarek

ARTH 402 — Depicting Race in Black Art (Spring 2021)
Professor Okoye

FASH 214 — Development of Fashion: Ancient World to 1600 (Spring 2021)
Professor Lopez-Gydosh

FASH 319 — Dress and Textiles in World Cultures (Spring 2021)
Professor Lopez-Gydosh

MSST 401 — Curatorship and Collections Management (Spring 2021)
Professor Cohen

UAPP 428 — World Heritage Sites (Spring 2021)
Professors Reedy

UAPP 430 — Methods in Historic Preservation (Spring 2021)
Professor Morrissey

UAPP 436 — Preservation in Practice (Spring 2021)
Professors Reedy, Morrissey, & Emmons

ANTH / HIST / MCST 216 — Introduction to Material Culture Studies (Fall 2020)
Professor DeCunzo

ANTH 229 — Indians of North America (Fall 2020)
Professor Custer

ANTH 236 — Anthropology of Sport (Fall 2020)
Professor Galarza

ANTH 265 — High Civilizations of the Americas (Fall 2020)
Professor Custer

ANTH 324 — Old World Anthropology (Fall 2020)
Professor Rocek

ANTH / MSST 463 — Historical Archaeology and the Public (Fall 2020)
Professor DeCunzo

ARTH 213 — Art of the Northern Renaissance (Fall 2020)
Professor Domínguez Torres

ARTH 399 — Art of the Vote (Fall 2020)
Professor Hill

ARTH 413 — Art in the Age of Exploration (Fall 2020)
Professor Domínguez Torres

ARTH 445 — Maps and Voyages (Fall 2020)
Professor Rujivacharakul 

UAPP 429 — Historic Preservation Theory and Practice (Fall 2020)
Professors Morrissey & Reedy 

WOMS 324 — Feminism and Sexualities: Oscar Wilde, Women, and Sexualities (Fall 2020)
Professor Stetz

ANTH 350 — Dislocation and Heritage (Spring 2020)
Professors Trivedi & DeCunzo

ENGL 338 — Vampires and Dandies: Victorian Popular Fiction and Transatlantic Print Culture (Spring 2020)
Professor Erickson

WOMS 336 — Feminist Cultural Studies: The New Woman in Black and White (Spring 2020)
Professor Stetz

ANTH 424 — Introduction to Archaeological Field Methods: The Archaeology of the Northampton Furnace” (Fall 2019)
Professor  Fracchia

SOCI / MCST 449 — Sociology of Art and Culture (Fall 2019)
Professor Bowler

HIST 268 — American Ethnic Identities (Spring 2019)
Professor Davis

HIST / SGST / WOMS387 — The Queer Twentieth Century (Spring 2019)
Professor Davis

ANTH 103 — Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology
Professor Custer

ARSC 390 — Civil War Stuff: Writing History Through Objects
Professor Beetham

ART 204 — Media/Design/Culture
Professor Cox

ART215 — Seeing and Being
Professor Cox

ARTH 303 — Art and Religion in the Iberian World
Professor Domínguez Torres

ENGL 110 — Critical Reading and Writing
Professor Wasserman

ENGL 205 — British Writers
Professor Yates

ENGL 347 — Literary Things: Material Culture in American Literature
Professor Brückner

ENGL361-010 — Superheroes, Supervillains, and Sequential Art: Comic Books and Graphic Novels
Professor Wasserman

ENGL 361-011 — Digital Cultures: How To Read the Internet
Professor Wasserman

ENGL 365 — Studies in Literary Genres, Types, & Movements: “Digital Archive Production”
Professor Erickson

HIST 223 — Nature and History
Professor Ott