Material Culture/ Visual Culture
Director: Dr. Mary Corbin Sies
The Material Culture/Visual Culture (MC/VC) program area is engaged in research on African American material and visual culture, and more generally on the material and visual culture of marginalized subgroups of North America. The group seeks to publicize the value of material and visual evidence for understanding the cultures of everyday life of American subcultures and to foster an environment in which scholars from different backgrounds can explore and refine research and theories for working withmaterial and visual culture.
Proposed Projects
- Pedagogy seminars on teaching visual literacy, ethnography, oral history, and community-based learning – on and off-campus.
- Meta-site on the WWW for studying African American visual and material culture resources.
- Developing a co-edited volume on cultural heritage and culinary tourism focusing on people of color.
- Apply for and sponsor an NEH summer seminar on rethinking historic preservation from the perspectives of African American, Latino/a, and disadvantaged/poor Americans.
Related Research Interest Group (RIG)
Material Culture/Visual Culture—This RIG is an interdisciplinary group that studies the material and visual culture of marginalizedsubgroups of North America. The newest addition to the CRGE RIG’s, MC/VC was founded in the American Studiesdepartment. It is also led by Dr. Mary Corbin Sies.