The Meaning of Things will be a 400-level seminar that explores how we give meaning to material objects–individually, culturally, and historically. It will be both theoretical and practical, looking at how these ideas play out specifically through museums (how things are displayed, what meaning is given to them, how choices are made about what to display, etc.). It will be a writing-intensive course (and also reading intensive!). There will be a number of field trips to local museums. Each student will curate an exhibition of their own design on campus (in response to an assigned topic) as a final project.
Course Faculty
Carol Dickson
“I am fascinated by stories,” says Carol Dickson. “The house in which I grew up—in which my grandparents lived—resonated with stories. From my father’s anecdote of the pony in the…