MDVL 280BMaterials Matter

Catalog

Science and the humanities are ordinarily understood to be entirely separate domains of inquiry, each with its distinctive objects and modes of study. This course draws these two fields into conversation with each other through an interdisciplinary focus on specific materials, from their elemental structure, the technologies of their manufacture, the social and historical conditions that provoked and sustained experimentation in their substance and form, through to the impact of innovations in materials at specific historical junctures. Classes will integrate lectures across a range of disciplinary fields, with hands on interaction with materials, and labs that will include analyses of pigment, ceramics, and glass in the collection of the Binghamton University Art Museum.