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Material Culture and Public Humanities Graduate Certificate

Campus:  Virginia Tech Blacksburg Campus, Instructions: Residential/On Campus

Program Overview

This is a cross-disciplinary graduate certificate that provides opportunities for students in other graduate programs to take advantage of key courses in the MA program on Material Culture and Public Humanities. Material culture is the study of material or physical objects, as well as the placement of those objects in critical, theoretical and historical perspectives as the products of distinct cultures. Public humanities bridges the divide between academia and the public by encouraging dialogue between scholars and communities on cultural and social issues.

faculty

Final deadline:  August 1

Aaron Ansell, MCPH Program Director
101 Major Williams Hall
540-231-0491
aansell@vt.edu

Michelle Moseley-Christian, MCPH Program Director
351F Henderson Hall
540-231-5547
mymc@vt.edu

Amanda Timcik, MCPH Program Specilalist
206 Major Williams Hall
540-231-5033
atimcik@vt.edu

Graduate Students

Download Plan of Study

Time Table of Classes

Why choose this program?

  • This is a cross-disciplinary graduate certificate that provides opportunities for students in other graduate programs to take advantage of key courses in the MA program on Material Culture and Public Humanities.
  • The certificate enables graduate students in the target population of architecture, interior design, history, communication, rhetoric, sociology, STS, and ASPECT become more competitive applicants for jobs in museums, historical societies, and community and cultural organizations.
  • Courses in this graduate certificate program offer students the opportunity to interpret material culture (e.g., physical objects; historical artifacts) within informed historical / cultural frameworks and articulate their significance to the public.  
  • Our students participate in creative alliances with non-profit cultural institutions such as the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the Southwest Virginia Cultural Heritage Foundation (overseeing ‘Round the Mountain’ and ‘The Crooked Road’), Historic Smithfield, the Virginia Museum of Transportation, the Montgomery Museum, the Science Museum of Western Virginia, the Taubman Museum of Art, the O. Winston Link Museum, the History Museum of Western Virginia, and the Harrison Museum of African American Culture.

What You'll Study

The graduate certificate in material culture and public humanities have two interrelated emphases (material culture and public humanities) which share common intellectual issues and employment goals. Courses in this graduate certificate program offer students the opportunity to interpret material culture (e.g., physical objects, historical artifacts) within informed historical/cultural frameworks and articulate their significance to the public. The certificate enables graduate students in the target population of architecture, interior design, history, communication, rhetoric, sociology, STS, and ASPECT become more competitive applicants for jobs in museums, historical societies, and community and cultural organizations.

The certificate requires 9 credit hours, distributed as follows:

Required:

  • ART/HUM/RLCL 5204: Research Methods in Material Culture and Public Humanities (3H, 3C)
  • HUM/RLCL 5304: Material Culture and Humanities in the Public Sphere (3H, 3C)

One elective chosen from the following courses:

  • ART 5584: Topics in Material Culture  (3H, 3C)
  • HUM/RLCL 5584: Topics in Public Humanities (3H, 3C)
  • ITDS 5124: Preservation of Historic Interiors (3H, 3C)
  • HIST 5424: Public History (3H, 3C)

Material Culture and Public Humanities Faculty

Students in Material Culture and Public Humanities can draw upon a variety of facilities, listed below, that will enrich their education.