Learning in the Lab
The Material History Lab provides students with the opportunity to work closely with material history scholars and develop hands-on skills in various approaches to studying objects as sources and subjects of historical inquiry. Students learn how to do contextual and physico-chemical analyses of objects to elicit information about history, culture, meaning, place, people, and ideas. Students are guided on how to relate objects and material culture to larger questions about power, identity, governance, environment, technology, taste and consumption, globalization, empire, city, migration, gender, genocide, class, status, race, household, family, religion, community building, colonialism, decolonization, and heritage, etc. The following courses currently use the Lab for teaching. Others are welcome.
The following courses currently use the Lab for teaching, others are welcome:
- HIS 200 Drugs and Alcohol in Africa
- HIS 255 African Civilizations
- HIS 405 Material Culture
- HIS 405 History Without Documents
Dr. Akin Ogundiran with MHL Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Macham Mangut
X-ray analysis demonstration in the Lab