Canadian Material History: This senior seminar will introduce students to the basics of material history methodology while exploring the many meanings of the «stuff life is made of», i.e. the artefacts among which Canadians have lived since 1900, those things that have shaped Canadian identities and cultures to this day. This course will look at how artefacts can inform and enrich historical enquiry. Because historians have traditionally and primarily relied on texts, they have often overlooked artefacts, therefore ignoring the methodological frameworks found in archeology, anthropology, art history, folklore, etc., where objects are at the centre of analysis. Consequently, they have missed out on large portions of the lived experience in the past.
