Universität Wien

240532 SE MM3 The Dis/Comfort of Things: Researching Material Cultures (2025S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 24 - Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie
Continuous assessment of course work

Participation at first session is obligatory!

The lecturer can invite students to a grade-relevant discussion about partial achievements. Partial achievements that are obtained by fraud or plagiarized result in the non-evaluation of the course (entry 'X' in certificate). The plagiarism software 'Turnitin' will be used.
The use of AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) for the attainment of partial achievements is only allowed if explicitly requested by the course instructor.
Moodle
Th 08.05. 11:30-13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

The course involves three sets of classes: 1) in the introductory classes in March, we will read obligatory literature together, test methods for talking with interlocutors about objects, and choose approaches for fieldwork. Also, we will go to Brunnengasse together and discuss observations.
2) in-between and at the end of the course, students can choose subjects for skillsharing classes, in which central competences of finding research topics, organizing learning, finding literature, writing, software to organize literature or fieldnotes, etc. will be discussed
3) research project classes in which students will present obligatory literature, discuss their fieldwork findings, and/or moderate exercises relevant to the themes of the course.

  • Thursday 06.03. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 13.03. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 20.03. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 27.03. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 03.04. 09:45 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 10.04. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 15.05. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 22.05. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 05.06. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 12.06. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Thursday 26.06. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The course aims at focusing on material culture as fieldwork methodology. The course takes Brunnengasse starting from Lugner City to Ottakringer Straße in the 16th district as field and develop an approach towards a range of artefacts and objects which we will use for small scale fieldwork projects. The approach is designed after the book “The Comfort of Things” by Daniel Miller (2008) that works through portraits of a street in London. Similarly, the method of the course is to explore one Viennese street, it’s inhabitants and visitors, vibrancy, boredom, comfort and discomfort through talking with people about objects.

Students in the course can choose what interests them and explore it through various methodologies in material culture research. These range from personal items, such that stand for relations, that were passed on, gifted, have religious significance, are political symbols, signify gender, trigger grief or other emotions, and more. In class, we will connect relevant literature with explorations of objects through photography, observational field-notes, autoethnographic snippets, and other techniques of generating data with interlocutors and selves. The course aims at equipping students with a set of techniques they can adapt and apply from everyday observations to larger fieldwork projects.

The course works as space for exploration and debate, based on the careful reading of the literature and engaging with other students’ work.

Assessment and permitted materials

Active participation in the discussions and peer feedback (30% of the assessment)

Reading of the recommended compulsory literature for the individual blocks and interim presentations on own material with reference to the literature (30% of the performance assessment)

Written seminar paper: (40% of the performance assessment)

Highest achievable score: 100 points; 0-60 points: Not sufficient; 61-70 points: Sufficient; 71-80 points: Satisfactory; 81-90 points: Good; 91-100 points: Very Good

All aids are permitted for the provision of all partial services that comply a) with the basic principles of good scientific practice and b) pass the plagiarism check and c) the check on the use of AI.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Minimum requirement:
The minimum requirement is active participation in the required interim presentations (literature plus observational findings), submission of a written paper as specified by the course instructor and attendance at the seminar. Attendance in the first lesson is mandatory; participants may miss a maximum of two units. Exceeding this maximum limit means that the minimum requirements for a positive assessment have not been met.

Deadline for submission of the seminar paper: 1 August 2024

Examination topics

Reading list

The obligatory and further literature will be presented in the first session.

Selection:
The commodification of queer culture: identities through aesthetics and materialities | BØWIE Creators — Home of Queer & Feminist Creators (2025). Online verfügbar unter https://www.bowiecreators.com/article/the-commodification-of-queer-culture-identities-through-aesthetics-and-materialities, zuletzt aktualisiert am 26.01.2025, zuletzt geprüft am 29.01.2025.

Chadwick, Rachelle (2021): On the politics of discomfort. In: Feminist Theory 22 (4), S. 556–574. DOI: 10.1177/1464700120987379.

Delille, Damien (2021): Aesthetics of the Closet: Material Culture, Queer Affectivity, and Robert de Montesquiou’s Art of Collecting. In: West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture 28 (1), S. 75–95. DOI: 10.1086/718017.

García‐González, Andrea; Hoover, Elona Marjory; Francis, Athanasia; Rush, Kayla; Angel, Ana María Forero (2022): When discomfort enters our skin: Five feminists in conversation. In: Feminist Anthropology 3 (1), S. 151–169. DOI: 10.1002/fea2.12059.

Little, Rina Kundu (2023): Emergent Bodies: Rethinking Race and Racialization Through Materialities. In: Studies in Art Education 64 (2), S. 251–260. DOI: 10.1080/00393541.2023.2180313.

Miller, Daniel (2008): The comfort of things. Cambridge: Polity (2015). Online verfügbar unter https://ubdata.univie.ac.at/AC07082431.

Miller, David (Hg.) (2005): Materiality. Durham: Duke University Press.

Rojas Lasch, Carolina (2019): Discomfort—Affects, Actors, and Objects in Ethnographic Intervention. In: Claudia Matus (Hg.): Ethnography and Education Policy. A Critical Analysis of Normalcy and Difference in Schools, Bd. 3. 1st ed. 2019. Singapore: Springer (Springer eBooks Education, 3), S. 55–72.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 06.03.2025 10:26