Universität Wien

240533 SE MM3 More-than-Human (Material) Culture(s)? (2025S)

Material Culture as the Entanglement of Human and More-than-Human World Making

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.
Mo 24.03. 11:30-14:45 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).
Register/Deregister for this course

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Monday 28.04. 08:00 - 11:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 05.05. 16:45 - 20:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 19.05. 16:45 - 20:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 02.06. 11:30 - 14:45 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 23.06. 16:45 - 20:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Against the background of a growing recognition of non-dualist ontologies, and informed by a number of recent paradigmatic turns (relational, posthuman, neomaterialist etc.), more and more scholars in the social sciences and humanities are turning towards the category of the “more-than-human”, towards novel ways of thinking and researching beyond the dichotomy of culture and nature, of active humans and passive non-humans. Assuming that “all living beings emerge from and make their lives within multispecies communities” (Van Dooren et al. 2016, 1), that what humans are and what they do is enabled and shaped by relationships with more-than-human actors (be they intestinal bacteria, pathogenic viruses or animal companions), this course examines material culture not as an exclusively human affair, but as an entanglement of human and more-than-human histories, practices and relationships.

To do this, to understand how material culture is formed in and through encounters and relationships between human and more-than-human actors, we will first examine the basic concepts and assumptions of the field of the "environmental humanities". In the next step, we will turn to selected (Multi-Species) ethnographic case studies, asking what (material) cultures plants, fungi, animals, microbes and non-living entities (co-) produce (together with humans), and what this means for our (usually anthropocentric) understanding of material culture.

The aim of the course is to provide students with an insight into the concepts and tools of environmental humanities (as drawn from environmental anthropology, cultural geography and political ecology), and to reconceptualize material culture as a manifestation of Multi-Species relations.

Method/Structure:
After an introductory session on March 24, each of the four core units (April 28th, May 5th, May 19th, June 2nd) falls into two parts. The first part consists of a short input from the lecturer, a joint discussion of the compulsory reading (1-2 compulsory texts per double unit) and short group exercises. In the second part, students present a given or self-selected example of more-than-human (material) culture.

Assessment and permitted materials

- Regular attendance and active participation in the seminar (80% attendance, max. 3 absences of 90 minutes sessions)
- Reading the compulsory literature and submitting reading notes and smaller writing assignments
- Presentation of one case study, or of own observations (and additional literature) in one of the four core units on material culture as a manifestation of Multi-Species relationships (depending on number of participants: either alone or in a group of 2-3 people)
- Written seminar paper of 4000-5000 words

All resources that students were introduced to during the course and that contribute to achieve the learning objectives may be used

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The minimum requirement is compliance with the attendance requirement, the study of the compulsory literature and participation in the group presentation setting. Furthermore, all assessment-relevant partial performance tasks must be completed and at least 60% of the points provided for each of these must be achieved.

A total of 100 points can be achieved, which are divided as follows:

- Attendance and active participation in the seminar: 15 points
- Written assignments and other smaller tasks related to the reading and discussion of the compulsory literature: 25 points
- (Group) presentation of one case study (incl. consultation of additional literature): 30 points
- Written seminar paper (individually, 4000-5000 words or a group paper, min. 3000 per person): 30 points

The assessment criteria are the timely completion as well as the completeness, quality and formal correctness of the partial performance tasks.
Compliance with the rules of good scientific practice is considered necessary.

In order to complete the course, you need at least 60 out of a possible 100 points. The following grading scale will be used:

1 ("sehr gut"): 90-100 points
2 ("gut"): 80-89 points
3 ("befriedigend"): 70-79 points
4 ("genügend"): 60-69 points
5 ("nicht genügend"): 0-59 points

Examination topics

See description of partial performance tasks as described in the sections on “assessment and permitted materials” and on "minimum requirments and grading".

Reading list

Compulsory literature will be announced on Moodle!

Barua, Maan. 2014. “Volatile Ecologies: Towards a Material Politics of Human—Animal Relations.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 46 (6): 1462–78. https://doi.org/10.1068/a46138.

Bennett, Jane. 2004. “The Force of Things: Steps toward an Ecology of Matter.” Political Theory 32 (3): 347–72.

Beisel, Uli, Ann H. Kelly, and Noémi Tousignant. 2013. “Knowing Insects: Hosts, Vectors and Companions of Science.” Science as Culture 22 (1): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2013.776367.
Haris, S. (2022). COVID-19, microbiopolitics and species precarity in the anthropocene. Culture, Theory and Critique, 63(1), 100–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/14735784.2022.2118803
Head, Lesley, Jennifer Atchison, Catherine Phillips, and Kathleen Buckingham. 2014. “Vegetal Politics: Belonging, Practices and Places.” Social & Cultural Geography 15 (8): 861–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2014.973900.

Jones, Owain. 2011. “Materiality and Identity – Forests, Trees and Senses of Belonging.” In New Perspectives on People and Forests, edited by Eva Ritter and Dainis Dauksta, 9:159–77. World Forests. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1150-1_11.

Jones, Owain, and Paul Cloke. 2002. Tree Cultures: The Place of Trees and Trees in Their Place. Oxford; New York: Berg.

Kirksey, S. Eben, and Stefan Helmreich. 2010. “THE EMERGENCE OF MULTISPECIES ETHNOGRAPHY.” Cultural Anthropology 25 (4): 545–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01069.x.

Kohn, Eduardo. 2013. How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology beyond the Human. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Miller, Daniel. 2015 [2008]. The comfort of things. Cambridge: Polity.

Ogden, Laura, Billy Hall, and Kimiko Tanita. 2013. “Animals, Plants, People, and Things: A Review of Multispecies Ethnography.” Environment and Society: Advances in Research 4 (December):5–24. https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2013.040102.

Raffles, Hugh. 2010. Insectopedia. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

Tsing, Anna L. 2012. “Unruly Edges: Mushrooms as Companion Species.” Environmental Humanities 1 (1): 141–54. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3610012.

Van Dooren, Thom, Eben Kirksey, and Ursula Münster. 2016. “Multispecies Studies: Cultivating Arts of Attentiveness.” Environmental Humanities 8 (1): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3527695.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Tu 04.03.2025 17:46