Detail of a red, white, and green ceramic lid with a flower design as the top handle
Photo of several books, pieces of fabric, and small objects on display in a case
Photo of a large, old key placed on a white suitcase
Details of two wreaths in a display case, one made of brown and blonde hair and the other made of colorful string
Detail of a small metal cuff link with a small red gem in the center

Material Culture

“This is Not a Chair” Video

“This is Not a Chair” is a pedagogical film created as part of the collaborative Tangible Things material culture project, which included a series of classes, an EdX course, a museum exhibit, and a book. In this short film, Harvard University Teaching Fellows Cara Fallon, John Bell, Chris Allison, and Carla Cevasco interpret chairs from the Collection of the Chipstone Foundation through various disciplinary lenses. The Tangible Things project was created by Laurel Ulrich, Ivan Gaskell, Sara Schechner and CDMC executive director, Dr. Sarah Anne Carter.

Material Culture Workshop

Throughout the academic year, the Center for Design and Material Culture hosts a monthly workshop to promote an interdisciplinary dialogue around the study of material culture on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. This platform, led by Professor Yuhang Li, Faculty Director for Material Culture, brings together scholars to share their current research on material culture. The workshop is open to methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of material culture across disciplines, geographical areas, and chronological periods. We welcome faculty, curators, researchers, and students who are committed to the study of material culture. Each session focuses on specific themes and involves presentations and discussions but can also include museum object viewing sessions and studio visits.

Would you like to participate? Connect and let us know.

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  • Addison Nace, “Weaving the Archive: Maya Textiles Heritage Knowledge and Histories”
  • Yongxin Kong, So Much Longing in A Flower: Victorian Hair Flower-making, Botanical Knowledge and Floriography”
  • Dr. Elizabeth Athens, “The Early Modern Anatomist as Master Artisan”
  • Svea Larson, “‘I followed my cookbook’s instructions and my own taste.’ Recipe Collections and Practice-Based Education in Olga Hansson’s Culinary Vocational Training, Sweden circa 1910-1930”
  • Dr. Anna Andrzejewski, “A Tropical Paradise?: Living Inside (and Outside) of South Florida’s Suburban Leisure Landscape”
  • Tania Kolarik, “Textility: A New Textile Centric Art Historical Methodology”
  • Dehlia Mitchell-Gray, “Cumbrous and Clumsy, Sharp and Bright: The Making, Use, and Import of Needles in Nineteenth Century China”
  • Liesl Chatman, “Stories in Wood”
  • Chi-Lynn Lin, “The Invention and Transformation of Chinese Carpets in the Nineteenth Century”
  • Dr. Ann Smart Martin, “Jokes Came in with Candles”: The Im/Material Culture of Domestic Lighting”
  • Claire Kilgore, “Is That a Plaid, Check, or Tartan? Cataloguing a Visually Ubiquitous Medieval Textile”
  • Dr. Sophie Pitman, “Research on display: curatorial strategies in Remaking the Renaissance
  • Travis Olson, “Making It’ on the Edge of the West: The Speculative Landscape of Southwestern North Dakota”
  • Dr. Sarah Anne Carter, “Feeling like a Museum: Case Studies from the Milwaukee Public Museum”
  • Dr. Janine Yorimoto Boldt and Carolyn Herrera-Perez, “Centering Material Culture: Case Studies from the Chazen Museum of Art’s Collection”

Affiliated Program

The Center for Design and Material Culture collaborates with a number of material culture programs offered through the Design Studies Department in the School of Human Ecology through course engagements, exhibitions in our galleries, research visits to the collection, and more. We also offer a number of student employment and fellowship opportunities available to all UW–Madison students.

Student Opportunities

Certificate in Material Culture

The Undergraduate Certificate in Material Culture allows UW students to explore diverse ways of making sense of the material world.

Photo of two hands pulling out a drawer that has a brown and white dish inside

Material Culture Courses

Material Culture refers to an interdisciplinary set of methods and may be found in departments across campus.

preparator installing work in design gallery

History of Material Culture at UW

The University of Wisconsin–Madison has a long history of supporting material culture pedagogy and research under the guidance of Dr. Ann Smart Martin, Stanley and Polly Stone (Chipstone) Professor Emeritus of American Decorative Arts and Material Culture. Professor Martin is the founding director of the UW–Material Culture Program and Material Culture Faculty Group, first located in the Department of Art History and now within the School of Human Ecology. The Center for Design and Material Culture celebrated Prof. Martin’s contributions to material culture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the exhibition Questioning Things: A Quarter Century of Material Culture Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.