Classes | MUSEUM FATIGUE

Some Thoughts at the End of Spring Semester 2020

May 14, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

Today is my last day of classes for Spring semester 2020. Some thoughts: In anthropology we discuss how time is a sociocultural construct, and up until now there were always those who didn’t quite understand what that means. The fact that the first week of classes back in February is a world away makes this point pretty clear. In a typical semester I conclude my courses with a wrap up and summary of how far we have come and the […]

Categories: Classes, COVID Spring • Tags: end of the semester

Treasures in the Trash: Transmuting Value

September 23, 2019 by Museum Fatigue

Every semester that I teach museum anthropology we begin with few weeks of discussion and analysis of collecting and value. During this period we look at the impulse to collect, the way objects are given value in sociocultural contexts and how this happens through social practices. This past weekend I came upon a great little short documentary which tells the story of a discerning sanitation worker—a connoisseur of trash—who rescues pieces he identifies as potentially valuable, and brings them together […]

Categories: Collecting, Museums, Museums, Exhibitions and Representation, Value • Tags: garbage, trash

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Midway Conversations 2016: Neighborhood Documentary Projects Premiere

May 16, 2016 by Museum Fatigue

Last night at the Turf Club the Spring 2016 Visual Anthropology Class screened a selection of the work they have been doing with their neighborhood partners this semester. As with previous years the work they shared illustrated the special relationship that many of them have developed with neighbors in the Hamline Midway. The neighbors shared stores, took them into their homes, introduced them to friends and family and demonstrated why our neighborhood is such a special place to live. This […]

Categories: Anthropology, Assignments, Visual Anthropology, Visual Anthropology Class • Tags: Hamline Midway, Hamline University, Hamline University Anthropology Department, Hamline-Midway Neighborhood, Midway Conversations, neighborhood, neighborhood research

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Haunting the Campus 2016

April 29, 2016 by Museum Fatigue

Yesterday morning at 8am students in our Pilgrims, Travelers and Tourists class spread out across campus, took empty spaces and narrated them into existence—haunting the campus with the likes of pirates, magical ravers, Paul Bunyan and revelations of improbable things just below the surface. The rainy weather wasn’t ideal, but the signs did attract a great deal of attention. Once again the sudden appearance of unknown narratives were a kind of collective campus curiosity test. “What are all of the yellow […]

Categories: Assignments, Pilgrims, Travelers, Tourists, Space, State of Emergency • Tags: classroom experience, Hamline University, Michel de Certeau

Hacking With Squirrels: Yeti Campus Stories

November 25, 2015 by Museum Fatigue

This semester our digital anthropology seminar has covered a lot of ground. We have been so busy, in fact, that I haven’t had much time to even do all of the blogging that I had planned. I hope to do some catching up at the end of the semester. We have read many interesting things, enjoyed thought-provoking conversations, and have just scratched the surface of the issues we have taken up. We have also had some fun, so I thought […]

Categories: Digital Anthropology • Tags: apps, campus culture, hacking, Social Media, Yeti: Campus Stories

Midway Conversations 2015: Neighborhood Documentary Projects Premiere

May 19, 2015 by Museum Fatigue

“We aren’t training to be filmmakers, but use our cameras to learn. Our neighbors have taught us so much.” This past Sunday afternoon our Visual Anthropology class hosted its fourth annual public screening and “thank you” party for our neighborhood—The Hamline Midway. While in previous years we had an early evening slot, this year the only time available was a late weekend afternoon. Despite this, however, we were very pleased to see nearly one hundred people in attendance. We ate […]

Categories: Anthropology, Assignments, Documentary, Visual Anthropology, Visual Anthropology Class • Tags: Hamline Midway, Hamline University, Hamline University Anthropology Department, Hamline-Midway Neighborhood, Midway Conversations, neighborhood, neighborhood research

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Good Food Class: Ramen Cookoff

November 15, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

“In fact, instant noodles may well be the most successful industrially produced food, at least in terms of world penetration: they constitute a huge social reality—and one inviting attention. Much like sugar, instant noodles are a capitalist provision that provisions capitalism…Because they feed people quickly and cheaply, they appeal to busy and economy-minded people everywhere” (Errington, Fujikura and Gewertz 2013: 6). This last week our Good Food First-Year Seminar finished reading The Noodle Narratives: The Global Rise of an Industrial Food […]

Categories: Anthropology, Assignments, Food, FYSEM: Good Food • Tags: class activity, Deborah Gewertz, food, Frederick Errington, ramen, Tatsuro Fujikura, The Noodle Narratives

Good Food Class Midterm Tasting Meal, Part Two

October 18, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

This past Monday night our First Year Seminar gathered together for a food tasting meal—an event that gave us a chance to taste a wide variety of foods in dialogue with the books we have been reading and discussing so far this semester. In Part One of this post I summarized some of those books, our menu and the experience of shopping for all of the items—complete with photos. While dreaming up that menu and shopping for the foods […]

Categories: Assignments, Education, Food, FYSEM: Good Food • Tags: American food system, Colossal Cafe, Farmers Market, FYSEM, meals, organic, Pizza Luce, Sara Lee® Apple Pie, supermarket

Good Food Class Midterm Tasting Meal, Part One

October 12, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

This semester I am teaching a First Year Seminar titled Good Food: Eating and Culture. For the first half of the semester we have been learning about different aspects of the American food system and its history. Beginning with Michael Pollan’s classic Omnivore’s Dilemma and James E. McWilliams Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, this past week we have been wading into Susan Friedberg’s excellent social history of food and technology, Fresh: A Perishable History. Along the […]

Categories: Assignments, Education, Food, FYSEM: Good Food • Tags: American food system, cheese, Farmers Market, Fruits, FYSEM, James McWilliams, meal, Meat, Michael Pollan, Rainbow Foods, supermarket, Susan Friedberg, Vegetables

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Good Food: First Day Food Activity

August 31, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

This semester I am teaching a first year seminar (FYSEM) called Good Food: Eating and Culture. The primary goal of the class—in addition to all of the standard introduction-to-college kinds of things required of all FYSEMs—is to consider what makes a food “good.” Humans can and do eat pretty much everything on the planet that won’t kill them, but what makes something good to eat is primarily dependent on sociocultural contexts. Eating is an intimate, personal act of taking something […]

Categories: Assignments, Food, FYSEM: Good Food • Tags: class activity, First Year Seminar, food, Good Food, Hamline University, students