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What is material culture, anyway? On the surface level, material culture constitutes the physical, human-made objects produced by distinct communities, both past and present. “Material culture” is an intentionally broad term, meant to include everything from objects d’art to ritual dance, efferma, tools, and sacred rites. However, when we analyze material culture through an academic discipline–be it anthropology, archaeology, art history, or conservation–it assumes sociological, political, and spiritual meanings.

Attempting to define the term challenges us to consider not only how we understand material culture, but how we approach it. “What is Material Culture?” encourages scholars in related fields to critically examine what they take for granted. As students, we are not asked to define the traditional vocabulary of our disciplines. Our topic therefore urges emerging scholars to consider their biases and how they affect methodologies, queries, and pedagogies.

Symposium Line Up:

Damián Sabatini “Visualizing the Universe: The Role of Pictures in Mediating the Relationship Between People and Outer Space”

Joe Cimino, “Materials of the Past: Discerning Digital Materiality as a Method for Analyzing History”

Luli Zou, “Beyond Scientific Analysis—Reconstructing Narratives of a Lacquer Box from Canton to Long Island, New York”

Rachael Nelson, “Material Culture and Context: Interrogating the Cultural Attribution of a Red-Figure Stamnos at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston”

Our keynote speaker is:

FBI Special Agent Jake Archer, Art Crime Team

Archer is a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, assigned to its Philadelphia Division. SA Archer is a senior member of the FBI's Art Crime Team and a Philadelphia Division team leader for the FBI's Evidence Response Team. SA Archer conducts art and cultural property-related investigations, repatriations, and training domestically and internationally. SA Archer is the team lead for the Art Crime Team's international matters involving the FBI's Eurasia Legal Attaches, to include areas of responsibility such as Ukraine and Russia. Prior to his service with the FBI, SA Archer was an associate attorney with a private law firm in New Jersey.

SA Archer earned a law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law and a master’s degree in Art History - Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies from Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, SA Archer interned at the conservation laboratory at the Princeton University Art Museum and authored a thesis about the development of care for art and artifacts subjected to the law enforcement process. SA Archer is a member of the United States Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee and Chair of its Technology Working Group, which is based in Washington, D.C. and coordinates diplomatic and law enforcement efforts to combat antiquities trafficking, disrupt trafficking networks, and protect against the looting and destruction of cultural property around the world.

Registration is through Eventbrite and the event will take place via Zoom Webinar.