We are a diverse group from local and regional institutions and organizations dedicated to interdisciplinary collaboration in the study of the material world. Our group includes, but is not limited to, faculty and students from the following departments: Anthropology, Art, Art History, Communication Arts, English, Design Studies, Folklore, History, Landscape Architecture, and Music.
Core Faculty
The following faculty members provide the foundation for the Material Culture Program on the UW campus. In addition to overseeing the program’s administrative details, they provide advising for students interested in the study of material culture.
Anna Andrzejewski
Professor
Department of Art History
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 210, Conrad A. Elvehjem Building
608-262-9183
avandrzejews@wisc.edu
Research interests: Vernacular architecture; history and theory of modernism.
William Aylward
Professor
Department of Classics and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 968, Van Hise Hall
608-236-7498
aylward@wisc.edu
Research interests: Greek and Roman archaeology; Roman provincial studies, especially Anatolia; history of architecture.
Sarah Carter
Curator and Director of Research, The Chipstone Foundation
Chipstone Fellow and Lecturer in Material Culture
scarter@chipstone.org, scarter5@madison.edu
Research Interests: American Studies; Material Culture and its history, theory and application; American Decorative Arts and Art History; Museum Studies and Curatorship; Histories of Children, Childhood, and the Family; Gender Studies and Women’s History; History of Education
Janet Gilmore
Associate Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture
University of Wisconsin, Madison
46B Agriculture Hall
608-265-8270
jgilmore@wisc.edu
Research interests: Ethnic and regional foodways; maritime traditions; landscapes.
Sherry Harlacher
Director
Center for Design and Material Culture, Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection
University of Wisconsin, Madison
1235D Nancy Nicholas Hall
608-890-4854
harlacher@wisc.edu
Research interests: The historical remains and contemporary products of textile and design cultures and the processes they embody
Catherine Jackson
Assistant Professor
Department of the History of Science
University of Wisconsin, Madison
333 Bradley Memorial Building
608-262-1406
Research interests: history of chemistry; history of modern physical sciences; history of medicine and life sciences, especially as they intersect with history of chemistry; science and imperialism; studies of scientific practice and pedagogy; instrumentation and material culture; practice and theory.
Yuhang Li
Assistant Professor
Department of Art History
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 218, Conrad A. Elvehjem Building
608-263-1175
yuhang@wisc.edu
Research interests: Chinese Art, Gender and material practice in late imperial China, Lay Buddhist women, the cult of Guanyin and image making, women artists, History of Chinese textile and costume, opera and Chinese visual culture, Qing court art.
Ann Smart Martin
Stanley and Polly Stone Professor of American Decorative Arts
Department of Art History
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 205, Conrad A. Elvehjem Building
608-263-5684
asmartin@wisc.edu
Research interests: Decorative arts and material culture method and theory; the “art of folk” in Wisconsin; vernacular craft.
Mark Nelson
Professor
Department of Design Studies
School of Human Ecology
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 3146, Human Ecology Building
608-261-1003
mnelson2@wisc.edu
Research interests: the relationship between the human body and Modernist architecture; the role of ornament in architecture; digital illustration.
Lynn K. Nyhart
Vilas-Bablitch-Kelch Distinguished Achievement Professor
History of Science Department
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 226, Bradley Memorial Building
(608) 262-3978
lknyhart@wisc.edu
Research interests: the relationship between the human body and Modernist architecture; the role of ornament in architecture; digital illustration.
Jennifer Pruitt
Assistant Professor
Department of Art History
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 218
Conrad A. Elvehjem Building
608-263-2349
jpruitt@wisc.edu
Research interests: Islamic art and architecture
Sissel Schroeder
Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 5434, Sewell Social Science Building
608-262-0317
sissel.schroeder@wisc.edu
Research interests: the evolutionary significance of emerging sociopolitical complexity among tribal and chiefdom societies in the mid-continental U.S.; the spatial distribution in the Mid-continent in relation to inconstant and heterogenous social, natural, and anthropogenic spatial landscapes.
Jonathan Senchyne
Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Studies
Director, Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture
University of Wisconsin, Madison
4255 Helen C. White
608-263-2900
senchyne@wisc.edu
Research interests: history of the book, material cultures of print, material texts, early and nineteenth-century American literature and culture, theories of materialisms, the materiality of the digital, GLAM: galleries, libraries, archives, and museums.
Sarah Thal
Associate Professor WI 101
Department of History
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 4117 Mosse Humanities
608-265-6033
thal@wisc.edu
Research interests: Religion and politics of Japan.
Lee Palmer Wandel
Professor
Department of History
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room 4105 Mosse Humanities
608-263-1661
lpwandel@wisc.edu
Research interests: early modern Christianity; early modern Europe.
Affiliated Faculty and Staff
Attention to many different aspects of material culture can be found throughout the Madison area’s vital community. These faculty and staff members help to bring to the Material Culture Program many exciting and diverse components of teaching.
Department of Anthropology
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Professor
Department of Art
Tom Loeser, Professor
Department of Art History
Nicholas Cahill, Professor
Preeti Chopra, Associate Professor
Thomas Dale, Professor
Henry Drewal, Professor
Quitman Phillips, Professor
Associated Museum Professionals
Jody Clowes, Director, James Watrous Gallery
Amy Gilman, Director, Chazen Museum of Art
Jon Prown, Director, Chipstone Foundation
Maria Saffiotti Dale, Curator, Chazen Museum of Art
Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Program
Arijit Sen, BLC, Associate Professor, UW-Milwaukee
Department of Design Studies
Jung-hye Shin, Associate Professor
Department of English
Susan Bernstein, Professor
Lisa Cooper, Associate Professor
Department of History
Colleen Dunlavy, Professor
Nan Enstad, Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture
Sam F. Dennis, Jr, Associate Professor
Department of Music
Susan Cook, Director, School of Music
UW Material Culture Program 