10:27 a.m., Nov. 19, 2009----The University of Delaware Division of Professional and Continuing Studies, in conjunction with UD's Academy of Lifelong Learning, received an award from the University Continuing Education Association Mid-Atlantic in the category for special populations. This year's award honored an Academy of Lifelong Learning course, “Objects as Cultural Artifacts.”

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“This is the eighth consecutive year Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) has been recognized for programming or instructional excellence, usually in partnership with an academic unit on campus,” Jim Broomall, assistant provost of professional and continuing studies, said. He noted that UD was chosen from among 30 nominations from 10 institutions in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL) course on material culture was a win-win, across-campus project, Broomall said, and involved several different groups including PSC; ALL, which is UD's member-based teaching and learning program for persons over 50; the Center for Material Culture Studies; faculty and graduate students.

“The class showcased contemporary graduate research, and there was a wonderful dialogue between the graduate students and ALL students,” Broomall said.

Deborah Andrews, English professor and director of the Center for Material Culture Studies, worked with the course instructors, Nan Norling and Stuart Siegell, as a broker between them and the faculty and graduate students, who made presentations on their research in material culture.

A broad, interdisciplinary area, material culture is the study and interpretation of objects made by humans and what they reveal about human activity and the past.

In 2008, UD was awarded a challenge grant from the National Endowment For the Humanities, Andrews said, to encourage and train graduate students to communicate their research to the public. For two years the Public Engagement in Material Culture Institute has been held to give graduate students hands-on experience in public speaking, interviews, media training for radio and TV and writing press releases.

This was an excellent opportunity for graduate students to practice what they learned and fulfill the requirements of the grant, Andrews said. Some of the students were a bit nervous about appearing before a large class of close to 90 students, she said, but were advised by an ALL member to “just think of us as your grandparents, who want you to succeed.”

The ALL members, in turn, learned about contemporary research that is taking place at UD and to appreciate the importance of the preservation of historic artifacts, Andrews said. Plans are underway for another course this spring.

The classes were varied and included such topics as the evolution of the acoustic guitar from a parlor instrument to its prominent role today, Stonehenge and careless tourists of past centuries, and practicing art conservation “under glass” in a room at the Smithsonian where the public is invited to watch and comment.

Norling and Siegell both are interested in and have taught art history courses at ALL. Norling is a graduate of UD's Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) Program and Siegell is a docent at the Delaware Art Museum.

“The course was different and unusual,” Norling said. “Learning about different objects and art took you places you never thought you'd go. It was a joy to work with the University, professors and graduate students.”

“The course was off-beat but worked out wonderfully well,” Siegell said, adding, “The ALL students were enthusiastic and are requesting another course, and I hope the University and ALL can find other ways to join forces.”

One class member summed up the feelings of many and wrote the course “far exceeded my expectations. I loved the collaboration between the Academy and UD -- also loved seeing the upcoming generation of scholars in the area.” Another wrote, “fascinating, diverse, thought-provoking -- and fun.”

Faculty members included Joyce Hill Stoner, Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor in Material Culture, who talked about working directly with artists to learn their materials and techniques; Julian Yates, associate professor of English, whose topics was “A Particular Fondness for Oranges About 1597;” and Lance Winn, associate professor of art, whose topic was “Scholar Rocks, Bonsai Trees and Crunched Up Cars: The Possibility of the Sculpted Object.”

Graduate students included Lorena Baines, Andy Bozanic, Dan Claro, Lyndsey Rago Claro, Marina Dobronovskaya, Kristina Huff, Amber Kerr-Allison, Arwen Mohun, Colleen Terry and Bess Williamson.

Article by Sue Moncure
Photo by Doug Baker