ISP 242 Stuff: An Investigation into the Meaning of Things
How many times a day are we told that we can change our lives by acquiring new things? It happens so often that one might almost presume that our possessions are a better indicator of our identity than our character is. This course will take this situation as a starting point. It will investigate the practices, relations, and rituals through which physical objects become valuable and meaningful to ourselves and to society. It will examine how our possessions represent ideas, identities, or ideologies and how they become symbols of status or group affiliation. In this course, students will learn to analyze and understand material things from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Notes
This course satisfies the Flexible Core: Individual and Society area of the Gen Ed Program.