AES_205 Archaeology of Waste and Things

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2021
Extent and Intensity
4/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Daniel Sosna, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Klára Šabatová, Ph.D. (assistant)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Daniel Sosna, Ph.D.
Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Šibíčková
Supplier department: Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
each odd Wednesday 12:00–15:40 M22
Prerequisites
KREDITY_MIN(80)
critical thinking, ability to use scholarly literature including texts in English, ability to participate in scholarly discussions, ability to create scholarly texts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The goal is to introduce waste as a category that carries potential for the reflection of society. Students will be acquainted not only with archaeological but also anthropological, geographic, and economic approaches to waste that place archaeology as part of the larger project of Waste Studies. Attention will be paid to ontology, epistemology, methodology and theory.
Learning outcomes
After completion of the course, student will be able to:
- identify waste as a category that creates space for reflection of society;
- analyse current scientific knowledge about emergence of waste;
- compare and highlight the differences between archaeological as well as anthropological, geographic and economic approaches to waste;
- understand the symbolic dimension of waste.
Syllabus
  • 1. Conceptualisation of waste
  • 2. Things, places, organisms, humans
  • 3. Contemporary research on waste
Literature
  • Reno JO. 2009. Your Trash Is Someone's Treasure: The Politics of Value at a Michigan Landfill. Journal of Material Culture 14:29-46.
  • Alexander C, and Reno J, (Eds.) 2012. Economies of recycling: the global transformation of materials, values and social relations. London: Zed Books
  • Olsen B. 2010. In defense of things: archaeology and the ontology of objects. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
  • Olsen B, and Pétursdóttir Þ. 2014. Ruin Memories: Materialities, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past. New York: Routledge.
  • Gonzalez-Ruibal A. 2008. Time to destroy - An archaeology of supermodernity. Current Anthropology 49(2):247-279.
  • Reno JO. 2014. Toward a New Theory of Waste: From 'Matter out of Place' to Signs of Life. Theory, Culture & Society 31(6):3-27.
  • Shanks M, Plat D, and Rathje WL. 2004. The perfume of garbage: Modernity and the archaeological. Modernism/Modernity 11(1):61-83.
  • Sosna D, and Brunclíková L, (Eds). 2017. Archaeologies of waste: encounters with the unwanted. Oxford: Oxbow Books. Sosna D, and Brunclíková L. 2015. Odpad pohledem společenských věd: metodická příručka. Plzeň: Západočeská univerzita. Witmore CL. 2007. S
  • Rathje W, and Murphy C. 2001. Rubbish!: The archaeology of garbage. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Teaching methods
Lecturing with discussion, discussion, multimedia teaching, review of term papers.
Assessment methods
Evaluation of students’ participation in discussions, evaluation of term paper, oral exam.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught once in three years.
General note: Doporučujeme předmět pro studenty magisterského studia.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2021/AES_205