Lectures and tutorials are supplemented by hands-on exercises in museums and local communities. Students will apply theoretical lenses to understand how objects – relics, icons, effigies, charms, amulets – are transformed through, and become instruments of, rituals that control, placate, or please the supernatural world. The course brings together a range of disciplines and perspectives to contextualize and to challenge our perception of the material manifestations of magic.
Lectures and tutorials are supplemented by hands-on exercises in museums and local communities. Students will apply theoretical lenses to understand how objects – relics, icons, effigies, charms, amulets – are transformed through, and become instruments of, rituals that control, placate, or please the supernatural world. The course brings together a range of disciplines and perspectives to contextualize and to challenge our perception of the material manifestations of magic.
