The Material Culture Institute is based in the Department of Human Ecology, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, and the Faculty of Arts.
The aim of the Material Culture Institute is to devise programming, conferences, symposia and visiting speakers, that will offer a multi-disciplinary perspective on past and present societies, advancing research into human interaction with built environments and materials goods of all sorts.
Through our programming we will explore objects and their meanings as these are found in urban and rural contexts, and within local, national, and international settings.
We will consider peoples of the past and present in relation to their material goods, recognizing the interrelationships that exist through the production, consumption, and distribution of material artifacts.
Alberta’s rich legacy of objects, found in public and private collections, in urban and rural settings forms part of our focus.
But the Material Culture Institute also focuses on the rich cross-cultural and socio-historical exchange of social and cultural material knowledge.