IRFL20090

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify and describe forms of vernacular material culture in Ireland and comparative contexts;

2. Contextualise material objects within processes of transmission, variation, and innovation;

3. Apply (auto-)ethnographic methods to document material culture forms and their related traditions;

4. Analyse material culture as multisensory phenomena within domestic, productive, and ritual contexts;

5. Use tradition archives and folklife museum collections to research material culture;

6. Analyse human-environment relationships through tangible forms of vernacular expression and practice;

7. Produce and present a material object biography using primary and secondary sources.

Student Effort Hours:

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

Teaching in this module promotes a spirit of enquiry and encourages students to develop a reflexive approach to the study of material culture and vernacular tradition. Teaching is carried out in lectures and group discussion. The following teaching and learning approaches are employed:

Lectures: introduce foundational scholarship in folklife studies, key forms of vernacular material culture, and case studies from Ireland and beyond;

Group discussion: explores objects through multisensory experience, attending to how things sound, feel, and carry weight within the spaces they inhabit;

Guided observation: encourages students to notice vernacular dwelling, seasonal custom, and the dynamics of everyday and celebratory life in their own surroundings;

Case-based learning: examination of specific objects, sites, and traditions from Ireland, the North Atlantic, and beyond;

Reflexive writing: connects course material with students' own experience and social worlds;

Active archival learning: hands-on engagement with primary sources, including materials in the National Folklore Collection and on dúchas.ie;

Student presentations: the Objects in Action assignment involves presentation of a material object biography drawing on primary and secondary sources.

Central to the module is the recognition that folklore and ethnology address creative practices shaped by, and shaping, everyday life: practices realised through person-to-person communication and shared social experience. Students are encouraged to bring curiosity and close attention to the material world around them, and to develop confidence in using archival collections and (auto-)ethnographic observation as tools for understanding vernacular tradition.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.

Module Requisites and Incompatibles

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy

 

Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.