This is an innovative course that will provide undergraduate students with hands-on experience with an exciting museum exhibition that will be coming soon to the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). That exhibition, “Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina,” is a groundbreaking traveling exhibition that reexamines the role that African Americans played in the arts and industries of the antebellum south. The exhibition opened on September 9th, 2022 at the Metropolitan Museum (The MET) in New York City and has been described by The New York Times as “revelatory.” Students in the course will engage in team-based learning in faculty-led initiatives to prepare for the arrival of the exhibition at UMMA during Fall 2023. In advance of the show’s opening, students will work closely and collaboratively with UMMA staff to address issues related to ethics, redress, and best practices for museums and other institutions interested in displaying work that was originally produced by enslaved artisans.

This course is interdisciplinary and will be especially attractive to students interested in museum studies, public history, literature, anthropology, material culture, and African American studies. History 441 expands our understanding of the artistic ambitions, ingenuity, lived experiences, and material knowledge of enslaved peoples, and it promises to broaden our appreciation for the contributions that enslaved African Americans made to nineteenth-century art and culture.

No prerequisites are required for this course, and no prior experience with the topic is necessary. All are welcome.

Intended Audience:

Open to all students

Class Format:

Seminar/Practicum