Visual Thinking and Visualization Technology: Teaching Material Culture in 2026

New visualization technologies have made it possible for scholars and students to look even more closely at material culture. How do we bring humanities methods into conversation with scientific analysis in our classrooms? In this interactive program, Cynthia Turner Camp (University of Georgia) will offer a live demonstration of how she teaches undergraduates to communicate different kinds of specialist knowledge to a broader audience. In the second half of the program,  Dr. Camp will join in a conversation with instructors of Yale’s “Technologies of the Book” course (Ayesha Ramachandran, Anikó Bezur, Richard Hark), about the ways they have created collaborative, project-based classrooms centered on material culture. Our program will culminate in a pedagogical discussion with and among all participants about activating objects to spark student learning. 

Audience: Instructors, scholars, and staff of all ranks and disciplines; undergraduates interested in material culture.

Part 1: Exploring the Book (9:30 to 10:05)

This interactive session, led by Cynthia Turner Camp, will demonstrate how to engage a wide audience using material culture. We’ll begin with a joint exploration of the Olivetan Gradual, a massive and lavishly decorated manuscript designed to be read simultaneously by multiple singers in religious services. After investigating the object together, we’ll think about the challenges of sharing seemingly arcane knowledge with a public audience.

This demonstration will be 30 minutes in length – afterwards, we will discuss the pedagogical practices that activate objects in the classroom, from scientific visualization to historical inquiry. In addition to instructors, scholars, and staff, undergraduates are warmly invited. Undergraduates are welcome to stay for the entire program, offering their perspective as students to our discussion. 

Part 2: Teaching Material Culture (10:05 to 11)

In this two-part conversation, we will debrief the strategies demonstrated in the first segment of the program, and then explore how our featured instructors have activated scientific analysis alongside close-looking in their classrooms. We will then open up the discussion to our audience, discussing the challenges and rewards of teaching with material culture, along with the new questions that materials analysis raises in our teaching and our scholarship. Instructors, scholars and staff of all ranks and disciplines are most welcome, as are undergraduates attending the demonstration. 

This program is made possible by generous support from the Yale Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, COSMOS, and the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning.