GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN MATERIAL HISTORIES OF THE HUMAN RECORD
The archive, the book: our ability to bear witness, hold history to account, and imagine a more just future is at the core of the humanities as a scholarly project. The certificate in Material Histories of the Human Record is designed to expose students to multiple forms of expertise within Yale’s special collections libraries, equip emerging scholars with new analytical skills, and teach them the methodologies that scholars, librarians, archivists, conservators, and curators employ as they preserve, interrogate, and steward the human record. Drawing on Yale Libraries’ extraordinary collections and staff expertise, and the ongoing faculty interest in the histories and politics of archives, the material text, and metadata, a graduate certificate in Material Histories of the Human Record fosters innovation at the interstices and intersections of disciplines.
“Material histories” signals an expansive interest in a wide variety of materials and media—not only manuscripts, written documents and paper-based records, but also papyrus fragments, tablets, photographs, film, textile, audio, three-dimensional works, and other formats. The purview of the certificate also necessarily includes an engagement with the opportunities and challenges of new digital methods for preservation, cataloging, and research. Areas of particular focus for the certificate may include: archival studies and theories of archives; global histories of the book; material formats and their histories; the non-neutrality of metadata; privacy and questions of evidence; social injustice in/and/as the historical record; preservation and conservation science; international law, the book trade, and provenance.
Eligibility
The Certificate is aimed at students currently in the first and second years of their doctoral programs. However, we welcome applications from students in advanced years (Year 3 and above) who have already completed substantial coursework in the broad field of Material Histories of the Human Record. In such cases, we will work closely with the students’ DGS and dissertation advisor to determine whether and how the student might reasonably complete the certificate without detriment to their advancement through the doctoral degree. When completing the application such students should clearly indicate why it would be beneficial for them to complete the certificate at this later stage in their academic trajectory.
Connect with Yale Material Histories:
Email: lucy.mulroney@yale.edu & ayesha.ramachandran@yale.edu
Key Contacts
Program Directors: Lucy Mulroney & Ayesha Ramachandran
Registrar: Fallon Colavolpe (fallon.colavolpe@yale.edu)