Mastodons, Mermaids, and Dioramas: Capturing Nature in America Why did 18th-century museums stuff and mount exotic and domestic animals? Why does the American Museum of Natural History still house dioramas of so-called native peoples hunting?  How has the study and staging of nature transferred into various kinds of artistic expression?  In this course we will examine the intertwining of art, science, and ecology in the United States from the 1700s to the present day. Objects of study will include museum dioramas, scientific models, artifacts and artworks collected during scientific expeditions, and the work of Walton Ford and Christy Rupp, contemporary artists whose work engages ecological issues. (not open to students who have taken FYSE 1447)

Viewer Discretion Advised: Controversies in American Art & Museums, 1876-Present What are the “culture wars,” and why do they matter? What ideas are considered too “obscene” for American audiences? In this course we will explore controversies and scandals sparked by public displays of art in the U.S. including: Eakins’s Gross Clinic (1876), seen as too “bloody” for an art exhibition; the U.S. Navy’s objections to Paul Cadmus’s painting of sailors (1934); censorship and NEA budget cuts (Mapplethorpe & Serrano, 1989); backlash to The West as America’s deconstruction of myths of the frontier (1991); tensions surrounding Colonial Williamsburg’s “slave auction” reenactment (1994); debates over the continued display (and occasional defacement) of Confederate monuments in the era of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Material Culture in Focus In this course we will investigate material culture, objects made or altered by human hands and design. We will keep a tight focus on one object or group of objects, cultivating an in-depth understanding and benefitting from access to local collections, curators, makers, and users. The focus will change annually, but the subject will always be an object of material culture that students will examine first-hand and research. Students will then create a lasting documentation and analysis of the work for public benefit, whether as an exhibition, a publication, or a website. This course is part of the Public Humanities Labs Initiative administered by the Axinn Center for the Humanities.  For Winter 2023, we will focus on hair and hairwork, exploring the multivalent meanings of hair in American culture, past and present. Nineteenth-century Americans often saved or exchanged locks of hair as mementos, constructing elaborate items of jewelry or keepsake wreaths that emblematized familial relationships and kinship networks. These tokens could serve memorial purposes or solidify friendships. This material, crafted from the body, was often worn on the body, near the heart, or displayed within the intimate space of the home. In more recent decades, hair has become an activist issue and a potent political medium for artists foregrounding feminism and ethnic or racial identity. In this course, we will study many artifacts of hairwork in local collections, conducting archival research and sharing our findings via a website and exhibition; a studio workshop will give us hands-on experience with Victorian techniques of hairwork. We’ll also consider the work of contemporary artists who use hair as a medium: Janine Antoni, Mark Bradford, Sonya Clark, Aisha Cousins, Wenda Gu, David Hammons, Althea Murphy-Price, Paula Santiago.

American Representations of Crime & Violence In this course we will offer an introduction to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and identity. Integrating a range of sources and methods, we will examine myths, symbols, values, and social changes that have been used to create and contest ideas of "Americanness." Sources for the course will include movies, fiction, political and religious tracts, advertising, TV shows, video games, music, and journalism. This year, we will focus on American portrayals of crime and violence in a wide range of texts and cultural artifacts that provide us with a larger sense of how these representations function in the formation of categories of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, ethics and religion, as well as socio-economic class in American society. Texts and films will range from True Crime to Pulp Fiction and from street photography to pictures of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Vermont Collaborations Public Humanities Lab In collaboration with local archives, museums, and community organizations, we will work closely with primary sources, learning skills of transcription, analysis, and interpretation; in the spirit of Public Humanities, we will share this scholarship with the broader community, whether in the form of an exhibition, a publication, a website, podcasts, or other digital media. The focus will change annually or by sections, but this project-based course will emphasize place-based experiential learning and community partnerships in its critical engagement with histories of collections and archives. This course is part of the Public Humanities Labs Initiative administered by the Axinn Center for the Humanities. *For Spring 2021:* 2021 marks the bicentennial of the birth of Henry Luther Sheldon, founder of Middlebury’s Sheldon Museum of Vermont History (founded 1881). In this course we will mine the Archives of the Sheldon Museum for information about the early years of the museum’s establishment, exploring institutional history, histories of collecting, and local history, alongside a critical investigation of how archives and collections are formed, developed, and made legible (or illegible) to broader publics.

Art and Material Culture of American (US) Middle-class home  In this course we will consider the effects of technology and mechanical reproduction on the United States home, from prints to posters, houseplants to aquariums, mass-produced decorations to home-made crafts. We will also study the culture of at-home visual entertainments, from early “magic lanterns” and optical toys to the effects of televisions and computers on perception and social life. How do race, class, gender, and issues of labor and leisure inflect the middle-class domestic sphere and relate to social concerns outside the home? We will also examine the work of contemporary artists inspired by the aesthetics and social relationships of the United States middle-class home, including Martha Rosler, Mona Hatoum, and Laurie Simmons.

Art and Material Culture of American (US) Middle-class home* In this course we will consider the effects of technology and mechanical reproduction on the United States home, from prints to posters, houseplants to aquariums, mass-produced decorations to home-made crafts. We will also study the culture of at-home visual entertainments, from early “magic lanterns” and optical toys to the effects of televisions and computers on perception and social life. How do race, class, gender, and issues of labor and leisure inflect the middle-class domestic sphere and relate to social concerns outside the home? We will also examine the work of contemporary artists inspired by the aesthetics and social relationships of the United States middle-class home, including Martha Rosler, Mona Hatoum, and Laurie Simmons.

American Literature and Culture: Origins-1830 A study of literary and other cultural forms in early America, including gravestones, architecture, furniture and visual art.  We will consider how writing and these other forms gave life to ideas about religion, diversity, civic obligation and individual rights that dominated not only colonial life but that continue to influence notions of "Americanness" into the present day. Required for all majors and minors.

American Literature and Culture: Origins-1830 (AL) (Pre-1900 AL) A study of literary and other cultural forms in early America, including gravestones, architecture, furniture and visual art.  We will consider how writing and these other forms gave life to ideas about religion, diversity, civic obligation and individual rights that dominated not only colonial life but that continue to influence notions of "Americanness" into the present day. Required for all majors and minors.

Ellery Foutch

Reviews and ratings for Ellery Foutch at Middlebury College.Ellery Foutch teaches Capturing Nature, Controversies in AmArt&Museums, Material Culture in Focus and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Ellery Foutch good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Very interesting project (working with the Sheldon Museum) but frustrating that there was little organization to the class. The syllabus changed a ton from its original version. But the class was very easy and the project was a great learning experience. 

In theory this course is really interesting, but it was a little bit disorganized and we didn't get to the part of the syllabus I was most interested in (creating our own exhibits at the Sheldon museum). It's sort of a "choose your own workload" situation meaning you can either decide to be really into it or not take on any big role in the projects. 

I really enjoyed that we looked at various kinds of things to understand American literature and culture, from primary source texts to a children's primer to contemporary art to Plymouth Rock. I thought this class did a good job of presenting various perspectives as far as the origins of American culture and what studying that can look like. Professor Foutch is an incredibly thoughtful and understanding professor, and I appreciated her flexibility when I sometimes needed to turn in assignments late. I enjoyed many of the assignments for this class (some of them were more creative and some were more traditional research-paper style), I thought there was a good variety. I do think students sometimes found it hard to stay engaged during more lecture-based class days. 