The aim of this course is to learn how to start a museum by creating an exhibition and
digital resource that concentrates on the history, legacy, and daily workings of New York City's
Department of Sanitation. Students will be trained in methodologies of museum collecting,
documentation and preservation, and will actively participate as researchers and fieldworkers
in the development of this resource. This collections-based research project will be contextualized
within a broader theoretical discussion about the role of rubbish in society, regimes of values
surrounding different kinds of material culture, the history of the Department of Sanitation in
New York, the sociality and experience of being on the job, and the broader representation of labor,
especially of invisible labors of maintenance workers.
Please note that this course has an intensive time commitment: whilst many of the field projects,
including the mounting of an exhibition to held at a Department of Sanitation venue and at NYU, will take
place during class time, additional time will be expected of students to pursue not only the weekly
class readings but to undertake weekly structured field research, which will build up an archive.
Relevant training will be given in oral history collection, digital photography and sound recording.