The following excerpt is from the article by Emily Putnam. The full article, “Decoding the Decades: Looking at Canada in the 1980s in New Object-based History Course,” can be viewed online.
A brand-new history course called From Walkmans to West Edmonton Mall: The material culture of the 1980s in Canada offers a hands-on exploration of object-based research, shedding light on the cultural shifts and iconic artifacts that defined a generation.
The upcoming full-year, fourth-year course (2024-2025) on the eccentric 1980s was created as part of the Students as Partners Program (SaPP) and in collaboration with Ingenium. It will offer an immersive experience to students, allowing them to explore, observe, and even use authentic items from a national museum’s collection of signature objects from ‘the decade of decadence.’
But as History Professor James Opp, co-creator of the course, explains, the cultural world of the 80s was a lot more complex than how it is often caricatured in contemporary media.
Notably, the course will allow students to tell new stories about the objects in creative ways, working in multi-media formats that link the object to the sounds and sights of the decade.
While Opp and Mortimer will encourage students to use new media and technology for their work in the course, they will urge them to venture beyond nostalgia and deeply consider the impact of new technologies in a pre-digital world.