This course connects contemporary art practice with centuries-old traditions and emergent craft discourse through a sustained engagement with critical readings in craft theory and history. This course is designed for material-based makers in all disciplines, studio artists working across mediums, craft renegades, fiber collectivists, and any other practitioner with a common interest in critical making, material processes, performativity, alternative economies, and the creation of meaning through the nuances of material. Through lecture, reading, discussion, research, and writing, students will deepen their critical understanding of material histories in relation to gender, race, labor, and class, and be better able to locate and articulate their own practice within the current landscape of materiality and meaning.