Catalog Course Descriptions
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Cultural Studies Courses
Undergraduate
Examines cultures in globalization, with special attention to the role of technologies and new media. Provides historical and contemporary contexts for understanding the relationships among circuits of production and consumption; population flows; social inequalities and collective identities; globalizations from "above" and "below;" built and natural environments. Limited to three attempts.
Topics of current interest in interdisciplinary cultural studies, covering such fields as media, popular culture, political economy, social identities, or regions in globalization. Notes: May be repeated for credit when topic is different. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 9 credits.
Graduate
Historical survey of principal works and theories in the development of cultural studies. Notes: This course is designed for PhD level students. Students in a related MA program may take this course as the capstone to their MA as they are about to matriculate into the PhD in cultural studies. May not be repeated for credit.
Continues the historical survey of cultural studies up to the present and assesses possibilities for future development. May not be repeated for credit.
Introduces research methods in cultural studies. Notes: Specific topics vary. May not be repeated for credit.
Forum for presentation of original and current research in cultural studies. Notes: Students register for 1 credit per semester over a three-semester period. May be repeated within the degree for a maximum 4 credits.
Surveys social science and humanities classics that relate cultural production and consumption to underlying political economic conditions. Includes Marx, Lukacs, Frankfurt School, semiotic neo-Marxism, productivist theories of power indebted to Foucault, Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Harvey, Jameson, Mauss, Mill, Polanyi, Sahlins, A. Smith, and Weber. Notes: This course is designed for the PhD student. Those students not admitted to a PhD program are required to contact the instructor. May not be repeated for credit.
Examines theories, production, consumption, and reception of visual culture. Covers film, video, visual arts, music, display, ritual, performance, performativity, and theories of the aesthetic. Includes key readings from theorists such as Adorno, Artaud, Benjamin, Brecht, Bryson, Doane, Fiske, Heath, Marcuse, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre. Notes: This course is designed for the PhD student. Those students not admitted to a PhD program are required to contact the instructor. May not be repeated for credit.
Investigates notion of gender functions in maintaining and analyzing issues of social and cultural power. Examines conflicting notions of sexuality and their role in cultural signification. Seeks to explicate relationship of sexuality, gender. Notes: This course is designed for the PhD student. Those students not admitted to a PhD program are required to contact the instructor. May not be repeated for credit.
Considers theories and major debates on culture of science, social construction of nature, and effects of technology on modern cultural forms. Includes readings from theorists such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Feyerabend, Bahro, Haraway, and Latour. Notes: This course is designed for the PhD student. Those students not admitted to a PhD program are required to contact the instructor. May not be repeated for credit.
Considers theories of institutional practice and social structures, from Max Weber to Michel Foucault. Covers prisons, bureaucracies, museums, schools, political parties, and social movements. Notes: This course is designed for the PhD student. Those students not admitted to a PhD program are required to contact the instructor. May not be repeated for credit.
Surveys racial, ethnic, caste, and national identities in colonial contexts; the changing shape of the world system and reactions to it from the era of colonial conquest to the age of globalization. Special attention to anti-colonial critiques, postcolonial works, and the present shape of global inequalities. Notes: This course is designed for the PhD student. Those students not admitted to a PhD program are required to contact the instructor. May not be repeated for credit.
Introduces foundational scholarship in race and cultural studies. Investigates the role of race in maintaining and analyzing issues of social and cultural power. Examines conflicting notions of race and ethnicity and their historical emergence in different times and places. May not be repeated for credit.
Specialized interdisciplinary topics in cultural theory and analysis. Notes: These courses are designed for the PhD student. Those students not admitted to a PhD program are required to contact the instructor. Topics vary. May be repeated for credit when topic is different. May be repeated within the term.
Reading and research on a specific topic guided by advisors, supporting the development of a Field Concentration. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 15 credits.
Intensive research course, resulting in a Field Statement and oral defense. Notes: Requires permission of field advisor. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 6 credits.
Develop research proposal that forms basis for doctoral dissertation. Notes: A maximum of 6 credits may be applied to the degree. Subject to continuous registration requirement. May be repeated within the degree for a maximum 24 credits.
Doctoral dissertation research and writing under direction of dissertation committee. May be repeated within the degree.
