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110-01: Texts and Power: Foundations of Cultural Studies

122-01: The Roman World

126-01: Media Institutions

128-01: Film Analysis And Visual Culture

232-01: Victorian Literature

272-01: Social Theories

294-01: Russian Literary Theory: Formalists, Bakhtin & Company

294-02: U.S. Jews and the Media

334: Cultural Studies and the Media

357: Advanced Journalism: Print

376: Critical Social Theory and the Media

488: Advanced Topics Seminar: Advanced Film Analysis

110-01: Texts and Power: Foundations of Cultural Studies

TR 9:40 - 11:10 a.m. OLRI 301, Professor John Kim

This course introduces students to the intellectual roots and contemporary applications of cultural studies, including critical media studies, focusing on the theoretical bases for analyses of power and meaning in production, texts, and reception. It includes primary readings in anti-racist, feminist, modern, postmodern, and queer cultural and social theory, and compares them to traditional approaches to the humanities. Designed as preparation for intermediate and advanced work grounded in cultural studies, the course is writing intensive, with special emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking and scholarly argumentation and documentation. Completion of or enrollment in HMCS 110 is the prerequisite for majoring in humanities and media and cultural studies. (4 credits)

122-01 The Roman World
(Crosslisted with History 122-01 and Classics 122-01)

TR 3:00-4:30 p.m. MAIN 002, Professor Andrew Overman

This course introduces students to the Roman world, which at its height stretched from Britain to Iran, from Germany to Africa, and lasted well over a thousand years. Students will develop critical thinking skills while working with Roman literature in translation, art, architecture and other archaeological remains. The structure of the course is chronological, but we will examine major themes across time and space, which may include the development of Roman literature out of and in response to Greek culture; the effects of the civil wars and the resulting political change from a republic to a monarchy; the cultural, religious and/or military aspects of the Roman empire and its immediate aftermath; Roman conceptions of gender, sexuality, slave and free status, citizenship and/or ethnicity, and how these social categories were used to legitimize or exercise power. Alternate years. (4 credits)

126-01: Media Institutions

TBA

An analysis of the major forces that determine media production and distribution. Topics include the political economy of media, ownership and government regulation, systems of power within media organizations, and the influence of advertisers on news and programming practices as well as on media access and diversity. Students will examine contemporary commercial media practices and structures in light of comparative, historical, and potential alternatives. (4 credits)

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128-01: Film Analysis And Visual Culture

TR 1:20 - 3:50 p.m. HUM 401, Professor Clay Steinman

Suitable for first year students; first day attendance required; mandatory film screenings TBA.

This course explores the nature of visual representation, building from a focus on the formal analysis of cinema (the basic features of film form and style) and developing tools of visual textual analysis applicable to all visual media (photography, television, digital and graphic representations of all kinds). We start by concentrating on the basic features of cinematic form: narrative and non-narrative structure, the shot, editing, sound, and the construction of film style. Students will gain a familiarity with cinematic elements and vocabulary, and practice in formalist critical analysis. Students will also make an abstract video. Following an introduction to cultural studies, we will apply the tools and insights of film analysis to various studies of visual representation, in film and other forms of visual culture, including: television, photography, journalism, advertising, and art. The primary goal of the course is to develop a set of analytical tools that can be used to illuminate all forms of visual representation and their aesthetic, cultural, and social implications. (4 credits)

232-01: Victorian Literature

TR 9:40 - 11:10 a.m. MAIN 010, Professor Robert Warde

Crosslisted with ENGL 232-01; First day attendance required

A study of British literature and culture from the 1830s to about 1900, emphasizing poetry and non-fiction prose alongside fiction. Authors include Alfred Tennyson, Harriet Martineau, Matthew Arnold, Christina Rossetti, Margaret Oliphant, William Morris, Algernon Swinburne, John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle, and John Stuart Mill. This course focuses on literary and historical developments of the period: the industrial revolution, the rise of domesticity, the development of realism, the emergence of the detective novel. Critical readings might locate poetry and fiction in the context of Victorian music, painting, and architecture. Alternate years. (4 credits)

272-01: Social Theories

M 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. CARN 305, Professor Khaldoun Samman

Crosslisted with SOCI 272-01.

This course provides an overview of the key concepts and theories that have informed sociological perspectives on the complex and varied dimensions of human sociability. Class readings, discussions, and assignments explore the contributions of classical and contemporary sociologists to ongoing debates over the origins and nature of the great transformation: the transition from feudal, agrarian societies to modern, industrialized ones governed by emergent nation-states. The course also examines contemporary revisions and extensions of classical theories accompanying the reconstruction of the political, economic, and cultural landscapes of modern societies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Further, the course surveys recent trends in theoretical scholarship devoted to understanding important social issues of contemporary relevance. Prerequisite: one 100-level course in sociology, Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies 110: Text and Power, or permission of the instructor. Every year. (4 credits)

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294-01: Russian Literary Theory: Formalists, Bakhtin and Company

MWF 10:50-11:50 a.m. HUM 216, Professor Gitta Hammarberg

This course provides an overview of the history of film from the early 1940s, examining aesthetic, industrial, social, and theoretical topics in a variety of national and cultural contexts. Discussions, lectures, and screenings emphasize international commercial and alternative styles and their determinants. Why and how did alternative styles develop against and within the Hollywood system? The course explores issues of racism and gender as well as connections between the history of film and postwar transformations, with particular attention to the effects on filmmaking of the Cold War in the United States and of post colonial struggles in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Several papers are required. Prerequisite: sophomore status or permission of instructor. Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies 248, Film History, 1894–1941, is not a prerequisite, but students who have completed that course will be encouraged to engage in independent research. Alternate years. (4 credits)

294-02: US Jews and the Media

MW 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. HUM 401, Professor Clay Steinman

This semester's senior seminar will focus on U.S. Jews and the Media, with an emphasis on five topics: Yiddish cinema, Jews and race in Hollywood, Jews and Communists in Hollywood, feminist and queer approaches to gendered film and TV representations of Jews, and controversies over news coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Students will complete a seminar paper of independent scholarship on one of these or a related topic, applying what they have learned in other courses in their major focus, as well as present their work at a concluding mini-conference. Except insofar as they affect media representations, the course will not cover religious or Palestinian-Israeli issues. An interest in twentieth century U.S. Jewish history and media representations is essential, as there will be extensive background readings and screenings in both areas. Prerequisite: HMCS 110 (Texts and Power: Foundations of Cultural Studies), or HMCS 128 (Film Analysis and Visual Culture), or permission of instructor. Non-majors are welcome if they have taken one of the prerequisites or a comparable course that covered the semiotics of race and of cultural difference, and the relations between power and cultural discourses. In exceptional cases, students with sufficient preparation may take the seminar prior to their senior year. Students may take more than one HMCS senior seminar as long as content varies. Cross-listed with HMCS 488-01.

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334: Cultural Studies and the Media

MWF 12:00 -1:00 p.m. HUM 113, Professor Leola Johnson

Crosslisted with AMST 334-01

An overview of contemporary approaches to media as culture, a determining as well as determined sphere in which people make sense of the world, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, identity, and social inequality. Students develop tools for analyzing media texts and accounts of audience responses derived from the international field of cultural studies and from the social theory on which it draws. Analysis emphasizes specificity of media texts, including advertisements, films, news reports, and television shows. Experience in cooperative discussion, research, and publication. Every year. (4 credits)

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357: Advanced Journalism: Print

TR 1:00 -2:30 p.m. HUM 228, Doug Stone

Writing and production of news, feature, and documentary stories for radio, television, and news media. The course stresses effective script writing and the development of a strong sense of journalistic ethics in an electronic environment. Emphasis is placed on frequent visits with practicing journalists and policy makers, on-site visits to electronic newsrooms, and field news assignments on campus and throughout the Twin Cities. Students will produce video, audio, and Internet stories. The course also examines the changing role of the media and the impact of electronic media and broadcast journalists on politics, government, education, and the legal system. Prerequisite: News Reporting and Writing (114) or permission of instructor. Alternate years. (4 credits)

376: Critical Social Theory and the Media

MW 1:10 - 2:40 p.m. HUM 401, Professor Clay Steinman

Studies of the contributions critical social theory has made to research oriented toward democratic communication. Class discussion evaluates the social uses of theories and probes assumptions and values embedded within them. A research paper allows each student to examine one theory or theoretical issue in detail. Prerequisite: Texts and Power: Foundations of Cultural Studies (Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies 110), or permission of instructor. Alternate years. (4 credits)

488: Advanced Topics Seminar: Advanced Film Analysis

MWF 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. OLRI 370, Professor John Kim

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