Humanities and Media and 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)

114: News Reporting and Writing

W 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. Nick Coleman

This class offers an introduction to writing, reporting, and news-gathering techniques associated with newspaper journalism. Readings, lectures, and discussions are applied to the coverage of events on the Macalester campus as well as to major events in the outside community—the 2008 elections, for example. The class typically meets with Twin Cities journalists and may serve as a springboard to internship opportunities in the media. (4 credits)

122-01 The Roman World

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

Crosslisted with History 122-01 and Classics 122-01

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: Local Media Institutions

TR, 3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. OLRI 250, Professor Mike Griffin

This course is an analysis of the major community, industrial, political, and regulatory factors shaping media production, distribution, access, and civic participation, with special attention to local Twin Cities media organizations and current initiatives for media innovation and reform. Topics include the political economy of media production and distribution, ownership and control, government regulation, systems of power within media organizations, the influence of advertisers on news and programming practices as well as on media access and diversity, and the creation of new media networks and local community-based media activities. Following an overview of contemporary commercial media practices and structures in light of contemporary, historical, and potential alternatives, students will pursue class projects that explore and report on specific media organizations and community media initiatives in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Opportunities for field observations and study will include local commercial, community, and public media organizations and new media initiatives. Every year. (4 credits)

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)

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

Cross-listed with AMST 294-06

U.S. Jews and the Media will emphasize five topics: Yiddish cinema (with English subtitles), Jews and race in pre-1950s Hollywood, Jews and Communists in Hollywood, feminist and queer approaches to gendered media representations of Jews, and the controversy over scholarship about journalism and 'The Israel Lobby' - all in the context of critical race theory. Written work will include three essay tests and a short research paper, although students who have taken HMCS 128, Film Analysis and Visual Culture, will be invited to do extensive original research. Except insofar as they affect media representations, the course will not cover theological or Palestinian-Israeli issues. No prerequisites, but 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.

294-04: German Cinema Studies - Movies of the Third Reich

MWF 09:40-10:40 a.m. HUM 401 Linda Schulte-Sasse

Cross-listed with GERM 255-01

294-05: Race and Sound in Modern American Culture

M 07:00 pm-10:00 pm HUM 217 Daniel Gilbert

Cross-listed with AMST 294-03; first day attendance required

This seminar examines sound as a fundamental form of racialized experience, creativity and struggle in the modern history of the United States. Readings and class discussions examine a range of components of the modern soundscape, including the development of key genres of performed and recorded popular music (such as forms of blues, country, jazz and salsa), the political uses and meanings of radio and sound film, and the history of call centers, ring tones and other components of racialized sonic experience. Seminar participants design and write substantial essays on elements of race and sound in modern American culture.

294-06: Baseball - The Cultural Politics of Race, Gender and Nation

MWF 10:50 a.m.-11:50 a.m., HUM 112, Professor Daniel Gilbert

Cross-listed with AMST 294-04; first day attendance required

From its early development within the nationalisms of the 19th century to its contemporary place amid the currents of globalization, baseball has been both a pervasive and contested form of modern mass culture. This course examines the ways in which baseball’s players, owners, writers and fans have made the sport a central stage for the elaboration of a range of political, economic and cultural projects. Key topics include: the racial segregation and integration of teams and leagues, the construction of masculinity and femininity on the playing field and in media representations, the transnational configuration of player development and recruitment, the history of players’ unions, and the territorial struggles that have shaped ballparks and stadiums. In addition to key selections from the scholarly literature, readings will include a range of primary sources and cultural texts, from first-hand accounts to fiction, film and visual art. Prior engagement with baseball is NOT a prerequisite for this class. All students interested in the cultural politics of race, gender and nation are welcome.

294-07: British Youth Subcultures: 1945 - Present

M 7:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m., MAIN 009, Professor Casey Jarrin

Cross-listed with ENGL 294-01; first day attendance required

334-01: Cultural Studies and the Media

MWF 10:50-11:50 a.m. HUM 402, 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)

357-01: Advanced Journalism: Print and Internet

TR 1:20 -2:50 p.m. HUM 228, Doug Stone

Writing and reporting of news, feature and commentaries for print and new media. The course will stress effective writing and reporting and the development of a strong sense of journalistic ethics in a changing media environment. Emphasis will be placed on frequent visits with practicing journalists and policy makers, on-site visits to newsrooms and field news assignments on campus and throughout the Twin Cities. A class project will produce a special report for print and the Web. The course also will examine the changing role of the media and the impact of media on politics, government, education and the legal system. The course is taught by a 20-year veteran print and broadcast journalist, former U.S. Senate press secretary and former director of college relations. Prerequisite: HMCS 114 (News Reporting and Writing) /consent of the instructor. (4 credits)

376-01: Critical Social Theory and the Media

MW 1:10 - 2:40 p.m. OLRI 300, 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)

392-01: Critical Race Theory

M 12:00 - 1:00 p.m., HUM 112, Professor Leola Johnson

Course for Mellon Program students only; instructor approval required; crosslisted with AMST 392-01

394-01: Twentieth Century British Novel: Diasporic London

MWF 3:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m., OLRI 300, Professor Casey Jarrin

Cross-listed with ENGL 394-01; first day attendance required

394-02: Critical Issues in Video Practice

F 1:10 p.m.-4:30 p.m., HUM 404, Jenny Lion

First day attendance required

An advanced practical seminar exploring critical issues involved in video production and curation, treating both production and curation as forms of authorship. In addition to individual projects, which are to be completed outside of class, students will be expected to do a significant amount of reading and presentations on the texts. Class participation is required. Weekly film/video viewings will be scheduled additional to class time or put on reserve. Previous technical knowledge will be helpful, as well as background in the history of media and of video and/or film. Recommended prerequisite is Artists' and Experimental Video or equivalent. Additional screening times TBA

488-01: Advanced Topics Seminar: New Media

W 7:00 - 10:00 p.m., Professor John Kim

Permission of instructor required; first day attendance required

Course will meet in the computer lab, Humanities 302. This capstone seminar is an opportunity for students in HMCS to use the skills they have acquired in previous coursework on new media and culture. This year's seminar will have a core civic engagement component. In close collaboration with the Civic Engagement Center at Macalester, students will work with various Twin Cities community organizations in creating a range of new media projects. The goal of this seminar is to encourage students to apply the knowledge and tools gained in the classroom to issues affecting local communities and new media's role in promoting the public interest. Students are expected to produce work that demonstrates high-level skills in reading, writing, research, editing, self-critical analytical thinking and new media production, culminating in high quality public presentations. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. Preference given to students who have taken Texts and Power: Foundations of Cultural Studies and Introduction to New Media.

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