Class Schedules

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 MCST 110 is the prerequisite for majoring in media and cultural studies.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this course students analyze the social, cultural, economic, political, and regulatory factors shaping the nature of US communications media, and then investigate how this affects local media organizations and their role in recognizing, serving and facilitating (or not) local populations, communities, interaction, identity, and civic engagement. Considering the history and practices of American journalism, and the current shifts in media technology and economics, the class examines the degree to which media function to provide effective access to news and information, foster diversity of content, encourage civic engagement, and serve the interest of citizens and diverse communities in a democratic society. Individual student projects for the course begin by identifying particular geographic, ethnic, or cultural neighborhoods and communities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, and proceed to explore the degree to which these communities are recognized, defined, or served by various media institutions and journalism practice. Students explore various attempts to revitalize local communication, news delivery and civic discourse through experiments in community media, citizen journalism, community-based news aggregation, media arts, community service and other media innovations and reforms across neighborhood, ethnic, immigrant, gender, sexuality, and other public issues and community participation.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces the aesthetics of film as well as selected issues in contemporary film studies. Its aesthetic approach isolates the features that constitute film as a distinct art form: narrative or non-narrative structure, staging, cinematography, editing, and sound. Topics in contemporary film studies that might be considered include one or more of the following: cultural studies and film, industrial organization and globalization, representations of gender and race, and theories of authorship, horror, and spectatorship. Several papers, a test covering basic film terms, and a short video project emphasizing abstract form are required. Suitable for first year students.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Global media collectively have tremendous influence in how many see and comprehend the world and therefore on the information and beliefs upon which they feel or act. While media are central to the continued production of a sense of "the world" at large or the "global" scale, media industries are situated geographically, culturally and institutionally. Even if they promise worldwide coverage or are multinational companies, there is much to be gained from studying how media are produced and distributed differently according to specific social, political, economic and historical conditions. This course considers media industries around the world with a focus on the relationships between the labor and infrastructures behind representations in a broad range of media (television, radio, cinema, news, telecommunications, internet).

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is designed as a basic introduction to digital video production. The objective of the class is to familiarize students of film theory and history with the language of cinema from the standpoint of production in order to deepen your appreciation and knowledge of the technical aspects of film/video and to develop your capacity to use video as a tool for research and communication. In this way, the course will be a combination of technical instruction, critical engagement, and creative exploration. We will analyze and employ a variety of filmmaking techniques as well as constructing narrative and non-narrative strategies for doing so. The focus of the course will be to familiarize you with some basic conventions of experimental, documentary, and narrative cinema. In each assignment, you will be encouraged to think about how formal decisions enhance and further narrative or thematic elements. We will thus pay very close attention to formal aspects of cinematic production: mise-en-scene. cinematography, editing, and sound design. In addition to this attention to form, success in the class will be dependent on a commitment to working through the technical aspects of video production (camera operation, lighting, editing software) in order to create short, original video pieces.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This discussion-based course is entirely focused on Bruce Lee, the actor and leading martial arts icon of the 20th century. Using American Studies and Critical Race Studies frames to examine the construction of racialized and gendered bodies, we will discuss Bruce Lee in terms of his biography, identities, politics, philosophy, and filmography. We will take time to appreciate the entertainment value and athleticism that Bruce Lee brought to his work, but we will also learn to distinguish the commercialized, commodified Bruce Lee (from t-shirts to posters to action figures) from the serious historical figure who symbolized the spirit of cultural independence and political sovereignty around the world. Among the required books and movies: The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, and "Way of the Dragon" (1972).

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

We are living through another wave of popular interest in “cults” and “cultists,” manifesting in true crime podcasts (Escaping NXIVM, Heaven’s Gate), television documentaries (Wild Wild Country, The Deep End), fictional horror or thriller stories (Midsommar, The Idol, Martha Marcy May Marlene), and historical dramatizations (Waco, The Master). These cultural works use the “cult” designation (with all its connotations and associated narratives) to label and make sense of a range of religious, political, economic, and social practices, ideas, and organizations, both contemporary and historical. This course aims to look critically at these media texts and the larger popular fascination with “cults.” In analyzing these narratives about religion, power, charisma, and commitment, we will not primarily focus on the so-called “cultists” being represented, but on the audiences that consume and interpret the stories and the cultural contexts that give rise to them. Looking closely at these images and narratives can reveal popular anxieties and ways of thinking about power and agency, identity and subjectivity, spirituality and secularism, and individuality and collectivity, for instance. Importantly, many of these historical and contemporary treatments also act as powerful sites for working out ideas about race, gender, and sexuality. Our approach will be theoretical and analytical as we examine key historical case studies from the second half of the 20th century (including media engagements with People’s Temple, the Black liberation group MOVE, and the Branch Davidians) and more contemporary examples (including MLM and crypto groups, NXIVM, and Teal Swan).

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Cultural heritage sites, including libraries, archives and museums, have existed in some shape or form for a very long time. Computers, on the other hand, have only been a part of these institutions for about sixty years. Although technologies offer more efficient and cost-effective ways to store and disseminate information and promise greater accessibility to materials, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they successfully facilitate the missions of these cultural heritage sites or the needs of their visitors. Why is this the case? Do digital technologies truly have the potential to decentralize and democratize these spaces? What can they tell us about what we value, as a culture? In this interdisciplinary course, we will reflect on the impact of digital technologies on cultural heritage sites, and museums in particular, starting in the 1960s and continuing through the present, including discussion of how museums responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other things, students will learn how to collect, curate, and digitize objects, write and design an object label, and contribute to an online exhibition. No prerequisites.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Why do we feel isolated and alone, when there’s more ways to connect than ever before? Zoom, Twitter, Tiktok are “social” technologies and belong to a growing storehouse of apps and devices with which to connect, but they can feel like tools of separation and isolation. A tradition of critical media theory has argued that a role of the media has been for the purposes of social separation and isolation in order to assure the docility and productivity of a population subjected to them. Prerequisite: MCST 110.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In the capstone seminar, students working on an independent project in line with the theme of the seminar share their scholarship, integrating what they have learned in the major, emphasizing knowledge gained in their focus area, as well as presenting their work at a concluding mini-conference. The capstone experience involves close analysis of cultural artifacts that examine at a higher level issues first raised in the introductory course. The department plans to offer two seminars every year, at least one in media studies, enabling students to select the seminar most relevant to their intellectual development. In exceptional cases, students with sufficient preparation may take the seminar prior to their senior year. Students may take more than one MCST senior seminar as long as content varies. Recent seminar topics have included: Image/Text: Metaphor, Myth and Power; Advanced Film Analysis; Advanced Studies in War and Media; Postmodernism, Identity and the Media; Whiteness and the Media; Advanced Queer Media. Prerequisite(s): MCST 110 - Texts and Power: Foundations of Media and Cultural Studies or permission of instructor. MCST 128 - Film Analysis/Visual Culture recommended for film studies seminars. Non-majors are welcome if they have taken MCST 110 or a comparable course.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In the capstone seminar, students working on an independent project in line with the theme of the seminar share their scholarship, integrating what they have learned in the major, emphasizing knowledge gained in their focus area, as well as presenting their work at a concluding mini-conference. The capstone experience involves close analysis of cultural artifacts that examine at a higher level issues first raised in the introductory course. The department plans to offer two seminars every year, at least one in media studies, enabling students to select the seminar most relevant to their intellectual development. In exceptional cases, students with sufficient preparation may take the seminar prior to their senior year. Students may take more than one MCST senior seminar as long as content varies. Recent seminar topics have included: Image/Text: Metaphor, Myth and Power; Advanced Film Analysis; Advanced Studies in War and Media; Postmodernism, Identity and the Media; Whiteness and the Media; Advanced Queer Media. Prerequisite(s): MCST 110 - Texts and Power: Foundations of Media and Cultural Studies or permission of instructor. MCST 128 - Film Analysis/Visual Culture recommended for film studies seminars. Non-majors are welcome if they have taken MCST 110 or a comparable course.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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 MCST 110 is the prerequisite for majoring in media and cultural studies.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

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 MCST 110 is the prerequisite for majoring in media and cultural studies.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This class gives an introduction to the many media platforms that are vital to contemporary journalism, and provides a strong foundation in news writing and reporting. It is taught by a veteran editor and writer, who is a Macalester graduate and currently a digital editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune ( startribune.com ). Campus and Twin Cities communities are used as students plan, develop, report and write stories individually and in groups. Cookies are usually served in class.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WC

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces the aesthetics of film as well as selected issues in contemporary film studies. Its aesthetic approach isolates the features that constitute film as a distinct art form: narrative or non-narrative structure, staging, cinematography, editing, and sound. Topics in contemporary film studies that might be considered include one or more of the following: cultural studies and film, industrial organization and globalization, representations of gender and race, and theories of authorship, horror, and spectatorship. Several papers, a test covering basic film terms, and a short video project emphasizing abstract form are required. Suitable for first year students.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

The theorization of difference is an important aspect of cultural theory. In this class we will look at the role of difference as it is understood through ideas of representational and aesthetic politics as well as through the practice and production of knowledge. We want to examine the turn to difference within cultural studies and how this move has shifted how we think about power relations and meaning making in society. We will look at the foundational work of critical race and ethnic studies in cultural theory as well more recent scholarly work that focuses on the administration of difference through surveillance technology and social media. The class will expose students to a range of material including print, digital media, film, television, and internet and social media.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

How are public perceptions concerning environmental concepts, conditions, policies, actors and interests shaped by embedded cultural and media representations of nature and its use by different social groups? Who sets the agenda for environmental issues and debates and how is that agenda presented for public and community consumption and discourse? What roles do films, television, advertising and journalism play in establishing or maintaining particular patterns of imagery, perspectives and discourses regarding environmental issues for differing communities? What are the tendencies and limitations of science journalism regarding environmental issues such as pollution, safety regulations, conservation, or climate change, especially for different socio-cultural groups?This course focuses attention on the role and influence of media representations on perceived relationships with nature and concepts of environmental problems and sustainability. Through weekly readings and analyses of media representations we will work to gain a better understanding of the particular influence of media images and discourse on views of nature, climate, pollution, environmental debate, and environmental justice, including: images and concepts of wilderness, industrialization, land use and control, environmental degradation, and climate change. The course will address the visions and metaphors of “green advertising,” media characterizations of environmental risk, portrayals of environmental activism, and issues of environmental discrimination and injustice. Noting the historically shifting parameters of environmental rhetoric in the U.S. and globally, the final weeks of the course will focus particularly on issues of environmental justice and patterns of media representation and reporting. Class members will pursue individual term projects that explore and analyze chosen issues of environmental representation and their social, cultural, political and economic implications. One goal of these projects will be to conceptualize and propose potentially more effective strategies of environmental communication with diverse communities through selected media forms and outlets.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

As media and technology continue to transform our everyday lives, it is important to think through the human and more-than-human ways that we use and design technology. This course will provide a space for students to explore how and why technology and justice continue to depend on one another. Algorithms, bots, and biometric surveillance technology are quite literally in the palms of our students' hands, yet the implications of these technologies are not always evident (or are intentionally obfuscated). ChatGPT was released with great fanfare but few people know the technology behind ChatGPT came at a huge personal cost to laborers in Kenya earning about $2 an hour to make it less toxic. Our exploration of everything from the use of AI to extract information from documents, to the bias inherent in controlled vocabularies, surveillance systems and classification systems, imparts critical knowledge through an exploration of the ethical implications of everyday systems. Students in this class will engage with readings and various media related to critical digital race studies and examine how these technologies often end up perpetuating oppressive structures and harming vulnerable and minority populations. We believe that introducing students to the intersection of data and technology studies, Black feminisms, and computing will simultaneously seed stronger critical thinking skills in future technologists from the fields of Computer Science, Media and Cultural Studies, and the Information Sciences.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course is designed as a basic introduction to digital video production. The objective of the class is to familiarize students of film theory and history with the language of cinema from the standpoint of production in order to deepen your appreciation and knowledge of the technical aspects of film/video and to develop your capacity to use video as a tool for research and communication. In this way, the course will be a combination of technical instruction, critical engagement, and creative exploration. We will analyze and employ a variety of filmmaking techniques as well as constructing narrative and non-narrative strategies for doing so. The focus of the course will be to familiarize you with some basic conventions of experimental, documentary, and narrative cinema. In each assignment, you will be encouraged to think about how formal decisions enhance and further narrative or thematic elements. We will thus pay very close attention to formal aspects of cinematic production: mise-en-scene. cinematography, editing, and sound design. In addition to this attention to form, success in the class will be dependent on a commitment to working through the technical aspects of video production (camera operation, lighting, editing software) in order to create short, original video pieces.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to the history, politics, and aesthetics of Middle Eastern cinema. Over the course of the semester, we will examine the development of both local and regional cinematic traditions; the role of cinema in the production of the collective memory of conflict and war; the international circulation of film as a form of soft power; and, not least, the profound discursive power of cinematic humor. Readings will offer an introduction to methods of film analysis as well as to the political and artistic history of the modern Middle East.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Join us as we explore the roots and routes of Native Cultural Studies through photography, film, television, print and media. How have Indigenous people been represented in visual culture? And what can Indigenous visual artists or film theory teach us about the past, present and future in the United States? No previous coursework required.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary study of how digital technologies create and mediate social, spatial, and political formations. We will focus on how these technologies entrench or restructure existing class, racial, gender, and global inequities and attend to the ways they make (often complicated) space for collective resistance. Students will gain a strong grasp of core geographic concepts as well as modes of analyzing how these concepts are reshaped in the digital era. Our readings include critical perspectives from a range of geographic locations, structured into four thematic units: ‘Identity and Belonging across Virtual/Material Space: A Critical look at Apps,’ ‘Race, Surveillance, and Policing in Urban Spaces,’ ‘Redefining War, Borders and Sovereignty,’ and ‘The Shifting Landscapes of Labor.’ We will pay particular attention to emerging methods for researching the digital, and students will work throughout the course towards a final project that draws on their own ethnographic research into a digital field site.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores how philosophers, creative writers, artists, and filmmakers have taken everyday life as a point of departure for critical reflection and creative practice. Grounded in cultural studies and feminist approaches to knowledge production, we will examine the everyday as a lens into a wide range of topics, including power, the body, race, gender, sexuality, capitalism, and colonialism. While surveying a wide range of approaches, the course will focus on the emerging genre of Autotheory, which blends critical theory with autobiography and memoir, leading to new insights and modes of resistance. In doing so, we will derive inspiration from contemporary writers, filmmakers, and artists who break with traditional approaches to academic writing and research by using the everyday as raw material. Students will have the opportunity to carry out a creative research project in the form of a written essay, film, or other multimedia form.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In the capstone seminar, students working on an independent project in line with the theme of the seminar share their scholarship, integrating what they have learned in the major, emphasizing knowledge gained in their focus area, as well as presenting their work at a concluding mini-conference. The capstone experience involves close analysis of cultural artifacts that examine at a higher level issues first raised in the introductory course. The department plans to offer two seminars every year, at least one in media studies, enabling students to select the seminar most relevant to their intellectual development. In exceptional cases, students with sufficient preparation may take the seminar prior to their senior year. Students may take more than one MCST senior seminar as long as content varies. Recent seminar topics have included: Image/Text: Metaphor, Myth and Power; Advanced Film Analysis; Advanced Studies in War and Media; Postmodernism, Identity and the Media; Whiteness and the Media; Advanced Queer Media. Prerequisite(s): MCST 110 - Texts and Power: Foundations of Media and Cultural Studies or permission of instructor. MCST 128 - Film Analysis/Visual Culture recommended for film studies seminars. Non-majors are welcome if they have taken MCST 110 or a comparable course.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials