| source Indiana University Bloomington (X) |
level |
department Communication and Culture (X) |
Fulfills College S&H Requirement Course Director: Jennifer Robinson E-Mail: jenmetar@indiana.edu Office: C2 275 Phone: 855-4607 Interpersonal Communication (C122) is an introduction to the study of communication, culture, identity, and power. We are particularly interested in the question of how people use everyday conversation to create the world they live in. The course takes a cross-cultural approach, looking at communicative practices ranging from North Africa to California, from 17th-century Quakers to a contemporary Deaf Church, and from grade school students to college undergraduates. The course emphasizes the examination of language used every day by Indiana University students, including gendered language, slang, verbal play, and the academic language of business and law schools. Past students have said that this course changed the way they view the world, allowing them to see patterns in their conversations and lives that they had never before considered. Interpersonal Communication classes are a lively mixture of lecture, discussion, student presentations, and multimedia examples. Students read excerpts from scholarly texts and learn to use communication and performance theory not only to analyze others' interpersonal interactions but also to become more aware of how their own interactions with friends, family, lovers, and disliked acquaintances are connected to broader questions of power and social identity. Each student does original ethnographic research on the interpersonal themes discussed in class. This research includes recording and analyzing the Âreal life interactions of a social group of their choice. Students make informal presentations of their research to the class. The ethnography project provides one of the few opportunities for original primary research at the introductory level. Throughout the course, students learn concepts that allow them to understand better how communication practices impact their lives while at the same time they practice critical thinking, reading, research, writing, and presentation skills that prepare them for more advanced coursework in many disciplines.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 2:30 PM-3:20 PM, JH 124 Required film screening: M, 7:00 PM-10:30 PM, JH 124 Required Friday discussion section Required for all majors in the Department of Communication and Culture Fulfills College A&H Requirement Course Director: Ted Striphas E-Mail: striphas@indiana.edu Office: C2 213 Phone: 856-7868 Webpage: http://www.indiana.edu/~bookworm References to the power and prevalence of Âthe media are commonplace. But what are Âthe media? How do they work and for whom? As media increasingly pervade the fabric of daily life, and as fewer and fewer entities dominate media ownership, the urgency of asking and answering these questions only grows in importance. Yet, these questions are incredibly difficult to askÂmuch less to answerÂowing in part to the ways in which the structure and functioning of the media remain, for many of us, taken for granted, perhaps even something of a mystery. This course will introduce you to the basic vocabularies of visual and media literacy and hone your skills at analyzing media texts, institutions, apparatuses, and audiences critically. We will focus on four prevalent media genres film, radio, television, and the internetÂand our goal will be to explore the relationships between and among form, content, ownership, and meaning with respect to each. C190 will help you to appreciate more fully the complex ways in which the media inhabit and affect social, cultural, political, and economic life. More importantly, it will provide you with the analytical, interpretive, and critical skills by which to navigate and begin to make sense of the densely mediated landscapes we inhabit. Assessment will be based on attendance and participation, screening notes, two exams, and two writing assignments. Required Reading: Kolker, Robert. Film, Form, and Culture. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw- Hill, 2005. ISBN: 0073123617 Additional required readings will be available on electronic reserve.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 4:00 PM-5:15 PM, WI C111 Required film screening: Tu, 7:15 PM-10:15 PM, Location: TBA Fulfills College S&H Requirement Fulfills College Culture Studies Requirement (List A) Instructor: TBA What does Ârace mean? How do the media that surround us shape the ways in which we think about the term and apply it ourselves and others? How do representations of Ârace relate to the material realities of our everyday lives? These are all complicated questions that have no easy answers. In this course we will engage with these questions in an effort to better understand the relationships between media and the concept of Ârace in the US context. Focusing primarily on the correlations between film representations and the historical moments in which those images circulate, we will explore the ways in which media in the United States participate in and challenge prevailing ideologies toward race and difference. We will examine how various ethnic groups, including Native Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos/as, and Whites are presented and what those images mean for audiences at specific moments. In sum, through filmic analysis, cultural history, and media theory, we interrogate the definitions of Ârace in specific US contexts and gauge the consequences of those ideas in both media representations and everyday experiences. Screenings are required. This class fulfills both the Social and Historical Studies (S&H) and the Cultural Studies (CSA) requirements. There are no prerequisites and students from all majors who are interested in the relationship between race and media are encouraged to enroll.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 4:00 PM-5:15 PM, C2 100 Required film screening: W, 7:15 PM-10:15 PM, Location: TBA Fulfills College S&H Requirement Fulfills College Culture Studies Requirement (List A) Instructor: Stephanie Deboer E-Mail: sdeboer@indiana.edu Office: C2 251 Phone: 856-3708 What are the cultural implications of global media? Is the global travel of Hollywood films, Japanese anime, media events, or television formats constructed through relations of domination or negotiation? How do we begin to understand how its impacts might shift in relation to the dynamics of particular producers, consumers and audiences, locations, mediums or identities? How can we explain their dynamics in relation to specific moments or networks of interchange? This course is an introduction to cultural debates surrounding media in a global context. It will begin by providing students with a conceptual overview of key issues raised by the globalization of media, including questions of the global culture industries, national or local sovereignty, global/local flows of media, cultural identity and audience receptions, global media events, and new technologies. In so doing, the first section of the course will address screenings from around the world. The second section of the course will then focus more specifically on the dynamics of global media between North America and the Asia Pacific  one intensified terrain of media exchange throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Topics here will include exchanges in film genres (such as kung fu or horror), anime traffic, and the possibilities of mobile media. Engagement with these topics will help us come to grips with how the theories on media globalization introduced earlier in the course might work within a specific geographic arena and in relation to specific mediums. This is an introductory course that presumes no prior knowledge of media studies, culture industries, globalization research, or the dynamics between North American and Asia Pacific media. It is hoped that by the end of the semester, students will have developed familiarity with all of these areas. By the end of this course students will be able to:  Understand recent debates surrounding the global construction and travel of screen and mobile (film, TV, digital) media  Be attentive to how these debates might work differently for particular media texts and screenings  Reflect on your own position and place in relation to the globalization of media  Gain tools for interrogating a wide range of media in their global contexts
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 4:00 PM-5:15 PM, C2 203 Required film screening: Tu, 7:15 PM-10:15 PM, Location: TBA Fulfills College S&H Requirement Instructor: Karen Bowdre E-Mail: kmbowdre@indiana.edu Office: C2 235 Phone: 855-0530 This course will explore various images of gender in various media formats. We will examine different processes and practices of gender, specifically in terms of media representations of femininity and masculinity. Goals of this course are to gain insight into the ways in which gender, and its intersections with race, ethnicity, and class is enacted, represented, and has impact on cultural formations and communication at different levels and in different contexts. The class will also explore the political and personal consequences of representations of gender through the examination of specific practices, ranging from cosmetic surgery, sports, and eating disorders to advertising, television, and language. Using the lens of critical media and cultural studies approaches, students will learn to read select examples from this history towards understanding the broader political economies and cultural contexts that shaped contemporary understandings of gender, race, and class. Students will also learn to analyze how past political and economic inequalities in the culture industries might structure our current sense of what it means to be a gendered, raced, and classed person. The required screenings and readings for this course will include but are not limited to films, television series, and scholarly essays. Students will be expected to write and present response papers throughout the semester, attend regular screenings, participate in classroom discussions, and write a final semester research essay.  Because this is a 200-level course, it will provide a historical overview as well as a broad overview of current scholarship in the field.  This course is designed to improve students abilities to critically examine notions of gender as they pertain to mediated images in film and television.  This class will be a mixture of lecture, small group discussion, and required weekly film screenings. Your full participation involves listening to lectures and fellow students arguments in small or large groups and giving feedback. Your attendance and participation is mandatory.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 11:15 AM-12:30 PM, TE F256 Fulfills College S&H Requirement Instructor: Jennifer Robinson E-Mail: jenmetar@indiana.edu Office: C2 275 Phone: 855-4607 In fall 2009, C204 will focus on ÂPerforming Human/Nature: Defining Relationships with the Environment. This course uses fiction, film, journalism, public relations materials, and students ethnographic research to explore how people construct their relationships to the natural world and structures their lives accordingly. We will develop definitions of terms such as human, nature, environment, wilderness, society, and civilization. Our study will place special emphasis on how understandings of the human/nature relationship are performed and otherwise communicated in everyday life. In addition to those on ethnographic methods and performance theory, readings will include Richard Jenseth and Edward LottoÂs Constructing Nature: Readings from the American Experience, Roderick NashÂs Wilderness and the American Mind, Henry David Thoreau from Walden, Bartolome de las Casas from The Devastation of the Indies, Ralph Waldo Emerson from Nature, Rachel Carson from Silent Spring, James Audubon from Audubon and His Journals, Leslie Marmon SilkoÂs ÂLandscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination, James DickeyÂs Deliverance, Werner HerzogÂs film Grizzly Man, Al GoreÂs ÂEnvironmentalism of the Spirit, and Michael PollanÂs ÂThe Idea of a Garden. Assignments will include autoethnographic/reflective writing, fieldwork, analytical text- based writing, and exams. The course continues the work of CMCL C122, defamiliarizing culture for analysis, strengthening ethnographic skills, and providing a foundation for more advanced courses on environment, sustainability, and performance.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 2:30 PM-3:45 PM, SB 150 Fulfills College S&H Requirement Instructor: Josh Malitsky E-Mail: jmalitsk@indiana.edu Office: C2 217 Phone: 856-0405 Without question, sports play a significant role in the lives of many Indiana University students, not just those who participate in NCAA-sanctioned athletics. Sports are understood as synechdoches for other life experiences and they can be seen to build communities within the university and beyond. But even as one of the most Âpopular cultures, sports have received scant attention in the humanities. They are often characterized by athletes and journalists as just games, temporary relief from the struggles of Âreal life. This course takes sports seriously, not just as an economic enterprise but also for the conversations about social life it generates, It has two primary and related goals. First, it will explore the ways in which sports offer a consistently compelling space for conversations about racial, gender, ethnic, class, and sexual identity. Second, it will do so by recognizing the impact of various forms of mediation (film, television, radio, video game, internet blogs, etc.) on these dialogues, calling attention to the ways in which sports media representations influence sports multiple and contested meanings.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
Class Number: 2050 (lecture) 2051-2053, 27497-27504 (discussion) 2051 is an honors discussion section MW, 12:20 PM-1:10 PM, FA 015 Required Friday discussion section Required for all majors in the Department of Communication and Culture Fulfills College A&H Requirement Course Director: Robert Terrill E-Mail: rterrill@indiana.edu Office: C2 231 Phone: 855-0118 Many of us tend to think of the process of communication as going something like this: (1) we get an idea, (2) we put that idea into words or images or actions, (3) we send those words or images or actions to another person, and (4) that other person decodes the words or images or actions to find the idea that we put into them. Simply, we talk in order transfer ideas from our brain into the brain of whomever is listening to us. In this view, Âcommunication is a sort of container or conduit for ideas, nothing more than handy way to transmit data from one place to another. In this view, ideal communication would be transparent  a clear, concise, and simple conduit through which ideas and data travel from one human brain to another. The ideas and data are the important things, not the communication that is merely carrying them from one place to another. This course is designed to challenge that view of communication. We want to recognize that communication is never merely a neutral container for data and ideas that are created somewhere else. We want to understand that data and ideas cannot exist outside of communication. We want to see that, in fact, data and ideas are partly constructed by communication. Human communication does not make data and ideas portable  it makes them possible. As an introductory course, C205 provides a broad overview of the conceptual vocabularies and critical strategies that scholars use to study communication, with a particular emphasis on the scholarly traditions represented within the department: Rhetorical Studies, Film and Media Studies, and Performance and Ethnographic Studies. The goal is to provide students with the ability to recognize and discuss these various perspectives, and thus begin to develop the tools needed to become an intelligent observer of human communication as well as an effective participant in contemporary culture. Coursework will include several short quizzes, two midterms, and a final.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 1:00 PM-2:15 PM, TE F260 Fulfills College A&H Requirement Instructor: Jon Simons E-Mail: simonsj@indiana.edu Office: C2 239 Phone: 856-0896 COURSE OUTLINE It is often said that we live in an Âimage cultureÂ, but what precisely is meant by that? This course offers an interdisciplinary and historical context for understanding contemporary Western Âimage culture by addressing the notion of the Âimage in a wide range of its theoretical, critical and practical contexts, uses and history. Images are objects of study in disciplines from art history to neuroscience, from political science to cultural studies. The ubiquity of visual imagery is only half the story of contemporary image culture, given that there is a whole family of graphic, optical, perceptual and mental imagery. We thus need an appreciation of dreams, fantasies, memories and ideas, as well as corporate, political, personal, bodily and commodity images. By figuring out the family resemblances between the uses of the term ÂimageÂ, the significance of images for contemporary culture emerges. In discussing a selection of key readings across the domains of religion, art history, cultural and media studies, the course tells the story of the image from the Bible to the present, while looking at advertisements, dreams, films, TV shows, photographs, religious icons, text book illustrations, and more. REQUIRED READING Most of the reading selections will be drawn from one anthology: Sunil Manghani, Arthur Piper and Jon Simons (eds) Images: A Reader (Sage, 2006). ASSESSMENT Assignment - % of final grade Attendance 10% Oncourse forum postings 10% Mid-term paper 20% Image project proposal 10% Image project 30% Final exam 20%
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 9:30 AM, 10:45 AM, WI C109 (#12023) TuTh, 4:00 PM-5:15 PM, TE F258 (#12024) Fulfills College A&H Requirement Instructors: TBA This course considers the challenge of participatory public discussion and decision-making in our democracy. As such, this course is premised on the idea that individuals and groups are always bound up in public institutions and vocabularies that both constrain action and provide possibilities for action. We will take up contemporary approaches to democratic discussion and decision making in pursuit of more vigorous and dynamic deliberative practices. To do this we will explore the possibilities and limitations of discussion in a democracy through course readings and discussions. Our classroom is not only learning about discussion and decision-making but will also enact it. In a pluralistic society we confront issues of difference that enhance our democratic public culture; however, these differences often result in disputes about how we make our world. Some argue that in a democratic society reaching a consensus is the goal of discussion and decision-making; however, the purpose of this class is to, first, recognize the impossibility of reaching consensus in a democratic society. Second, we will explore the role civil society can play in enhancing our understanding of democratic decision- making. Third, we will discuss the role of perspective in any decision-making process. Finally, we will discuss how we can go about making decisions given the limitations and possibilities of our liberal democratic public culture.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
Class Number: 2063 (lecture) 11467-11469, 27506, 27507 (discussion) 11467 is an honors discussion section MW, 12:20 PM-1:10 PM, WH 120 Required Friday discussion section Fulfills College A&H Requirement Instructor: John Lucaites E-Mail: lucaites@indiana.edu Office: C2 245 Phone: 855-5411 This is a course designed to introduce students to the practical forms and functions of public argumentation and advocacy. Topics to be emphasized include the differences in form and function of propositions of fact, value, and policy; how to identify, employ, and critique different modes of reasoning (including so- called Âfallacies of argumentationÂ) and the usage of evidence; the role of advocacy in public debate (focusing on social change, legal advocacy, and public policy decision making); and the fundamentals of directed research using both the library (including government documents and legal resources) and the world wide web. The primary goal of the course is to help students to become better producers and consumers of arguments as they appear in the public sphere. The course will be conducted in a lecture/discussion format. Course assignments will include three argumentative papers (4-6 pp. in length) plus midterm and final examinations. Papers will emphasize the ability to employ the skills of argumentation, while exams will emphasize the ability to analyze and critique the usage of arguments by others.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 2:30 PM-3:45 PM, Location: TBA Required film screenings: Tu, 7:15 PM-10:15 PM, TV 251 Honors discussion section Fulfills College S&H Requirement Instructor: Gregory Waller E-Mail: gwaller@indiana.edu Office: C2 261 Phone: 855-7282 This course will survey the first fifty years of American cinema, beginning with the premiere of moving pictures as a form of commercial amusement in the late 1890s and ending with the extraordinary presence of film in the United States during World War II. Along the way, we will consider the introduction of feature films, the star system, and the movie theater, and the rise of Hollywood as business enterprise, mythic site, and purveyor of often contradictory images and stories about glamour and gender, race and social class, romance and escape, fear and pleasure. Required weekly screenings will include a wide array of silent and sound films: comic shorts, cartoons, newsreels, non-fiction films, and serial episodes as well as feature films across a range of genres and styles. WeÂll explore the various ways these films were produced, distributed, promoted, and programmed. You will have the opportunity to see early gangster films and social problem melodramas, historical epics and irreverent comedies, war pictures and travelogues. We will examine these films and the development of the Hollywood studio system in relation to several intertwined aspects of the history of cinema in the United States: the role of movie theaters, the representation of fans and other audiences, the social history of moviegoing as an important aspect of everyday life, and the broader public discourse about censorship and the Âmenace of the movies. Readings will focus on documents from the periodÂaccounts from journalists and commentators, editorial cartoons, handbooks for theater owners, excerpts from fan magazine and the motion picture industry trade press. Written work will include three exams, a research paper, and various short writing assignments.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 4:00PM-5:15PM, C2 203 Required film screening: M, 7:15PM-10:15PM, C2 100 Instructor: Seth Friedman E-Mail: seafried@indiana.edu Even though the decade is an arbitrary historical period, the mention of any ten-year epoch in recent U.S. history is likely to evoke shared conceptions of the zeitgeist (i.e., the spirit of the times): the 1970s are often equated with the countercultural revolution, Watergate, and disco; the 1980s are widely regarded as a time in which traditional family values returned, communism was defeated, and greed reigned supreme; the 1990s are typically associated with the rise of hip hop, the maturation of Generation X, and the dot-com boom. As these examples begin to suggest, though, notions of the zeitgeist are often contradictory: the 1970s are characterized by both dramatic social upheaval and the continued dominance of elites; the triumph of capitalism in the 1980s helped to end the Cold War at the same time that it brought about domestic economic disasters; youth in the 1990s were at once considered to be slackers and technological wizards primed to take over the world. Undoubtedly, our propensity to simplify history in this manner has been shaped by popular culture. Conceptions of the 1970s as the age of disco, for instance, are largely attributable to the success of Saturday Night Fever (1977), a film that many people believe captured the essence of the moment. This class will explore why understandings of media texts as reflectors of their times are fraught with issues. Specifically, we will raise a series of questions that center on the problems associated with zeitgeist- influenced media criticism: Is it possible to distinguish between where media texts come from and what they become part of? In what ways do media texts construct our identities and other aspects that comprise the always contested terrain of culture? Do media critics tend to focus on anomalies when identifying the texts that are said to define a period? How do factors, such as industrial motives, censorship codes, and technological developments, influence production decisions? How do larger contextual changes impact the ways that audiences interpret and evaluate media texts at specific historical moments? To respond to these questions, we will determine why a number of seemingly persuasive analyses of selected media texts from a variety of contexts that are widely perceived as being products of their times are troublesome. We will also examine how scholars have employed more nuanced methods for explaining the connections between production decisions and broader changes. Since this is an intensive writing course, you will learn the benefits and constraints of zeitgeist-influenced media criticism by composing a series of essays. First, you will write a short paper that makes direct connections between a media text and the spirit of the times. Next, you will write another short paper on the same text that reveals the limitations of your initial analysis. Finally, you will write and revise a term paper on a set of media texts that reveals the many reasons why your objects of study appealed to some producers and audiences during the period. Readings will include: Aaron Baker, Raymond Borde, David Bordwell, Etienne Chaumeton, Thomas Elsaesser, Jonathan Gray, Tom Gunning, bell hooks, Susan Jeffords, Henry Jenkins, Douglas Kellner, Geoff King, Derek Kompare, Siegfried Kracauer, Jason Mittell, James Naremore, Ray Pratt, Stephen Prince, Robert Ray, Marita Sturken, Diane Waldman, Justin Wyatt, and others. Screenings will include: M (1931), The Woman in the Window (1944), Chinatown (1974), The Conversation (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Saturday Night Fever, Full Metal Jacket (1987), Die Hard (1988), JFK (1991), Slacker (1991), Forrest Gump (1994), Hoop Dreams (1994), He Got Game (1997), Arlington Road (1999), and The Matrix (1999) as well as episodes of Beavis and Butt-head, Lost, Roseanne, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Welcome Back Kotter, and The X-Files.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 11:15 AM-12:30 PM, Location: TBA (#29755) TuTh, 11:15 AM-12:30 PM, BH 134 (#29756) Fulfills College S&H Requirement Instructor: TBA We like to tell ourselves that we purchase consumer goods simply because they're useful; they fill certain needs in our lives. Clothes keep us warm and appropriately attired. Cars transport us to work or to classes. Computers allow us to write papers and conduct research. But at some level we also realize that we live in a world in which the consumer goods that we purchase speak volumes about who we are, what groups we belong to, and what we aspire to become. Do you shop for clothes at Abercrombie & Fitch or at Wal- Mart? Do you actually drive your SUV over rugged terrain or, like most of us, use it simply to get around town? Are you a Windows person or a Mac person? The answers to these questions are meaningful: our choices help us craft a social identity, one that is recognizable -- shared by people "like us," but not by those who are different. The consumption of goods and services plays a crucial role in the American economy, but consumer culture is more than the sum of the things that we own. Whether we're in public or in the privacy of our homes, strolling across campus or watching television, we're enveloped by advertising. It's the world we inhabit todayÂone where it seems normal to be addressed as a potential consumer in virtually every waking moment of our lives, where we happily turn ourselves into living advertisements by wearing clothes that announce the brands that we buy. The goal of this course is to make us more aware of how advertising operates in society and how we live within consumer culture. What are the goals of the advertising industry? What information, ideas, and values are communicated in advertising? What role does advertising play in television, movies, and magazines? How do manufacturers and retailers create "brand-name" products, and why do we care about these brands? What do advertisers know about consumers? Are we, as consumers, manipulated by advertising or do we make independent decisions about what to purchase? Is it possible to live in the modern world without adopting the values of consumer culture? Is it possible to resist the constant messages that tell us "you are what you buyÂ? Should we maintain certain spaces in society that are free of advertising and commercial messages?
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 9:30 AM-10:45 AM, Location: TBA Fulfills College A&H Requirement Instructor: TBA C323 introduces you to the principles and techniques of speechwriting, the art of writing speeches for delivery by a client. By composing several speeches for several different clients, you will improve your skills at achieving oral style as well as adapting messages to specific audiences and occasions. The speeches address clients needs for self-introduction, remediation, education, motivation, and ceremonial speaking.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 9:30 AM-10:45 AM, C2 203 Fulfills College A&H Requirement Instructor: TBA We often think about persuasion in primarily instrumental and individualistic termsÂhow one individual goes about getting something he/she wants from another person. Although this sense of persuasion has its value, this course will take a different focus, one that asks us to think about the cultural, social, and political aspects of persuasion as it is more broadly defined. Specifically, we will examine the intersection between U.S. popular culture and social activist movements centered around issues of identity. Over the course of the semester, we will investigate several different theoretical approaches to the "problem" of persuasion, with particular attention to mass-mediated culture. We will also look at several different case studies of actual social activist movements. Part of the course, therefore, will involve making connections between "theory" and "practice," that is, how social movements enact particular theories of persuasion, how these movements produce theory, and how theory itself can be considered a form of social practice/activism.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 4:00 PM-5:15 PM, Location: TBA Required film screening: W, 7:15 PM-10:15 PM, LH 102 Fulfills College A&H Requirement Instructor: Alex Doty E-Mail: alexdoty@indiana.edu Office: C2 246 Phone: 856-4928 Frank Capra was one of the most celebrated American directors of the 1930s, winning three Oscars for the box office hits It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and You CanÂt Take It with You. His work with stars like Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, Barbara Stanwyck, James Stewart, and Jean Arthur made them starsÂor even bigger stars. There was even a popular term for CapraÂs filmmaking: ÂCapracorn. Yet today he is known largely for two films he made with James Stewart, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and ItÂs a Wonderful Life. In an attempt to replace Capra within the ranks of important directors, this course examines his career within the context of the American studio system, as well as within the socio-cultural contexts of the Great Depression, World War II, and the immediate post-war era. During these periods, and within the constraints of commercial filmmaking, Capra was one of the rare American directors who consistently revealed a social consciousness. His films critically examine such subjects as prostitution (Ladies of Leisure), interracial relationships (The Bitter Tea of General Yen), evangelism (The Miracle Woman), the banking system (American Madness), philanthropy (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town), and government corruption (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington). Some have called Barak ObamaÂs rise to the presidency Âa real Capra story. Among other things, this course will help you to understand what this might mean. During the semester, students will attend weekly screenings outside of class sessions. These films will be paired with readings from CapraÂs autobiography as well as with material that engages with individual filmsÂand with the directorÂs career as a wholeÂfrom a number of contemporary critical perspectives like auteurism, feminism, Marxism-materialism and gay/lesbian/queer approaches. Assignments include two short essays, two exams, and a final long essay.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 7:00 PM-8:15 PM, C2 203 Required film screenings: M, 7:15 PM-10:15 PM, BH 005 Fulfills College A&H Requirement Instructor: Josh Malitsky E-Mail: jmalitsk@indiana.edu Office: C2 217 Phone: 856-0405 One question ever present for documentary filmmakers and producers is this: are documentaries economically viable? Ask Michael Moore and he might mention that Fahrenheit 9/11 grossed $120 million ( and counting, the previous high was $21.6 million). But Fahrenheit 9/11 did not come out of the blue. Its success was the culmination of almost two decades of resurgence, highlighted by MooreÂs own Roger & Me, Alek KeshishianÂs Madonna: Truth or Dare and Steve James Hoop Dreams. Moore may be the face most commonly associated with documentaryÂs growth in popularity, but Errol Morris has perhaps been more influential in shaping contemporary filmmakers aesthetic and philosophical vision. Moore brought audiences to the theaters and generated enormous and highly polemical political debate. Morris films convinced many filmmakers that artistic documentaries need not be relegated to film festivals and art theaters alone. This course will examine the feature films and television programs of Michael Moore and Errol Morris as well as the work of some of their contemporaries. We will analyze their work critically and theoretically and situate it within the historical tradition of documentary film. We will consider their respective impacts on the film industry and audience expectations of documentary film. We will explore the differences between their film and television output, examining how each medium effects the construction of the work. Lastly, we will consider how internet sites which support or deny the claims/agendas of the filmmakers shape our ideas of ÂMichael Moore and ÂErrol Morris.Â
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 4:00 PM-5:15 PM, C2 100 Instructor: Michael Kaplan E-Mail: mikaplan@indiana.edu Office: C2 219 Phone: 856-1365 Something called Âthe market economy has been much in the news of late, with political leaders and media observers debating the merits of Âfree markets and Âmarket regulation. Such debates have a long history, but is it always clear what we are talking about when we invoke Âthe marketÂ? Does it make a difference whether we think of it as An invisible hand, A mechanism, A calculating device, A structure, A race, A battle, A natural phenomenon, A myth, A competition, or A game? Each of these metaphors has far-reaching implications about how markets work or falter, about the tasks they are suited to handle and effects they are expected to produce, and about the role people and policies play in relation to them. Yet none of these metaphors reveals an ultimate truth about what markets Âreally are. In this course, we will investigate the hypothesis that the ways markets are imagined in public discourse have profound consequences for how they do or do not function in the conduct of social life. The very use of the term Âmarket makes possible the relationships and activities to which it seems to refer, and the precise meaning of this term is both variable and endlessly contested by political forces of all kinds. By examining the rhetoric of both theoretical and popular accounts of the market economy, we will observe how Âthe market is variously imagined and attempt to understand how such variations modify the very reality of Âthe market and its social and political effects.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 11:15 AM-12:30 PM, C2 100 Required film screening: W, 7:15 PM-10:15 PM, C2 100 Carries College Intensive Writing Credit A portion of this class reserved for majors Instructor: Karen Bowdre E-Mail: kmbowdre@indiana.edu Office: C2 235 Phone: 855-0530 Contemporary discourses in the popular media construct the international obsession with celebrity as being different from times past. However, such an approach ignores that celebrity operated quite powerfully in the early twentieth century and was not exclusively focused on film stars. In this course, we will examine the development of celebrity throughout last century and into the present. The class will interrogate the construction and nature of celebrity from television and film stars to sports figures. We will also engage with essays from scholars such as Richard Dyer, Jackie Stacey, and Graeme Turner. The required screenings and readings for this course will include but are not limited to films, television series, and scholarly essays. Students will be expected to write and present response papers throughout the semester, attend regular screenings, participate in classroom discussions, and write a final semester research essay. This class will be a mixture of lecture, small group discussion, and required weekly film screenings. Your full participation involves listening to lectures and fellow students arguments in small or large groups and giving feedback. Your attendance and participation is mandatory.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 1:00 PM-2:15 PM, TE F260 Instructor: Shelley-Jean Bradfield E-Mail: shbradfi@indiana.edu Office: C2 270 The concept of the public sphere is central to the democratic potential of the media, and television in particular. This sphere is the place, space and attitude of citizens towards government and each other. Contemporary concerns about the domination of media in politics pivot around the likely existence of a mediated public sphere. This class will examine the notion of the public sphere with reference to global paradigms of broadcasting. In particular we will examine Habermas conceptualization of this sphere and criticisms from feminist, queer and critical race scholars who point to its exclusivity. Finally, we will follow this elusive ideal across continents to establish the ways in which the public sphere functions and its limitations. Questions that this course will address include  How do various paradigms of broadcasting effect the democratic possibilities of television?  How has the public sphere been defined and in what ways do these definitions limit television as a public sphere?  What would a more inclusive vision of the public sphere look like?  What effect does audience reception have on the democratic potential of television? Course Topics  Global Television Paradigms: o Ownership, Control and Financing o Market Structure and Organization o The impact of geography, demography, economy, culture and politics o Industrial and Colonial models in the developing world  Habermas and the Public Sphere  Criticisms of Habermas public sphere theory by feminist, queer and critical race scholars  Public Interest or/and the Market  Public Service Crisis or Opportunity?  Global Television case studies and the public sphere Selected Readings  Habermas, et al. The Public Sphere: an Encyclopedia Article (1964) New German Critique, 3 (1974), pp. 49-55.  Calhoun, Introduction: Habermas and the Public Sphere  Garnham. The Media and the Public Sphere  Schudson. Was there ever a Public Sphere?  Fraser. Rethinking the Public Sphere  Dahlgren. Television, Public Spheres and Civic Cultures  Ouellette. TV Viewing as Good Citizenship? Political Rationality, Enlightened Democracy and PBS. Cultural Studies 13, 1 (1999): 62-90.  Ronald Jacobs and Brian McKernan (2009) American Television as a Global Public Sphere. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Anthropology Meeting, Sheraton Boston and the Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston, MA http://allacademic.com/meta/-238950_index.html  Ryan. Gender and Public Access  Landes. The Public and Private Sphere: A Reconsideration. In Feminism, the Public and the Private (ed. Joan Landes) Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998): pp. 135-163.  Baker. Critical Memory and the Black Public Sphere. In The Black Public Sphere. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.  DeLuca and Peeples. From Public Sphere to Public Screen: Democracy, Activism, and the ÂViolence of Seattle. Critical Studies in Media Communication 19, 2 (2o02): 125-151.  Hamada. Satellite Television and Public Sphere in Egypt: Is there a Link? Global Media Journal 7, 12 (2008)  Steiner. The Feminist Cable Collective as Public Sphere Activity. Journalism 6, 3 (2005): 313-334.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
Tu, 1:00 PM-3:30 PM, C2 100 Students must also enroll in a lab section: W, 1:00 PM-4:00 PM, C2 102 (#2069) Th, 1:00 PM-4:00 PM, C2 102 (#2070) Requires special fee Fulfills College A&H Requirement Instructor: Laura Ivins-Hulley E-Mail: livinshu@indiana.edu Office: C2 281 Phone: 856-3405 At the turn of the 20th century, the world was undergoing major changes. Industrialization changed the nature of work for millions; the First World War introduced a kind of mass destruction never before seen; and increasing numbers of people migrated into urban centers, which had both an alienating and entrancing effect. Against this backdrop existed a surge of artistic innovation and revolutionary spirit. Artists and writers turned a critical eye on the societies in which they lived, determined that major changes were necessary, and knew that art and poetry could enact that change. This semester in production as criticism, we will learn about some of the avant-garde film practices that emerged toward the end of the First World War (Dada, Surrealism, Soviet Montage and the First American Avant-Garde). How does such a furor of creative activity emerge? What were the primary social problems these filmmakers sought to address? What film techniques did they employ in their critiques? How effective is such criticism? Moreover, you will be asked to look at your own society critically and determine some of its core problems. From this, you will create both written and video projects that address these problems through form and content. The aim of this course is to see you integrate your written critical work with production activity, just as EisensteinÂs filmmaking and theoretical writings always informed  even depended upon  each other.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
TuTh, 9:30 AM-10:45 AM, C2 203 Fulfills College S&H Requirement Instructor: Jon Simons E-Mail: simonsj@indiana.edu Office: C2 239 Phone: 856-0896 The course examines the extent to which contemporary public, political culture is dominated by the forms of popular culture. In particular, is the sort of popularity demanded in politics, for candidates, policies and ideas, akin to the sort of popularity sought in popular culture? At stake in this question is whether perceived shortcomings in popular culture (as commercialized and commodified, trivial, dumb-downed, sensationalist, seductive) undermine the scope and quality of democratic discourse and politics. Popular culture is characterized in relation to contemporary mediated and commercialised forms, in culture and entertainment industries. The key questions posed are the extent to which democratic political culture is governed by the norms and practices of popular culture (in informal political settings as well as electioneering), and whether (and as a consequence) democratic politics is undermined by cultural populism. If politics and popular culture are inevitably entwined, how should we judge both political and popular cultural phenomena? Should politics be as entertaining or pleasurable as popular culture? Should popular culture expect as much of us as democratic deliberation is supposed to do? The class will make special reference to the recent presidential election campaign, especially in research paper/projects, to think through these issues in relation to academic literature that defines attitudes about popular culture, politics and the proper relationship between them.  Students will learn to analyze both the political ramifications of popular culture and the cultural forms of political situations.  Required reading for the course is: John Street, Politics and Popular Culture (1997). Additional readings will be selected from a range of cultural commentators and will be available electronically.  Course will be conducted as a combination of lectures and class activities, including role plays and simulation games as well as discussions.  WeÂll be talking about American Idol, popular music, campaign advertising and politics. Assignment - % of final grade ÂShow and tell 10% Mid-class test 20% Reflections on simulation game 10% Research paper or project 30% Final exam 30%  
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 2:30 PM-3:45 PM, C2 203 Fulfills College A&H Requirement Carries College Intensive Writing Credit A portion of this class reserved for majors Instructor: Phaedra Pezzullo E-Mail: pezzullo@indiana.edu Office: C2 223 Phone: 855-2106 InstructorÂs Website: http://www.indiana.edu/~envtrhet ÂIn the midst of a massacre, in the face of torture, in the eye of a hurricane,  do you, the observer, stay behind the lens of the camera, switching on the tape recorder, keep pen in hand? Are there limitsÂof respect, piety, pathosÂthat should not be crossed, even to leave a record? But if you canÂt stop the horror, shouldnÂt you at least document it? -Ruth Behar, 1996, The Vulnerable Observer, p. 2 Legendary environmental activist and scientist Rachel Carson once emphasized that we as people have Âthe obligation to endure. As BeharÂs (above) questions stress, however, the choices presented by the politics of enduring are rarely simple. This upper level undergraduate course on social movements will focus on the rhetorical dilemmas of resistance posed by bodies in pain. Our readings and discussions will engage practices and theories of movements resisting a range of contemporary causes, such as breast cancer, prostate cancer, AIDS, hate crimes, animal welfare, violence against women, and drunk driving. Given these topics, we will grapple with questions about illness, violence, and resistance including, but not limited to: what is U.S. contemporary public cultureÂs attitude towards death and illness? How do our dispositions vary depending on the cause of death? In what ways does language limit and make possible our ability to communicate about bodies in pain? Do nonverbal modes of communication such as photographs or marches minimize or amplify these rhetorical constraints? Which ethical positions do actions of trauma, hate, and sickness provoke us to imagine, reinvent, and/or abandon? What are the politics of memory? And, perhaps most importantly, given all the illnesses and violent acts in the world, how does studying the rhetoric of social movements enable us to identify resources of hope for a more just world? As an IW course, we also will discuss how to improve oneÂs writing skills, particularly in constructing an argument that may both inform and inspire. Since writing skills are linked to oral communication skills, creative group presentations and engaged classroom discussions are expected. Required Readings likely will include: * Samantha King, Pink Ribbons, Inc: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006). ISBN-13: 978-0816648986 Available at: Boxcar Books and Community Center * Additional required readings are available at: E-Reserves [E-R] or Oncourse [OC] Course Requirements: Active and Informed Participation: 15% Group Presentation: 15% 3 Critical Research Papers: 15% (4-5 pages); 20% (4-5 pages); 35% (9- 10 pages)
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page
MW, 9:30 AM-10:45 AM, C2 100 Instructor: Robert Terrill E-Mail: rterrill@indiana.edu Office: C2 231 Phone: 855-0118 People in America talk about race. Sometimes, we talk about race as if it doesnÂt exist, sometimes we talk as if it shouldnÂt exist, and sometimes we talk as if race is the single most significant aspect of our daily lives. Rarely, though, do we recognize that it is through our talk about race that race becomes meaningful. Whenever we talk about race, and whatever we say about it, race is invented in and through our words. We talk race into being, and it is race in the form of a discursive concept, as a rhetorical invention, that so profoundly impacts our culture. This course will examine the relationship between rhetoric and race, exploring the possibilities and implications entailed by an understanding of race as a rhetorical artifact. We will read from a variety of sources, concentrating primarily on those that explicitly enact and/or theorize a relationship between discourse and race. We will follow a generally chronological logic, with the intention of providing historical context for contemporary racial discourse. Together with the primary materials we will read selections from a range of theoretical works on race and rhetoric to help us develop a vocabulary through which we can begin to understand and assess these works. Our primary goal will be to develop and critique ways of thinking, speaking, and writing about race. A partial list of the materials that we will read  either in whole or in part  would include: The Confessions of Nat Turner, David WalkerÂs Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, ÂWhite Privilege and Male Privilege by Peggy McIntosh, The Signifying Monkey by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., AinÂt I a Woman by bell hooks, Here I Stand by Paul Robeson, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, AristotleÂs Rhetoric, The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, Why We CanÂt Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr., The Afro-American Jeremiad by David Howard-Pitney, Race Matters by Cornel West, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Grades will be based on several short essays, in-class presentations, and a final exam.
Score: 12.082673 Details | Listing | Web page