[ARCHIVED CATALOG] 2020-2021 Undergraduate Academic Catalog

Dec 21, 2024

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[ARCHIVED CATALOG] 2020-2021 Undergraduate Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

ENG 240 - Reading Everything: An Introduction to Cultural Studies

3 credits

This course will introduce students, through survey, to the theories and methodologies of Cultural Studies by examining some of the fundamentals intrinsic to the field. Primarily centered on the concept of "culture," a complex term that will be unpacked in the course, students will explore what key contributors to the discipline have had to say about how culture should be defined; how it is produced; what it produces; its functions; the roles it can play in understanding power relations and conflict; and how it constructs, communicates, and preserves knowledge. Primarily a lecture course, students will also engage with key concepts by (a.) applying them to diverse traditional and nontraditional cultural texts and artifacts including samplings of popular culture and media platforms, and social phenomenon—such as subculture—and (b.) discussing cultural struggles around power, class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexualities, age, nationality, and aesthetics.