EN/IS240: Introduction to Visual and Cultural Studies
Tuesday 06:30PM - 09:15PM, Gailhac, Room G101
Fall 2011
Final Exam: Tuesday, December 13
twitter: #en240fa11
See all our class tweets: http://twitterfall.com/?trend=%23en240fa11!%231F3547
me: @howet
Note that this class is writing intensive, and it fulfills the inquiry university requirement, as well.
Student Portfolios!
Chaffon
Erika
Ben
Bruna
Charity
Christina
Adrianne
Terri
Susan
Melissa
Luisa
Delaura
Alia
Assignments
Responses: 30% (designed to stimulate understanding of and engagement with the central concepts of the readings. Note that exams will be folded into this grade as 10%)
Semiotic Analysis: 15% (designed to give you a way to illustrate your ability to use those concepts to analyze a text from popular/media culture, in this case an advertisement)
Final Project: 20% (designed to give you a way to illustrate your ability to connect different concepts and methods into a creative, analytic product)
Participation, presentations, class discussion, workshopping, feedback: 15% (designed to stimulate a community of peer learners)
Portfolio, revisions, self-assessment, technology use: 20% (designed as a forum in which you can present your intellectual persona to the public)
Exams: 10% of the Responses grade, above. (exams are meant to test your ability to identify and respond to key concepts in cultural studies. Note that, even together, the two exams are worth less than your other projects!)
Schedule
Note: This schedule is subject to change!
Tuesday, August 30: Introduction to the course. What is cultural studies? Semiotics (The Semiotic Iceberg, Youtube video on semiotics). Have browsed through your books! Benetton images, issues. Advertising and ethics.
Tuesday, September 6: Saradar (1-43); Ryan, “Preface”. Listen to this episode of Youth Voices, from WAMU, and add your thoughts about our class policies to the collaborative google doc. Diane Rehm show on identity. CLASS NOTES PAGE.
Tuesday, September 13: Killing Us Softly 3. Ryan, “Rhetoric” and “Consumer Culture and Fashion Studies.” John Berger, "Suit and the Photograph." Bring in a selection of advertisements for the semiotic analysis project. Response due.
Tuesday, September 20: MEET in the MULTIMEDIA LAB! Advertisement markup (by hand, on a copy) due. Present informally on your ideas--share your ad, describe what you think the rhetorical meaning of your ad is, what it is encouraging you to identify with, etc. Workshopping. Move to ELS. (Bring the clean original of your advertisement). From markup to thesis. Ryan, “Gender and Sexuality,” “Ethnicity,” and “Ideologies.” Saradar (154-160; 138-153). Response due.
Tuesday, September 27: Revision exercise due. Semiotic Analysis Essay draft due (Bring two copies. Continue to work on your anatomization, and bring in a copy/JPG version of your ad so we can use refer to it during workshop! Try to insert your image into the Word document.) Workshopping. Ryan, “Identity, Lifestyle, Subculture” and “Music”; Sardar (122-132). *Schedule a conference with me using Starfish--sometime this week or the next!
Tuesday, October 4: Midterm exam. To study: Skim the Ryan and the Sardar again, keeping a list of important vocabulary terms (see our class notes!); after you've reread, write a 2-page essay in which you answer the following question: "What is cultural studies, and why is representation so important in it?" Turn this in with your exam. Source Code.
Email submit your essay/anatomization by Friday at 5:00pm.
[October 10-11: Fall Break]
Tuesday, October 11: No Classes Fall Break. Read the remaining parts of Sardar's Introducing Cultural Studies: A Graphic Guide, Final project assignment, and view the sample clips linked from the final project assignment (La Jetee, documentary samples, student commentaries). Bring to class: three possible topics, along with a 1-page freewrite for each that begins to answer these questions: "What ad, section from Source Code, important idea in cultural studies would you like to work on? What interests you about it? What do you think we need to understand about it? What key ideas will help you understand your topic more fully? What question/s does your topic inspire? What format would work well, and why?"
Tuesday, October 18: Final project overview, brainstorming. Ryan, “Media Studies,” “Visual Culture,” “Audience, Performativity, and Celebrity”; Sardar (154-160). Response due. Portfolio Project overview. Bring your laptops!
By this date, have visited two of the three exhibits, below, and written a 2-page response to each of your chosen exhibits (I will collect final drafts on November 1, so you can have time to polish and/or ask me questions, but I want to see your drafts by the 18th!). Your response should be critical/analytical--that is, you're looking at these exhibits as an informed, intellectual reader! In your responses, I ask you to respond, in an informed manner, to these questions: "What is the exhibit, and what is it attempting to show us about culture, representation, identity? How can we read one piece in this exhibit through a lens of cultural studies? What ideas from our reading this term resonate with your chosen exhibit item?" I encourage you to snap a photo of your item, and include it in your response! You may go on your own, in a group from class, or with friends!
Tuesday, October 25: Ryan, “Transnationality, Globalization, and Postcoloniality”; “Bodies and Things”; and “Place, Space, and Geography”; Sardar (106-121; 133-137; 161-167). Discuss your DC outings. Response due.
Tuesday, November 1: Final project brainstorming, researching--bring the resources you have amassed for the final project. Portfolio classwork--bring all your responses, with my comments. Have reread your responses, and my comments; and come prepared to discuss how you'll revise them! Revised responses to DC outings due. Bring your laptops! In class: Revision samples and ideas. Storyboard sample.
Tuesday, November 8: Sardar (168-end). Proposal due: 3 pages. What, specifically, will you be doing? What one or two related ideas, specifically, will you be working with? What is your preliminary reading of the text you're working with--what two or three major points do you want to make about it? What materials have you amassed, and what do you need to find? What additional research will be helpful for you? What do you want to get the viewer to understand or see differently as a result of your project? BRING YOUR LAPTOPS, AND SCHEDULE A CONFERENCE WITH ME TO GO OVER YOUR SCRIPT BY NEXT WEEK. Draft of portfolio due in class.
Tuesday, November 15: Draft of script due. Informal presentations. ELS visit.
Tuesday, November 22: Script due (two copies!). ELS visit.
Tuesday, November 29: Workshopping. ELS visit.
Tuesday, December 6: Final exam. ELS for portfolio work, script recording, etc.
Friday, December 9: Portfolio due (all except the assessment on the final project and the final project page itself!)
Tuesday, December 13: Final exam day. Final project presentations (public, and in lieu of an exam--so come prepared to be grilled!)
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