Film and media are representational objects that engage with, reproduce, and advance cultures in dynamic (and often complicated) ways. Film and media influence the mass culture that consumes them, but they are also an integral part of that culture, a product of it, and therefore a reflection of its prevailing concerns, attitudes, and beliefs. This dynamic relationship takes place not only across cultures, but also across histories. Courses in this cluster examine the intersections between film, media, and culture: the relationship between narrative forms and cultural traditions, the ways in which media has been used to frame global struggles, and the ways in which storytelling advances cultural and individual goals.

Course Descriptions

CC100: Japanese Culture: Classical to Contemporary

Instructor: Joan E. Ericson
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Format: Hybrid

We will explore the concepts that inform Japanese culture, both traditional and modern. This includes acquiring an understanding of the underlying aesthetics of literature (from classical poetry and drama to manga) and art forms (from calligraphy and gardens to anime). By the end of the block students will be able to appreciate anime such as "Princess Mononoke" or "Spirited Away" through a better understanding of the cultural and historical referents. Equal time will be spent on discussing readings and videos about the history, literature, and other aspects of Japanese culture. Students will have many hands-on opportunities, including calligraphy sessions and cooking Japanese meals. Readings, discussions, and writing assignments will be in English.

CC120: Contemporary Asian Cultures

Instructor: Joan E. Ericson
Format: Hybrid

"Contemporary Asian Cultures" focuses on the intersection of classical and popular cultural forms with global cultural dynamics that has recast what it means to be Asian. Strategies for interpreting culture that emerged in the American academy (Geertz, Benedict), as well as their post-modern critiques, will be put to the test in examining everyday cultural phenomenon, such as McDonalds in China, Disneyland in Tokyo, MTV in India. Students will also study intra-Asian cultural influences (the spread of manga and forms of pop music) as well as the political ramifications of the claims for Asian values and Asian identities.

Students will have many hands-on opportunities: calligraphy sessions; cooking Japanese, Chinese, and Indian meals; analyzing aesthetics of tea across Asia; and evaluating cultural artifacts from Asia.

CC100: The Empire Strikes Back: From Anti-Colonial Conflicts to Star Wars

Instructor: Danielle Sanchez
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Historical Perspectives
Format: Fully Remote

This course will focus on the history of anti-colonial revolutions. Students will watch Star Wars films, engage with anti-colonial theorists and intellectuals like Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, and Amilcar Cabral, and analyze the philosophies and politics of resistance movements in both the Star Wars Universe and conflicts like the Haitian Revolution, the Vietnam War, the Algerian War, and the struggle for independence in Lusophone Africa. By engaging with a range of works by historians, film studies scholars, journalists, and political scientists, students will develop critical thinking and writing skills, understandings of epistemological and methodological cultures, and an appreciation for the practice of scholarly inquiry in a liberal arts environment.

CC120: Monsters and the Apocalypse

Instructor: Re Evitt
Format: Fully Remote

In this course, we'll explore the human fascination with the monstrous as it appears in various literary traditions, including when and how these narratives intersect with the apocalyptic. We'll examine how literal monsters can be used to express or construct relationships between individuals, within societies even to explore humanity's relation to the End Times. We'll consider various forms of mimicry, colonizing, otherness and othering in literature-past to present. We'll also discuss how these narratives build on and depart from Jewish and Christian religious traditions to create their apocalyptic landscapes. In this course, students will read monster, gender, and postcolonial theory to develop the tools to analyze how literal monsters work as metaphors for human concerns about gender, race, ethnicity, class, power, place, and time.

Throughout the seminar, students will work intensively to develop close reading, critical analysis, and researched writing skills. We'll explore different approaches to engaging monsters and the apocalypse: literary, historical, visual and performative. We'll frame our discussions of engaging different disciplinary approaches to monsters and the apocalypse through Joseph Harris' Rewriting. His cycle/recycle model of research writing will help students develop their skills in *coming to terms with information, *forwarding what they learn, *countering ideas, *taking an approach through researched writing, *revising that writing, and *remixing their work with new information.

CC100: Media Theory and Cultural Studies

Instructors: Scott Krzych & Baran Germen
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Format: Primarily In-Person

The course introduces students to key issues and concepts in Cultural Studies, a discipline that addresses intersections of society, economy, politics, affect, gender, sexuality, race, class, media, and technology, among other areas of concern. Students will encounter influential theories in Cultural Studies, particularly in the areas of critical theory, media theory, queer theory, affect studies, and technology studies, and apply key concepts through the close analysis of visual media, investigating media and culture from an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective. Keeping theory in conversation with political present, case studies may include such high-mediated contemporary controversies as the AIDS crisis, the "war on terror", Black Lives Matter, the 2008 global recession, climate change, etc.

CC120: Gender and Sexuality in the Study of Religion/s

Instructor: Tracy Coleman
Format: Fully Remote

An introduction to the discipline of religious studies via the specific topics of gender and sexuality in various religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. As a writing-intensive introduction to the discipline, the course will acquaint students with different genres of religious writing (such as scripture, narrative, and theology) and with scholarship exemplifying gender studies methodologies, ranging from close textual and historical analysis to ethnographic and sociological approaches. Throughout the course, we will explore how religious writing centers the human body and naturalizes inequities based on sex and gender, thereby establishing "authority" on the basis of assumptions about identity that are increasingly challenged today, sometimes in courts of law. We will thus consider how diverse religious discourses continue to inform contemporary social and political debates on issues such as marriage and reproductive rights. The aim of the course overall is to introduce students to the kinds of questions scholars ask in studying religion/s through the lens of gender and sexuality, and to enable students to improve their writing by learning to assess and analyze sources more carefully, and to position their own perspective among others in a way that is informed, critical, and civil.

CC100: Russia: Language, Literature, Film (I)

Instructors: Natalia Khan & Alexei Pavlenko
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Format: Hybrid

What's to be done? Who is to blame? What is the Russian soul? These are the "cursed" questions the Russian writers, film directors, artists, and intelligentsia (интеллигенция) have been debating since the beginning of the 19th century. Why and how do these questions relate to us today? Russian culture has been perceived by the West as the Other and--often simultaneously-- as the repository of the West's most cherished values. From Christianity to Marxism to postmodernism, Russia--its history and art--has embodied the crucial conflicts that characterize contemporary consciousness. In spite of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Cold War, much of the European and American intellectual landscape has been shaped by Russian writers, film directors, artists, and composers. Some of the most defining trends in European cultural history of the 20th century--Realism, Modernism, Existentialism, Symbolism, and Formalism--are inconceivable without Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Eisenstein, Tarkovsky, Nabokov, and other Russian writers and film directors. The course integrates the study of the Russian language with the great tradition of Russian literature and film. We begin with the premise that each of these disciplines, i.e., the study of a language and the concomitant study of literature, film, and culture, infuses and cross-fertilizes the other.

CC120: Russia: Language, Literature, Film (II)

Instructors: Alexei Pavlenko
Format: Primarily In-Person

CC120 will focus on the Russian literary canon and its dissidents: How the Russian literature is studied and written about?

CC100: Chinese Culture

Instructor: Hong Jiang
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Format: Fully Remote

This course starts with introducing students to Chinese concepts of family, nature and self and how Chinese philosophical thinking (Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism) transformed way of life for the East, but will focus on critical inquiry of social and political changes of China and help students to understand how these changes perceived and conjured up Chinese society as well as self/individual identity and cultural landscape. This is an introductory course, which will lead students to study Chinese culture in a broader historical, political, social and global context.

CC120: Playing & Plays

Instructor: Ryan Platt
Format: Flex

This course is intended to introduce students to an exciting overview of new approaches to theatre and performance as covered in our department. It is early stages of development, but will likely include a unit around DH Hwang's play M Butterfly (Puccini, Chinese Opera, Orientalism, gender performativity basics, critiques of musical theatre), stand up, performance art, close work with CC theatre alums Buntport Theatre, and a trip to see new plays/immersive theatre. These materials will focus on critiques of racial inequity and challenge students to be attentive to cultural and racial difference.

CC100: Marketing: The Power of Story

Instructor: John Mann
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Creative Process (Pending Review)
Format: Flex

Marketing is fundamentally storytelling. It's about knowing the right story to tell, knowing the audience well, and then telling the story in an effective manner to best connect with the intended audience. This first block will explorer marketing through the construct of storytelling for the purpose of creating positive connections. We will explore the creative development process and critical analysis of great marketing stories through the lenses of business, psychology, sociology, and political science. We will also explore the ethics of marketing along the way.

CC120: Marketing: Creating Great Stories

Instructor: John Mann
Format: Flex

The second block would build on the creative process explored in Block 1. It will involve intensive writing and presentation experiences in various media (persuasive articles, advertising, blogs and social media, print ads, etc.). Students will use and expand their skills in the creative process as well as critical analysis, self-expression and other skills common in the world of marketing in particular. Students will also explore how to uses these skills to enhance their ability to perform in a competitive academic environment.