Visual images and sensory experiences pervade our everyday lives and are a central part of how we experience the world. We encounter images and sensory experiences in many forms: from paintings, to film, to cuisine, to music, and the internet. Visual and sensory experiences play a central role in how we represent ideas, make meaning, and communicate. Courses in this cluster examine the role that sensory experiences play in producing knowledge and understanding, raise questions about “high” and “low” cultures, examine the politics of images and the senses, and explore how images are forms of visual communication.

Associated Course Pairings:

Course Descriptions

CC100: Identity, Ideology, and Emotion in Visual Culture

Instructor: Scott Kryzch
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
CRN# 12493
Block: 1

Examines contemporary media and its effects on our understanding and experience of culture and society. In-depth reading of influential theories in the disciplines of contemporary film and media theory, Cultural Studies, and technology studies, as well as close analysis of visual media (television, film, web pages, and interactive technology). Group projects and analytical writing assignments will emphasize both formal and ideological analysis of media.

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

Instructor: Tracy Coleman
CRN# 12518
Block: 2

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: Marketing: The Power of Story (I)

Instructor: John Mann
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Creative Process
CRN# 12500
Block: 1

Marketing is fundamentally storytelling with a purpose. 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 creating stories for the purpose of forging positive connections and relationships. 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: The Power of Story (II)

Instructor: John Mann
CRN# 12548
Block: 2

The second block would build on the creative process explored in Block 1. It will involve intensive writing and presentation experiences in various marketing 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. A final team project will involve creating a digital marketing proposal for the Camp Amache Japanese American Internment Camp in eastern Colorado aimed at helping the group maintaining the camp and museum to bring the story to future generations who may not have awareness of the internment. We will have a field trip to the site if travel is permitted.

CC100: Food for Thought

Instructor: Tyler Cornelius
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Historical Perspectives
CRN# 12504
Block: 1

This course is an introduction to food as a serious subject/object of analysis, beginning with investigations of the earliest American food systems and ending with the ecological problems associated with industrial agriculture today. In learning about the history of food in North America this class will encounter diverse perspectives across a number of academic disciplines. Our inquiry will be both historical and contemporary with a focus on present-day issues relating to social justice and sustainability. In exploring these ideas the course will engage a broad range of materials, including history, documentary film, fiction, photography, advertisement, government legislation/regulation, architecture, and... food itself. This class will be both interesting and delicious!

CC120: Food Fight

Instructor: Tyler Cornelius
CRN# 12519
Block: 2

One of the best windows into the values of a society is by looking at what they eat – where their food comes from, how it is prepared and consumed, and what it can tell us about the larger forces shaping its past and present. In the second part of this course students will build and expand upon their exploration of the history of food in North America to ask and answer questions relating to social, political, and environmental change. In tracing the relationship between food and power, this class explores the role of food in crafting personal and collective identities; the contradictions of current food systems; and the use of food in political and cultural critique.

CC100: Music, Food, and the Senses

Instructor: Liliana Carrizo
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Societies & Human Behavior
CRN# 12484
Block: 1

Music, Food, and the Senses is an introduction to social and cultural theory in the humanities with a strong emphasis on embodied and practice theory. Building on the idea of musical and culinary practice as a form of "living history," this course will focus on critical approaches to ethnomusicology, anthropology, ethnography, and social theory from a musical lens. Our investigation will aim to bridge the realms of theory and practice through a multi-disciplinary, liberal arts-based approach that includes intensive textual study in combination with performance-based embodied learning modules, hands-on ethnographic inquiry, and multi-media forms of creative reflection and writing.

CC120: Musical Embodiment and Ethnography

Instructor: Liliana Carrizo
CRN# 12516
Block: 2

Musical Embodiment and Ethnography: Building on the idea of music, performance, and culinary practice as forms of “living history,” this course is dedicated to understanding and uncovering cultural belonging from the perspective of the embodiment and the senses. We will attempt to answer: what do social and individual histories look like, if told from the perspective of music and song? In this course, we will draw from and fine-tune the craft of ethnography – utilizing sensory, culinary, and music-based modes of inquiry in order to explore the human condition – including the world, its peoples, and the transnational movement of people over time. Our investigation will culminate in a larger research-based, written ethnographic project and presentation that creatively represents lived experiences of musical embodiment, culinary belonging, and socio-cultural meaning.