Cultural Studies (CULT)
Cultural Studies
320 Globalization and Culture (3:3:0) Examines relationship between cultures and globalization through texts and points of view. Starting from development of capitalism, looks at age of imperialism and colonialism, finishing in present. Considers how globalization affects dynamics of cultural change. Emphasizes extraordinary role of new media and technologies in defining and shaping cultural spaces in which people live.
802 Histories of Cultural Studies (3:3:0) Prerequisite: admission to program, MA feeder track, or permission of instructor. Required of all students. Historical survey of principal works and theories of cultural studies. Provides overview of contemporary situation of cultural studies, and assesses possibilities for future development.
806 Research Seminar in Cultural Studies (3:3:0) Prerequisites: admission to program and CULT 802. Introduces research methods in cultural studies. Specific topics vary.
808 Student/Faculty Colloquium in Cultural Studies (1:1:0)Prerequisite: admission to program, or permission of instructor. Forum for presentation of original and current research in cultural studies. Students register for 1 credit per semester over a three-semester period.
810 Culture and Political Economy (3:3:0) Prerequisite: admission to program, or permission of instructor. Surveys social science and humanities classics that relate cultural production and consumption to underlying political economic conditions. Includes Marx, Lukacs, Frankfurt School, semiotic neo-Marxism, productivist theories of power indebted to Foucault, Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Harvey, Jameson, Mauss, Mill, Polanyi, Sahlins, A. Smith, and Weber.
812 Visual and Performance Culture (3:3:0) Prerequisite: admission to program, or permission of instructor. Examines theories, production, consumption, and reception of visual culture. Covers film, video, visual arts, music, display, ritual, performance, performativity, and theories of the aesthetic. Includes key readings from theorists such as Adorno, Artaud, Benjamin, Brecht, Bryson, Doane, Fiske, Heath, Marcuse, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre.
814 Gender and Sexuality (3:3:0) Prerequisite: admission to program, or permission of instructor. Investigates notion of gender functions in maintaining and analyzing issues of social and cultural power. Examines conflicting notions of sexuality, and their role in cultural signification. Seeks to explicate relationship of sexuality, gender.
816 Science/Technology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: admission to program, or permission of instructor. Considers theories and major debates on culture of science, social construction of nature, and effects of technology on modern cultural forms. Includes readings from theorists such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Feyerabend, Bahro, Haraway, and Latour.
818 Social Institutions (3:3:0) Prerequisite: admission to program, or permission of instructor. Considers theories of institutional practice and social structures, from Max Weber to Michel Foucault. Covers prisons, bureaucracies, museums, schools, political parties, and social movements.
820 After Colonialism: Race, Ethnicity, Nationalism (3:3:0) Prerequisite: admission to program, or permission of instructor. Surveys racial, ethnic, caste, and national identities in colonial contexts; scientific racism in periphery and core sites; subsequent history of race, ethnic, national identities and conflicts; classical and contemporary texts by authors such as DuBois, Fanon, Gilroy, and Spivak; and particular place of issues of national, racial, and ethnic identities in contemporary cultural studies.
860 Special Topics in Cultural Studies (1-3:1-3:0) Prerequisite: admission to program, or permission of instructor. Specialized interdisciplinary topics in cultural theory and analysis. Content varies. May be repeated.
870 Directed Readings (3:0:0) Intensive reading course to develop comprehensive coverage for specific fields as agreed on in with advisors. May be repeated.
880 Independent Study (1-3:0:0) Reading and research on specific topic, resulting in a written project. May be repeated.
998 Doctoral Dissertation Proposal (1-6:0:0) Work on research proposal that forms basis for doctoral dissertation. Students must have completed all cultural studies course work, fulfilled foreign language requirement, and passed comprehensive exam. Course may be repeated once for credit. Graded S/NC.
999 Doctoral Dissertation (1-12:0:0) Prerequisites: completion of CULT 998, and public presentation of dissertation proposal. Doctoral dissertation research and writing under direction of dissertation committee. Graded S/NC.