This course will examine the different ways that communication and digital technologies are shaping notions of work and labor. We will engage with ongoing debates on topics such as the sharing economy (e.g. Uber/Lyft driving), microwork (e.g. Amazon Mechanical Turk), microcelebrity (e.g. YouTube stars and Instagram influencers), tech entrepreneurship both in Silicon Valley and other parts of the world, as well as the work that goes into making popular consumer technologies like the iPhone.

From Hollywood to Bollywood, Korean Dramas to Netflix Originals, media finds transnational and diasporic audiences around the world and are remade, re-used, and remixed. This course will unpack theories of globalization and other processes facilitating the cross-border flow of various media. Case studies and assignments will be focused on the production, distribution, and reception of entertainment media from different parts of the world. In addition to reading responses and a midterm paper, students will complete a group project on a country and media product of their choice.

Independent study in special subjects.

Not available at this time

Not available at this time

Not available at this time

Independent study in special subjects.

Independent study in special subjects.

This course examines the vast store of folklore inspired by and directed at alcohol and its cultural reach. Folklore means traditional expressive practices ranging from the verbal arts (such as stories and songs) to material culture (such as crafts and medicine) to customary activities (such as rituals and beliefs). The range of folklore herein is both global and ancient; that is, it concerns the entire history of alcohol, which in effect necessitates attention to the entire history of humanity in a global perspective.

This course deals with issues of racial stratification and inequality in the United States, and the ways in which we understand them - the stories we tell ourselves about WHY the world is organized as it. It deals with both the reality of race as well as the way that reality is represented, and why, as a society, we refuse to seriously address its disastrous consequences. (Gen. Ed. SB)