This course will interrogate concepts of the city and of urban imagination through literature and film set in or featuring cities both real and fictive. We will explore the city's paradoxical claims to modernity, as well as its postmodern and postcolonial transformations. Specific themes and problems will include the relationship between the city and capital; figures of the masses and the crowd; circulation and control; boredom and novelty; the aesthetic, psychosocial, and political significance of architectural structures; the rise of the megacity and post-industrial dystopias.

This is an introductory course toward an understanding of the various representations of youth and
schools in the media. The course focuses on the multiple, often competing, discourses about young
people and the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in their lives. Students will espouse
critical thinking and media literacy to engage in discussion about several filmic examples.
Deconstructive lenses will be used to perform analyses based on race, class, gender, and sexuality,

The first season of the Serial podcast investigated the murder of a high school student, and the prosecution of her ex-boyfriend for the crime. Using the 12 episodes of the podcast as our springboard, this interdisciplinary course will explore the different ways in which events are remembered and portrayed ? by participants, witnesses, journalists, and lawyers. Each week, we?ll listen to an episode of the podcast, and read and discuss additional materials on memory, narrative theory, journalism, and trial practice.