Television has become so vast, so amorphous that it may seem impossible to define today. But in
this ineffability also lies possibility. This course will explore the possibilities that television
offers us when we look at it closely: possibilities of comfort, of speculation, of desire, even of
kindness. And we will consider other formal possibilities in television’s various incarnations
from its original broadcast commercial format in the US to contemporary streaming applications.
Hence, we will also explore televisual and digital approaches to narrative, temporality, and

This seminar introduces students to the art of cultural criticism and to the study of African American expressive culture. Deploying a broad, interdisciplinary approach, we survey influential works of twentieth/twenty-first century African American fiction, music, drama, painting, and photography in order to understand the tendencies and trends associated with what scholars sometimes refer to as “the black aesthetic.” We pay particular attention to “masterpiece” works—i.e.

We live in a world saturated with images. What makes some images the targets of veneration (iconophilia), and others the targets of destruction (iconoclasm)? What drives the rejection or—alternatively—embrace of certain types of images, and how are such acts justified? This course will begin by examining these questions within a historical framework, drawing on medieval and early modern case studies of image worship and destruction from around the globe. We will consider how different religious and cultural communities defined their relationship with images.

In this course we will read and write about different works of autobiography and memoir, ranging from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s “Confessions” to Brittany Spears “The Woman in Me.” We will explore the underlying motives of the authors, from apologia to self-promotion to political argument, and discuss the varying techniques the authors use to tell their stories. Aside from Rousseau and Spears, we may consider works by Frederick Douglass, U.S. Grant, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary Carr, Maya Angelou, Adolf Hitler, Stanley Cavell, and William Connolly.