AP/CLTR 2100 6.00

Questioning Culture

Designed to introduce students to the theoretical study of contemporary culture in past and contemporary society, offering tools for questioning and decoding the social and political contexts of cultural production. Areas of focus include popular media, consumer culture, digital culture, technology, music, subcultures, issues of gender, ideology, race, nationalism, ethnicity and identity.

As a subject area the study of culture defies easy description or encapsulation. While sometimes associated with the particular directions of the Birmingham School in the United Kingdom, the practice and teaching of Cultural Studies around the world is resolutely interdisciplinary and representative of a wide range of interests, issues and concerns. In this course we will map some of the territory of Cultural Studies with the broad aim being to create a critical "toolbox" with which to critically approach the study of culture, especially within the equally broad scope of media and communications studies, technology and artistic expression.