Course Offerings by term

This course provides a survey of the media and its function in today’s society. It introduces students to the basic concepts and tools necessary to think critically about media institutions and practices. In addition to the analysis of diverse media texts, the course considers wider strategies and trends in marketing, distribution, audience formation and the consequences of globalization. By semester’s end, students will understand the basic structures of today’s media and be able to provide advanced analysis that weighs the social and political implications of its products.

This course aims to introduce students to the study of fashion, considered as a multidisciplinary field of analyses. At the intersection of theory and practice, and relying on the key texts of historians, art historians, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists and geographers, this course will examine the relationship between fashion and body, identity, art, industry, media, class, culture, subculture, gender, sex, time, space, religion and politics. With an emphasis on experiential learning and drawing on visual and film sources, on historical and contemporary examples for discussion, this class will provide students with the possibility to question the future of the fashion industry by studying the social and environmental impact of fashion and the role of social change that fashion can play.

In this digital tools training course, students will learn skills, gain hands-on experience, and think critically and ethically about a range of contemporary digital tools for research, creative, and practical purposes in the fields of Communications, Media, and Cultural Studies. Students will acquire facility with and conceptual understanding of online publishing, search engines, privacy protecting tools, digital storytelling, and tools for data management, cleaning, and visualization, among others. As researchers, we will learn about finding quality information online, the ethics of gathering and protecting research data, and the fair and legal use of online content. Readings and lectures will interrogate the different ways in which digitization and datafication affect us as networked users, creators, citizens, and consumers, focusing on unequal access to information retrieval and creation, biases in Machine Learning, surveillance and tracking through datafication, algorithmic culture, and AI. The course prepares students to work with digital tools while critically and responsibly engaging with them.

This workshop trains students in magazine writing and production through hands-on experience working on a high-quality student magazine, the Peacock. Students participate in a newsroom setting in a variety of roles -- from writing and editing to pagination and layout -- to produce the Peacock in both print and online versions. Students will learn researching and writing techniques as well as how to interview and source stories for magazines. They will gain pre-professional experience preparing them for entry-level positions in magazine journalism – whether print publications or online magazines. Note: Up to 8 credits for Journalism Practica can be applied toward the degree. May be taken twice for credit.