Course Catalog

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DIGITAL JOURNALISM (CM2012)

This course is a workshop that will focus on training students for digital journalism. Students will learn writing, editing and curating skills for an online environment, notably in news, reviews, and opinion writing. Emphasis will also be placed on using online tools for researching and sourcing, as well as digital tools for graphics and big data.

COMPARATIVE JOURNALISM : GUTENBERG TO GOOGLE (CM2014)

Studies will study the production of journalism in different historical, political and cultural contexts. Theoretical approaches to media and journalism (for example, authoritarian vs liberal models) will be studied to understand the relationship between politics and journalism – and, more generally, the media that operate as industries regulated by states. The course also examines the transformation of the journalism profession by new technologies, notably the impact of the web and social media on newsgathering and other journalistic practices. Issues such as censorship and surveillance will be examined through case studies such as Google and Facebook and new “gatekeepers” of news.

SCREENWRITING FOR TELEVISION (CM2018)

Over the past twenty years, Granada, HBO, and the BBC have been creating series such as The Singing Detective, Cracker, MI5, The Sopranos, and The Wire that are much darker and more persuasive and perverse than anything else on television or on the big screen. Students will examine these 'visual texts,' and will also outline one or two series of their own, working on individual scenes that will be dramatized in class.

DOCUMENTARIES IN ACTION: THE ART OF THE REAL (CM2032)

Course divided into theoretical and practical sections. The practical half of the course includes daily exercises in "hands-on" documentary research, scripting, sketching and shooting in the streets of Paris, with small video cameras, producing work that will then be critiqued in class. The theoretical component surveys the history of documentary film and different approaches to making documentaries.

COMMUNICATION THEORY & RESEARCH METH. (CM2051)

The skills learned in this course will prepare students for upper-division communication courses, and provide students with basic research methods in the field of communication. Students will become familiar with a range of research methods (survey, interview, ethnography, discourse, and political economy.

GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDIO (CM2080)

In this course, students will be introduced to graphic design history and graphic design principles. They will learn to apply these principles through hands-on exercises and projects, using both analog means and digital tools (Adobe Photoshop). No prerequisites.

TOPICS IN COMMUNICATIONS (CM2091)

Topics vary every semester.
“For the course description, please find this course in the respective semester on the public course browser: https://www.aup.edu/academics/course-catalog/by-term.”

INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL CULTURE (CM2100)

This course considers the construction of the visual world and our participation in it. Through a transcultural survey of materials, contexts and theories, students will learn how visual practices relate to other cultural activities, how they shape identity and environmental basic ways, and how vision functions in correspondence with other senses.

GLOBAL FASHION AND DESIGN (CM2110)

We will investigate Paris and question it in relation to global fashion. How are Paris as a fashion city and its key figure La Parisienne discursively constructed? How are fashionable commodities produced, mediated, consumed? These questions will be analyzed in lectures, seminars, research projects, exhibition visits and excursions, and by making extensive use of film in addition to other visual media and textual sources.

FASHION SYSTEMS & SUSTAINABILITY (CM2111)

This course aims to challenge existing notions of fashion by looking into several fashion systems - past and present - and engage with their social,economic, cultural and environmental impact. Systems of textiles and fashion revolve around numerous processes and actors, which are involved in complex chains from design, production, and distribution to consumption and use. Ready to wear, haute couture, fast, bespoke, vintage, slow or circular fashion - are some of the models operating on a global and local scale, all of which produce and market fashionable goods and ideas.
This course critically explores these different spaces and places of fashion.
We will begin with historical examples, especially looking at the effects of the Industrial Revolution and imperialism on textile production in Europe and globally in the 19th century. We will also discuss the establishment of Paris as the "capital of Western fashion" to the present day. Paris has been instrumental in the development of a globalized fashion system with wide-ranging effects on the environment and the living conditions of workers in the Global South.Exploring the life cycle of a garment will allow us to reflect on manufacturing processes and engage with sustainable practices such as upcycling, mending, and reuse. This course will encourage the rethinking of fashion systems under a holistic approach, one that reduces the footprint on raw materials and communities and fosters environmental responsibility and equity. Grounded in theory and practice, this course encourages critical discussions on fashion through lectures, research projects, visits,and guest talks, making extensive use of visual media and textual sources.