4 hours
2:00-4:50 p.m. T
236 Lincoln
Call number 33100
 
 
This seminar considers various kinds of projects that have represented Cultural Studies.  The seminar is less interested, however, in reconstructing an "intellectual tradition" or of dwelling on the "legacy" of British Cultural Studies than in considering some of the historical and geographic developments of Cultural Studies projects, with particular attention to how a wide variety of contemporary conditions and practices have made it necessary to rethink the objectives of Cultural Studies.  At least two-thirds of the syllabus therefore will be devoted to recent projects that represent recent directions in Cultural Studies and to discussions about the current aims and state of Cultural Studies.  That the term "cultural studies" occurs across various academic disciplines, in various geographic contexts, and across the projects of both the Left and the Right will be one of the central issues for this seminar.  The seminar will consider how recent Cultural Studies projects have addressed issues concerning knowledge/power, criticism/critique, a "new empiricism," historiography, spatial analytics (of the nation, globalization, cities, the domestic sphere), neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism, a new communitarianism, empire and imperialism, war and militarization, media/communication, technology, science and "science studies," economies (and analytics of new forms of consumption and labor), representation, reproduction, race, diaspora, gender, sexuality, forms of transport and mobility, education (at and in conjunction with the current university), activism, access and resources, rights and governmentality, citizenship, policy, everyday life, and culture (as a term implicated in all these subjects).
 
Students need not have any background in Cultural Studies.  How much material we consider from before the 1990s will depend upon the interests and needs of students enrolled in the course, but I intend to devote most of our attention to fairly recent work.  I am very interested in making the course relevant to students from various departments and disciplines, and in using the course to introduce questions and issues not easily addressed by a particular disciplinary knowledge.  Students will be expected to keep up with readings, to participate in class discussions, and to complete a final paper-project decided with me.