Course Descriptions
Specialized Courses
Uncle Sam Goes to Hollywood: US Government Involvement in Entertainment and News Media
This course explores the relationship between film, television, documentary, and news media and the US government from the twentieth century to the present.
Topics include Pentagon and CIA involvement in popular entertainment and news media, representations of the US government in American media, US government use of media in foreign policy, and propaganda. This class challenges students to become critical media consumers and producers by examining complex networks of corporate and state media and the intersectional power politics tied up in them.
Survey Courses
Cultural Pluralism in the US
This course offers an interdisciplinary exploration of imperialism, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, and power in the United States, emphasizing imaginative expressive forms, such as film, music, and the visual arts.
Students will be asked to think about a variety of contemporary and historical social issues and/or controversies dealing with imperialism, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and social inequality, and their causes and possible solutions. We will take up the tension between ideals of pluralism and democracy and the realities of inequality, focusing on historical, cultural, and intersectional analysis. Engagement in this course is devoted to discussion of required readings organized around student questions and comments.
Ben Arthur Thomson 