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COLT 305 - Cultural Studies

CRN: 26294

Instructor: Dawn Marlan

Term: Winter 2020

This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary study of cultural discourses and practices known as “cultural studies”. Cultural Studies has increasingly become a central field within the discipline of comparative literature, thanks to its capacity to address a huge variety of cultural artifacts across an array of national contexts. In COLT 305, students are introduced to the defining concept of cultural studies: namely that culture can be understood as a meaningful system of signs, capable of analysis and interpretation. In addition, students learn to address the historical and socio-political contexts of culture, paying special attention to the ways in which cultural forms help delineate power relations, typically in terms of categories like gender, race and class. COLT 305 teaches students how to interpret and critique the many levels of cultural discourse that surround us, and further helps students position such discourse within a global context.

This course is designed to satisfy Arts and Letters group requirements by virtue of its broad scope and introduction to a central disciplinary field within comparative literature. It also satisfies International Cultures multicultural requirement due to its critical and global contextualization of cultural forms. It introduces students to the investigation of cultural artifacts from an explicitly comparative and international standpoint. Students will learn to address the historical and socio-political contexts of culture, paying special attention to the ways in which cultural forms help delineate power relations, typically in terms of categories like gender, race and class. Thanks to its international focus and its critical attention to intersections of identity, politics and culture, COLT 305 challenges an ethnocentric perspective.

Satisfies General Education Requirements:

  • Group-Satisfying: Arts and Letters
  • Multicultural Courses: International Cultures (IC)
  • Core Education Multicultural: Global Perspectives (GP)