INTL 112 - Introduction to International Studies: Globalization, Media, and Cultural Identities

What roles do media play in constituting identities for people and places both near and far? How do various media facilitate or hinder globalization? How are cultures and cultural identities shaped by contemporary media practices and globalization? The course introduces some key concepts in social theory that have been central to how media is researched (i.e.: public sphere, nation, media, identity, diaspora, multiculturalism and so on). We will investigate the role of media in constituting national identities, contesting and proposing political visions, creating subcultures, and representing and shaping social categories such as race, gender and class. How do media create categories of people? How do people inhabit, resist, subvert, reproduce those categories in and through media? This course focuses on thinking through, about and with media. Open to first- and second-year students, or permission of the instructor.

(4 Credits)