Summer 2020 Courses

Comparative Studies

Comparative Studies 1100  Introduction to the Humanities: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

TuTh 2:20-5:30 | Mendenhall Lab 123 | Elizabeth Vu

Explores the role of literature and the arts in constructing, maintaining, and questioning the values and beliefs of diverse cultures and historical periods; topics vary.  GE Literature and Diversity: Global Studies.

 

Comparative Studies 2264  Introduction to Popular Culture Studies

Th 9:30-12:30 | Denney Hall 250 | Nathan Richards

Introduction to the analysis of popular culture texts, with special emphasis on the relationship between popular culture studies and literary studies. Cross-listed in English. GE Cultures and Ideas.

 

Comparative Studies 2341  Technology, Science, and Society

MWF 11:25-12:30 | Pomerene Hall 250 | Noah Tamarkin

This course explores, from a variety of perspectives, the multiple relations among social and cultural formations, scientific and technical work, and the production and circulation of knowledge.  Topics include the everyday life of the laboratory, the shifting boundaries of science and other ways of knowing, the political and ethical contours of scientific and technical work, and the social effects of scientific discourses and technological systems. GE Cultures and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies.

 

Comparative Studies 5957.02 Folklore in Circulation

MW 9:30-12:30 | Dulles Hall 012 | Dorothy Noyes

This course explores the notion of the residual: what is left over, useless, unclassifiable. We will explore the customary management of communal resources, both human and material, in scarce-resource societies. We’ll consider processes of symbolic classification through which phenomena can be labelled as out of place or out of phase. We'll examine the creation of waste (and its converse, deprivation) with the codification of custom in modernity, and look at strategies by which waste is recuperated as a matter of necessity, art, or ideology. We'll look at how different kinds of leftover move in and out of systems of value: for example, the labelling of things as "junk" or "antiques," people as "trash," or ideas as "folklore." Finally, we'll think about the status of residues in social and cultural theory. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 cr hrs.