UNIV 104GChronicallyOnline:Fans & Stans

Catalog

CHRONICALLY ONLINE: FANS & STANS - - - The UNIV 101 & UNIV 104 courses offer a blended course format which includes two primary components, one focusing on the academic topic, taught by a faculty member with the second component devoted to new student transition topics, taught by a professional staff partner instructor. This freshmen seminar course will explore an intriguing intellectual topic, help freshmen hone critical thinking and writing skills, and assist students in making a successful transition to university life. - - - Fandom is mainstream. Once perceived as the realm of nerds in basements, fandom culture is internet culture and so much more. In this course we will look at the history and importance of fandom and fan practices. This will take us everywhere from Livejournal blogs to fantasy football drafts, fanfiction and fancams, to fandom as politics. By studying how fandom has changed we will explore how fans reshaped the media landscape in their own image-for good or bad. As part of our research we will look at the dark underbelly of geek gatekeeping, gamer gate(s), and questions of who is allowed to be a fan. In doing all this, students will also learn how to conduct traditional and digital research, culminating in a research project of their choosing. NOTE: All UNIV 101 and UNIV 104 courses are restricted to students in their FIRST SEMESTER at the University. Students MAY NOT register for more than one UNIV 101 or UNIV 104 course.