Believe It or Not: Mediating the Unthinkable, Past and Present

Catalog description

How do we respond when confronted with something that seems impossible? When Robert Ripley first invited audiences to “believe-it-or-not” at his Odditorium in 1933, many responded by fainting. However, as modern forms of media and technology perpetually shrink the scope of the implausible, the places we confront the un- (or non-) believable continue to evolve as well. From 9/11 to the #blacklivesmatter and #metoo movements, students will analyze instances that challenge established notions of the unthinkable to explore how social groups come to understand objects, ideas, and events that don’t fit within their own experiences and worldview.