Introduction to Cultural Studies

Catalog description

As such, culture is understood as the sum of meanings and practices of daily life and our relations with others. Topics covered include, for example: the ways that consumption, media, and technology influence people's identities; how our lives become interconnected with human and non-human others; how culture exists as a site of sociopolitical and economic struggle; the ways that people use culture to survive in increasingly precarious worlds; how people interpret and negotiate meanings within culture; or the ways that culture provides structure to our behavior, our treatment of others, or our perceptions of self. By drawing on theories and methods found within the humanities and social sciences, students will explore hidden, common, and spectacular forms of culture.