Cultural Studies (CLST) 365

Overview

The field of cultural studies constitutes a site where different disciplines meet in the analysis of culture and society. This course considers the legacies and prevailing tendencies in cultural studies, while also analyzing cultural forms, practices, and institutions in relation to cultural studies’ interest in cultivating work that contributes to creating democratic possibilities and alternative futures.

Course Objectives

After completing this course, you should be able to

• identify and analyze the developments, issues, debates, and changing conditions that currently occupy the field of cultural studies.
• appreciate the need for flexibility and a theoretical and methodological “tool box.”
• recognize how the field of cultural studies is itself a site of contestation.
• understand that cultural studies is a dynamic intellectual project that is interested in the study of cultural politics in an effort to effect social change.
• appreciate cultural studies’ enduring investment in marginalized groups.
• demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate when claims to universal knowledge may in fact be positioned, thereby compromising or undermining their claims to universality.
• recognize cultural studies’ commitment to exploring new territory and promoting new dialogues in an effort to contribute to social change.
• understand the challenges that face efforts to decolonize the field of cultural studies.
• recognize that cultural studies is a truly global movement.

Outline

CLST 365 is composed of five units that are further divided into sections.

Part I: Key Concepts: Theoretical and Analytical Perspectives

Unit 1: Intellectual Positions: Cultural Politics, Emerging Conditions, and New Contexts

• Section 1.1: Cultural Signs of the Times
• Section 1.2: Race, Gender, and New Cultural Codes
• Section 1.3: Cultural Studies and New Sites of Instruction

Unit 2: Critical Pedagogy

• Section 2.1: Critical Pedagogy: Theory and Praxis
• Section 2.2: Critical Pedagogy in Uncertain Times

Part II: The New Cultural Politics of Identity, Difference, and Representation

Unit 3: Questions of Agency, Subjectivity, and Community

• Section 3.1: The Politics of Representation I: Cultural History/Cultural Memory
• Section 3.2: The Politics of Representation II: Cultural History/Cultural Memory: A Canadian Agenda
• Section 3.3: Mixed Race and Multiracial Identities
• Section 3.4: Cultural Politics/Sexual Politics
• Section 3.5: Globalization, the Precariat, and the Politics of the Present
• Section 3.6: Empire, Sovereignty, and Indigeneity

Part III: Place, Space, and Geography: The Politics of Location Revisited

Unit 4: Borders and Boundaries: Multiculturalism, Citizenship, and Belonging

• Section 4.1: Global Diasporas
• Section 4.2: Urban Spaces and Structured Exclusions
• Section 4.3: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Belonging
• Section 4.4: Culture and the Question of Citizenship

Part IV: Cultural Studies: Reflections, Democratic Possibilities, and Futures

Unit 5: New Media and Changing Contexts

• Section 5.1: New Media Production and Consumption
• Section 5.2: Self-Presentation in Online Spaces
• Section 5.3: Case Study: New Media and Social Organization
• Section 5.4: Case Study: September 11: The Aftermath
• Section 5.5: Cultural Studies: Changing Contexts and Futures

Evaluation

Your final grade in CLST 365: Cultural Studies in the Twenty-First Century: Politics, Pedagogies, Possibilities is based on the grades that you achieve on one short-answer essay assignment, one short essay, a media analysis, and a case study final paper. To receive credit for CLST 365, you must achieve a course composite grade of at least “D” (50 percent) in order to pass the course. The final grade for the course will be calculated as follows:

Assignment 1: Short-Answer Essays	Assignment 2: Short Essay	Assignment 3: Media Analysis	Assignment 4: Case Study	Total
15%	15%	30%	40%	100%

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.

Course Materials

All of the course materials, including readings and videos, are available via the course Moodle page.

Challenge for Credit Course Overview

The Challenge for Credit process allows students to demonstrate that they have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university level course.

Full information for the Challenge for Credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.

• Undergraduate Challenge for Credit Policy
• Undergraduate Challenge for Credit Procedures

Challenge Evaluation

To receive credit for the CLST 365 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least "C-" (60 per cent) on the examination.

Undergraduate Challenge for Credit Course Registration Form

• Challenge for Credit Form