Individualized study online with Video component (Overseas students, please contact the University Library before registering in a course that has an audio/visual component)
Cultural Studies 201: Cultural Studies and Everyday Life is a junior-level, three-credit course that takes as its organizing metaphor, Raymond Williams' remark that “culture is ordinary.” This course will provide an introduction to cultural studies by exploring, reflecting on, and evaluating how, on a daily basis, we are immersed in culture.
Objectives
To demystify the idea of “culture” by showing the ways in which it permeates our everyday lives.
To question the distinction between things deemed to be cultural and things assumed to be natural.
To explore the ways in which everyday culture can be a site of contestation.
Outline
CLST 201 consist of the following six units.
Unit 1: Culture is Ordinary
Unit 2: Domestic Cultures
Unit 3: Workplace Cultures
Unit 4: Recreational Cultures
Unit 5: Culture and Community
Unit 6: Culture, Experience, Identity
Evaluation
To receive credit for CLST 201, you must achieve a course composite grade of at least a D (50 percent). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
Activity
Weight
Assignment 1
20%
Assignment 2
20%
Assignment 3
25%
Assignment 4
35%
Total
100%
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
Fedorak, Shirley. Pop Culture: The Culture of Everyday Life. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. (Print)
Peter Weir (Director). The Truman Show. Paramount, 1998. (AU Library) (Audio/Video)
Gurinder Chada (Director). Bend It Like Beckham. 20th Century Fox, 2002. (AU Library) (Audio/Video)
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized study counterparts.