Overview:

what are the key questions this course asks? 

We live immersed in popular culture; we see, hear, or read hundreds of advertisements, songs, jingles, webpages, tweets, films, articles, and stories every day. These images, narratives, and arguments affect the way we experience the world we live in, sometimes in ways so subtle we often overlook their profound influence on our lives.

What can advertisements, films, television, and popular music teach us about the ways we imagine nature and the environment? What ideas about nature are conveyed by zoos, aquariums, and nature-oriented theme parks? This course examines the various ways that nature is represented in U.S. popular culture.  We will talk about what is at stake in these kinds of depictions of the natural world. We’ll also examine how these depictions of the natural world influence popular conceptions of other aspects of social experience. Specifically, we will consider how ideas about race, gender, and sexuality are voiced through popular representations of nature as we explore why and how representations of nature and the environment in popular culture matter. How do representations of nature justify existing relationships of power and privilege in society? In what ways do representations of nature contest the existing relationships of power and privilege in society?

what key skills will I learn by taking this course? 

To take up these difficult and important questions we’ll practice key skills of cultural analysis: close interpretation of popular culture, collaborative discussion and debate, and digital analyses of texts (the so called “digital humanities”). To become attentive and insightful analysts we’ll equip ourselves with a toolkit of theoretical terms and traditions that allow us to see the deeper meanings and mechanisms of culture. These skills are precisely what employers most look for in college graduates: the ability to communicate clearly in writing, the ability to solve complex problems, the ability to work effectively in teams, and the ability to think critically.

what popular culture? 

This is the fun part! While I’ll collect some particularly useful songs, films, advertisements, and stories for our class, everyone will have ample opportunity to study and share new and interesting texts, objects, and artifacts with the class. While we might not all be experts on studying popular culture already, we all experience a lot of culture and can draw from this experience to answer the key questions we’ll take up.