Course Overview:
This class engages with speculative, pop-ontological, and techno-anxiety inducing sci-fi to explore the broad spectrum of realities presented in visual as well as written narratives, and to critique the social constructions of bodies and spaces in “The Future”.
This course explores the broad spectrum of realities that are present in literature and media describing “The Future”. Some principal postures that will be examined in detail are: how gendered and racialized spaces occur in media; how “real” is a present challenge to understand in the face of interactive medias and technology advancements; and what trends arise in narratives within specific historical contexts. This seminar will conduct critical screenings of film and television through engagement with the works of scholars and theorists past and present. Through a unique collaboration with the Special Collections Department, students will be working with primary source artifacts and developing a project inspired from SDSU’s NEH Level 1 Grant for Digital Humanities Advancement. Finally, this is an interactive class using new-media and digital platforms in a Learning Research Studio. This specialized environment supports students as they learn new technologies, create digital expressions of course topics, discuss theory and critique visualizations.
Learning Outcomes:
Students taking HUM409 will be able to:
1. Recognize the social constructions of gender, sex, race, class, ethnicity, religion, culture, and geography and engage with these lenses in assignments and discussions. Students will be able to discern inequalities created because of these constraints and identify the ramifications of “othering” to groups and individuals.
2. Illustrate diversified technological abilities: working knowledge of uploading, organizing, and displaying PDFS, Mp3s, Mp4s, JPGs. Students will learn how to operate the digital platforms WordPress and SCALAR and demonstrate creativity in their academic explorations of The Future. They will also practice different ways of “discussing” material through visualizations, comments, and tags utilizing the technology of the Learning Resource Room.
3. Communicate effectively and professionally in groups and individually as discussion leaders and/or participants in class.
4. Demonstrate advanced sentence structure, verbiage, grammar, and “voice” for the appropriate venue—whether that be for writing blog posts and comments, virtual communication, or in formal essays.
5. Conduct basic Media Specific Analysis and display basic competency in Digital Humanities techniques regarding image analyzation.
6. Engage with Virtual and Augmented Reality Platforms to conduct physical explorations of theory; practicing responsive critique in a group setting to critical examinations of middleware.
What is the future? 