Courses

Spring 2023

 

AFAMAST 2288: Bebop to Doowop to Hiphop: The Rhythm and Blues Tradition

• TuTh 3:55PM - 5:15PM / Baker Systems 180 / Jason Rawls           

• TuTh 5:30PM - 6:50PM / Baker Systems 198 / Jason Rawls

Explores the world of Hip-Hop, from its birth in the Bronx to its infiltration of music, fashion, television, film, dance, print culture, and politics. It considers critically the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, and geography as well as the ways in which Hip-Hop functions simultaneously as aesthetic, analytic, and politic.

ANTHROP 3334: Zombies: The Anthropology of the Undead 

• MoWeFr 10:20AM - 11:15AM / Hopkins Hall 246 / Jeffrey Cohen

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ARTEDUC 2550: Introduction to Visual Culture: Seeing and Being Seen

• We 1:00PM - 3:50PM / Ramseyer Hall 039 / Clayton Funk

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ARTEDUC 2700: Criticizing Television 

• TBA / Online / To be Announced
• TBA / Online / To be Announced
• TBA / Online / Kelsi Stoltenow Petersen
• TBA / Online / Kelsi Stoltenow Petersen      
• TBA / Online / Ruth Smith   
• TBA  / Online / To be Announced
• TBA / Online / To be Announced
• MoWe 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Ramseyer Hall 039 / To be Announced
• TuTh 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Caldwell Lab 135 / To be Announced
• TuTh 9:35AM - 10:55AM / Smith Lab 1042 / To be Announced                
• TBA  / Online / To be Announced
• TBA / Online / Lauren Pace              

A critical analysis of a wide variety of television programs through viewing, discussing, reading, and writing. Students will focus on the ways in which racial, ethnic, and gender diversity issues are represented on television. Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 2367.03, Theatre 2367.03, or 2700. GE writing and comm course: level 2 and diversity soc div in the US course. GE foundation writing and info literacy and race, ethnicity and gender div course. Cross-listed in Theatre.

CHINESE 4406: China Pop: Contemporary Pop Culture & Media in Greater China

• WeFr 2:20PM - 3:40PM / Mendenhall Lab 115 / Nancy Tewksbury

Introduction to Chinese opera as traditional culture, dramatic literature, and performing art; selected opera scripts and stage performances from Beijing opera, Kunqu, and regional operas; illustrated discussions of various aspects of the theater.

CHINESE 5474:  Chinese Opera

• Mo 2:15PM - 5:00PM / Hagerty Hall 351 / Marjorie Chan

Introduction to Chinese opera as traditional culture, dramatic literature, and performing art; selected opera scripts and stage performances from Beijing opera, Kunqu, and regional operas; illustrated discussions of various aspects of the theater.

• Online / Alex Bonus

This course is designed to promote an understanding of basic mass communication practice.

COMM 3513 - Video Games and Society

• Online / Nic Matthews

A broad overview of the effects of video game play on society. Students critique the literature on this topic and design their own study to test video game effects.

COMPARATIVE STUDIES 2281: American Icons

• MoWe 3:55PM - 5:15PM / Page Hall 060 / John Brooks     

Interdisciplinary methods in American studies; emphasis on the plurality of identities in American culture. Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. GE cultures and ideas and diversity soc div in the US course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies course.

COMPARATIVE STUDIES 3686 - Cultural Studies of American Musics 

• MoWe 12:45PM - 2:05PM / McPherson Lab 1040 / Barry Shank
• MoWe 9:35AM - 10:55AM / Online / Kevin Whitman

Investigation of the social, political, and cultural contexts of the development of popular musics in the U.S. Prereq: English 1110 or equiv. GE VPA and diversity soc div in the US course. GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts course.

CONSUMER SCI: FASHION & RETAIL 2372: Appearance, Dress, and Cultural Diversity 

• Tu 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Knowlton Hall 250 & Online / Julie Hillery

A cross-cultural study of the diversity and meaning of appearance and dress as manifestations of individual and group behavior, social organizations, and cultural norms. GE soc sci indivs and groups course. GE foundation social and behavioral sci course.

CONSUMER SCI: FASHION & RETAIL 2374: 20^th-Century Fashion and Beyond

• TuTh 3:00PM - 4:20PM / Sullivant Hall 220 / Nancy Dugan
• Online / Wendy Goldstein

Relationship between culture, society and fashion in the 20th century, the influence of historic dress on contemporary fashion, and industry developments leading to mass fashion.
Prereq: English 1110. GE historical study course. GE foundation social and behavioral sci course.

CONSUMER SCI: FASHION & RETAIL 2375: From Folk to Funk to Festivals: The Interplay Between Music and Dress 

• Tu 11:10AM - 12:30PM & Online / Hitchcock Hall 324 / Julie Hillery      

This interdisciplinary course will critically analyze the interplay between various genres of music and the fashion trends made significant by artists in each genre. Moreover, it examines how human behavior is influenced by the use of dress and music as mediums of communication used by individuals, human societies, and cultures through the lens of related fashion and social/psychological theories. GE foundation social and behavioral sci course.

• TuTh 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Ramseyer Hall 009 / Kristin Paulus

Analysis and application of trend forecasting practices in all aspects of the fashion industry.

DANCE 2152:  Hip Hop II

• MoWe 7:05PM - 8:35PM / Sullivant Hall 290 / Amy Schmidt

Non-major intermediate/advanced level studio practice of hip hop dance; includes survey of the history, theory, and/or literature of hip hop dance.  Prereq: One Year of 1151 (201.06) or permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 8 cr hrs or 4 completions.

DANCE 3401: Dance in Popular Culture                 

• Online / Amy Schmidt

Popular dance in the United States, with an emphasis on how movement constructs identity and community. GE cultures and ideas and diversity soc div in the US course.

ENGLISH 2263: Introduction to Film                    

• TuTh 11:30AM - 12:25PM / Stillman Hall 100 / Jesse Schotter

Introduction to methods of reading film texts by analyzing cinema as technique, as system, and as cultural product.Prereq: 1110.01 or equiv. GE VPA course. GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts course.

ENGLISH/ COMPARATIVE STUDIES 2264: Introduction to Popular Culture Studies                 

• TuTh 3:55PM - 5:15PM / Journalism Bldg 239 / Natalia Colon Alvarez

Introduction to the analysis of popular culture texts. Prereq: 1110.01. GE cultures and ideas course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies course. Cross-listed in CompStd.

ENGLISH 2270: Introduction to Folklore

• TuTh 11:10AM - 12:30PM / McPherson Lab 1040 / Zahra Abedi
• MoWe 2:20PM - 3:40PM / Mendenhall Lab 173 / Daisy Ahlstone

Folklore theory and methods explored through engagement with primary sources: folktale, legend, jokes, folksong, festival, belief, art. Folklore Minor course.  Prereq: 1110.01. GE cultures and ideas course. Cross-listed in CompStd 2350.

ENGLISH 2463:  Introduction to Video Games Analysis

• TuTh 3:55PM - 5:15PM / Denney Hall 316 / Ryan Helterbrand
• TuTh 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Denney Hall 316 / Alex Thompson

 

An introduction to humanities-based methods of analyzing and interpreting video games in terms of form, genre, style, and theory. No background in video game play is necessary. All students will have regular opportunities for hands-on experience with different game types and genres in both the computer-based classroom and the English Department Video Game Lab. Prereq: English 1110. GE VPA course.

• TuTh 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Denney Hall 250 / Rolando Rubalcava

Study of sequential comics and graphic narrative and the formal elements of comics, how word and image compete and collaborate in comics to make meaning and how genre is activated and redeployed. Students analyze comics texts, articulate and defend interpretations of meaning and learn about archival research at OSU's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. No background in comics is required. Prereq: 1110. GE VPA course. GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts course.

ENGLISH 3364: Special Topics in Popular Culture

• WeFr 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Denney Hall 250 / Katlin Sweeney

Special Topic: The Disney corporation's portrayals of race (1920s-present).         

Focused study in reading popular culture texts, organized around a single theme, period, or medium. Prereq: 1110.01. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 cr hrs. GE cultures and ideas course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies course.

ENGLISH 3372: Science Fiction and/or Fantasy     

• Online / Karen Winstead

Special Topic: Hideous Progeny

• TuTh 3:55PM - 5:15PM / Jennings Hall 060 / Dennin Ellis

Special Topic:  Sci-fi and Anti-authority

• WeFr 9:35AM - 10:55AM / Cockins Hall 312 / Morgan Podraza

Special Topic: At the Margins of Humanity

• TuTh 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Denney Hall 253 / David Brewer

Special Topic: How Magic Works

Introduction to the tradition and practice of speculative writing. Provides students the opportunity to examine and compare works of science fiction and/or fantasy. Prereq: 1110. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 cr hrs. GE lit course. GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts course.

ENGLISH 3378: Special Topics in Film and Literature 

• WeFr 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Denney Hall 214 / Luke Wilson

Special Topic: Shakespeare and Film

In this course we will read and discuss five of Shakespeare’s tragedies and watch and analyze some of significant film adaptations of these plays. We’ll work by reading the plays themselves, carefully, first, and then investigate how different directors have responded. Film adaptations of Shakespeare cover a wide range of approaches, from those that follow Shakespeare’s text closely to those that translate the text into a wholly different language and idiom. The best filmic renderings of Shakespeare tend not to scrupulously adhere to the text but rather bring to bear the film medium’s own unique representational resources. In this course we’ll focus on Shakespeare’s major tragedies (probably Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and Coriolanus), and watch one or two films of each play. You’ll write frequently about what you’re reading and watching, in discussion posts and response papers, and you’ll have a chance to explore your ideas in greater depth in a substantial essay. There will also be a final exam, as well as an assignment in which you report on a film we haven’t watched in class.

Prereq: 1110. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 cr hrs. GE cultures and ideas course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies course.

ENGLISH 4551:  Special Topics in 19th-Century U.S. Literature 

• TuTh 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Denney Hall 435 / Jared Gardner    

Popular Culture, Industrial Print, and the Remaking of American Literature, 1830s-1890s

This course will study the emergence of mass popular culture in the age of industrial print, opening up imaginative literature to new audiences, authors, and media. We will look at the rise of serial fiction in the U.S. and at a range of new print marketplaces, including the penny press, the story paper, the dime novel. We will study the impact of the changing technologies and economics of print throughout the 19th century, and how the rise of popular literature shaped a new understanding of "serious literature" which American authors had to negotiate as they considered venues and publishers. We will conclude by looking at the emergence of two new narrative media at century's end --the twinned birth of comics and film--which would go on and shape popular culture for the first half of the twentieth century.

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ENGLISH 4577.02: Folklore II: Genres, Form, Meaning, and Use 

• TuTh 2:20PM - 3:40PM / Cockins Hall 228 / Merrill Kaplan

Special Topic: Legend, Superstition, and Folk Belief

Rumors and spooky stories, superstitions and conspiracy theories, fake news and folk belief, UFOs and elves: folklorists study all these things and more as legendry, the genre in which societies work through their most pressing fears, beliefs, and doubts. Take this course for a deep dive into how legend crystalizes cultural anxieties and how people use legend in ongoing debates about the nature of our world. 

Study of folk groups/communities, folklore genres, issues/methods in folklore studies. Study of the relationship between cultural forms, community interpretations, and social uses. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 cr hrs.

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ENGLISH 4578: Special Topics in Film  

• WeFr 2:20PM - 3:40PM / Denney Hall 265 / Sean O'Sullivan

Special Topic: Television, Narrative, Seriality

This course will consider central questions of televisual art and narrative, focusing on the first seasons of three 21st-century series: The Wire, Mad Men, and Orange Is the New Black.  What are the basic narrative practices and structures of television?and serial television in particular?  How are storyworlds created?  What are the strategies and effects of devices such as the episode and the season?  How does character operate within television narrative?  How does televisual storytelling organize space and time?  What are the consequences of genre conventions and audience responses?  A recurring subject for the class will be the tension between the episodic and the serial?between individual aesthetic experiences and sprawling fictional universes.  Throughout, we will examine the vital intersections of an array of fields and practices: film studies, narratology, literature, media studies, visual culture, and the segmented organization of experience.

• TuTh 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Denney Hall 213 / Ryan Friedman

Special Topic: Film and American Society After WWII

This course examines the history of the American cinema in the years immediately following the Second World War, covering the period from 1945 to 1960. We will view and discuss significant Hollywood films from a variety of genres (e.g., comedy, musical, film noir, western, melodrama, social problem film), contextualizing them by reading articles and excerpts from a variety of sources (e.g., popular magazines, film-trade publications, books of popular sociology, design treatises, political speeches) published during the era in which these films were produced and released. These textual primary sources will serve to illustrate historical discourses describing, reinforcing, and/or critiquing what were conceived of as significant social issues and shifts - from the "veterans problem," to the "housing crisis," to "juvenile delinquency," to sexism, and racial segregation in schools. In our discussions, we'll be interested in how the assigned films reflected, responded to, and inflected the print debates happening around these issues and shifts-even and perhaps especially when the films are not overtly working in the "social problem" genre. We'll also approach the films in the context of the upheavals happening in the American film industry during this period, as a result of the Paramount decree, the HUAC hearings, suburbanization, and declining movie theater attendance. In particular, we'll examine the ways in which the rise of television as a competing medium of mass entertainment shaped the stories that Hollywood movies told and the visual devices that they used to dramatize these stories.

Prereq: 6 cr hrs of English at 2000-3000 level, or permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs.

ENGLISH 5664: Studies in Graphic Narrative 

• Fr 12:10PM - 3:10PM / Sullivant Hall 205 / Jared Gardner 

Special Topic: Comics, Time, & the Environment

This seminar will explore the unique ways in which the comics form engages with representing and reimagining time and its relation to space, focusing especially on graphic narrative that seeks to represent temporalities that step outside of the synchronized clocktimes of global modernity. The second half of the seminar will focus on attempts to apply the possibilities of visualizing spacetime in graphic narrative to consider projects focused on reimagining our relationship with the environment and the futures of climate change.

Introduction to advanced study in graphic narrative and theory; thematic topics include the contemporary graphic novel, graphic autobiography, the history of comics, and comics journalism.  Prereq: 9 cr hrs at the 3000, 4000, or 5000-level in English, or permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs.

FILMSTD 2271: Introduction to Film Studies for Majors

• WeFr 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Dreese Lab 317 / Mercedes Chavez

An introduction to the field of Film Studies based on a survey of the major theories of film analysis, specifically geared for incoming majors. Prereq: English 2263 (263), or HistArt 2901 (260). GE VPA course.

GERMAN 2251: German Literature and Popular Culture

• TuTh 2:20PM - 3:40PM / Caldwell Lab 137 / Matthew Johnson
• WeFr 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Evans Lab 2004 / Kevin Richards

• TBA / Online

Chronological survey of the most influential and recognized film artists and film movements of the world.  GE VPA and diversity global studies course.

MEDREN 2666: Magic and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

• TuTh 9:35AM - 10:55AM / Hagerty Hall 180 / David Brewer

A study of the history of witchcraft and magic from 400 to 1700 C.E. within sociological, religious and intellectual contexts. Prereq: Not open to students with credit for Medieval 240. GE culture and ideas and diversity global studies course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies course

MUSIC 2252: History of Rock 'n' Roll 

• WeFr 12:45PM - 2:05PM / 209 W 18th Ave 160 / Austin McCabe Juhnke

The history and culture of rock 'n' roll. GE VPA course.

MUSIC 3344: Film Music                                               

• TuTh 12:45PM - 2:05PM / TBA / Austin McCabe Juhnke

A study of how music has functioned in film across its century-long history, as produced in Hollywood and in other countries, and by filmmakers independent of the studio system.

Prereq: English 1110 or 1111. GE VPA course. GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts course.

• MoWe 2:20PM - 3:40PM / Weigel Hall 174 / Katie Graber, Nicholas Booker

This course examines the sonic expressions of people's status, identity, rights, and duties as political subjects across multiple scales of place. We will consider the value of cultural advocacy in the public sector and social activism in the public sphere and the importance of partnering with (non)governmental institutions, community organizations, and grassroots affiliates to advance musical art. GE VPA and diversity global studies course.

MUSIC 5646:  History of Music in the United States 

• TuTh 12:40PM - 1:35PM / TBA / Katie Graber

A survey of music in the United States from colonial times until the present.  Prereq: Jr, Sr, or Grad standing.

• MoWe 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Cockins Hall 312 / Hugh Urban

This course traces the modern revival of magic and neo-paganism, both in new religious movements and in popular culture, novels, music and film, from 1870 to the present. The course examines the intersections between emergent magical groups and various social and political movements. GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course. GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts and historical and cultural studies course.

RUSSIAN 2335.99: Magnificence, Mayhem, and Mafia: Russian Culture

• Online/ TBA

Russian culture from its foundations to the 21st century through analysis of literature, film, music, visual arts, beliefs, and customs. Taught in English.  GE cultures and ideas & diversity global studies course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies course.

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RUSSIAN 3460: Modern Russian Experience through Film             

• TuTh 12:45PM - 2:05PM / University Hall 051 / Alisa Lin
• WeFr 9:35AM - 10:55AM / Caldwell Lab 137 / Elizabeth McBean
• Online / Lilia Caserta

Exploration of some of the most revealing hopes and disappointments of Russian people presented in internationally acclaimed Russian films. Taught in English. GE VPA and diversity global studies course.

RUSSIAN 3480: The Russian Spy: Cultures of Surveillance, Secret Agents, & Hacking from the Cold War through Today 

• WeFr 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Denney Hall 206 / Matthew Boyd
• Online / Alisa Lin

This course explores the concept of the spy in the cultural imaginations of both Russia and the West from the early-20th century through the present. Topics will include stereotyping in popular culture, the relationship between fiction and the political imagination, Western (especially American) and Russian views of each other, the Cold War, privacy, security, fear, and war. GE VPA and diversity global studies course.

SLAVIC 2230:  Vampires, Monstrosity, and Evil: From Slavic Myth to Twilight 

• TuTh 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Pomerene Hall 150 / Daniel Collins
• Online / Diana Sacilowski

Changing approaches to evil as embodied in vampires in East European folk belief & European & American pop culture; function of vampire & monster tales in cultural context, including peasant world & West from Enlightenment to now. Taught in English.GE cultures and ideas course, GE diversity global studies course.

SLAVIC 2365.99: Sports, Socialists, and Society in Russia and Eastern Europe

• Online / Andrei Cretu       

This course looks at the development of sports as a substitute and arena for battle between countries, as well as the rise of sports culture more generally in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of nationhood, politics, and corporeality. In this course, students will learn about the history and culture of sports, spectatorship, fandom, the Cold War, and Central and Eastern Europe. GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course.

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SLAVIC 3310: Science Fiction: East vs. West                  

• TuTh 2:20PM - 3:40PM / Hitchcock Hall 031 / Alexander Burry

Slavic, American, and British sci-fi on page and screen as reflection of major cultural concerns: progress, utopia, human perfectibility, limits of science and knowledge, gender, identity. Taught in English.  GE VPA and diversity global studies course. Cross-listed in WGSSt.

SLAVIC 3360 - Screening Minorities: Representations of the Other in Slavic Film

• Online / Izolda Wolski-Moskoff

Film representations of ethnic and religious others in East European cinema.  Taught in English.

SOCIOL 3302: Technology and Global Society                                                                   

• TuTh 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Jennings Hall 060 / Chris Papaleonardos
• WeFr 2:20PM - 3:40PM / Evans Lab 2004 / Joe Dixon
• WeFr 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Townshend Hall 247 / Joe Dixon
• TuTh 9:35AM - 10:55AM / Stillman Hall 235 / Chris Papaleonardos
• Online / Danielle Schoon

Social aspects of technology, social change, and technological development; underdevelopment and the global economy.

THEATRE 2367.01: Self Images: America on Stage, 1830 to the Present                      

• TuTh 11:10AM - 12:30PM / Enarson Classroom Bldg 202 / Josh Streeter
• TuTh 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Enarson Classroom Bldg 243 / Joshua Truett

Exploration of the images of Americans presented on popular stages through written analysis of theatrical and critical texts. Prereq: English 1110, and Soph standing or above. Not open to students with credit for 2367. GE writing and comm course: level 2 and diversity soc div in the US course.

THEATRE 5771.05: All Singing, All Dancing: The History of Musical Theatre 

• TuTh 12:45PM - 2:05PM / Drake Center 2038 / Claudia Wier

Advanced study on the history and contemporary practice of the art form of musical theatre including an emphasis on the American Rock Musical.

WGSST 4527.01: Studies in Gender and Cinema 

• WeFr 12:45PM - 2:05PM / University Hall 082 / Maghan Jackson