Fall 2016
Digital Media and Culture (Film 208). Explores the electronic mediation of identity, culture, and social action.We’ll survey major questions of contemporary, critical media literacy. These might include: The relationship between digital platforms and culture; the role search engines play in the organization and archiving of information; the surge in activist and creative DIY media; changes in thinking and learning; globalization and networked society; and convergence and conglomeration in digital entertainment industries such as television, movies, and video games. In addition to weekly reading, students will create media projects and publish them to their own personal digital portfolio using readily-available, easy-to-use tools. No prior knowledge of digital platforms or media making experience is necessary. Weekly lab time or screenings required.
Melodrama in Culture and Politics (Film 502). From Snidely Whiplash to Severus Snape to “wars” on evil (or terror, or drugs, or poverty), melodrama and its rhetoric is everywhere. It’s the dominant art form of modern, industrialized and globalized societies. Frequently associated with democratic revolution and dating back to the 18th century, melodrama soon proved equally capable of supporting reaction and repression. Melodramatic discourse tremendously influences other cultural forms, including journalism, political speech, and historiography. The course aims to get beyond simplistic assessments of the mode (ie, whether melodrama is itself intrinsically “good” or “bad” art and politics). It is arranged as a practicum, meaning that, in most assignments, participating students will either employ melodramatic discourse or critique it. Some of these will be media projects published and archived to a personal digital portfolio. We will employ readily available, easy-to-use tools. No prior knowledge of digital platforms or media making experience is necessary. Weekly lab time or screenings required.
Spring 2017
History of Citizen Media (Film 389). Was there a Youtube before the Internet? How did people do what they do on Reddit or Pinterest? What is the difference between the biggest social media platform and the “facebooks” that inspired it?With a focus on sociable activism and transformative media, this course explores the long history of “participatory culture,” or cultural contributions by ordinary Americans from the nineteenth century to the present. In addition to weekly reading, students will create media projects and publish them to their own personal web domain using readily-available, easy-to-use tools. No prior knowledge of digital platforms or media making experience is necessary. Weekly lab time or screenings required.
Introduction to Media Studies (Film 204). Examines contemporary media such as photography, film, music, news reporting, radio, TV, and video games that are watched in a TV, and you can get a tv installation near me service for this purpose. This course is required for the minor in Media Studies. Weekly screenings or lab time required.
2017-2018
New Class: Realism.
January 2015
Participatory Culture
September 2014
Melodrama in Culture and Politics
January 2014 Melodrama in Culture and Politics. Published coursework: Katrina Peed Izzy Kornman Virginia Spinks Sheena Desai Helen Zehan Hou Sam Nichamin Aaron Levey Nick Lal Joseph North Cody Perez Chelsea Walton Gideon Weiss Ajay Harish
Santa Clara University
Sample work by former students: Kelli Ryan, Claire Batty, Aldo Atienza, Vanessa Casalegno, Judith Martinez, and Charlotte West
Spring 2012 English 138: The Internet as Participatory Culture
Fall 2011 Writing with New Media 1
This class is part of a two-course sequence. The first term explores the possibilities of hypertext for academic writing. It examines the tension between writing as argument and writing as participating in professional and academic conversation (knowledge production). We create annotated bibliographies, reviews of scholarly literature, and academic projects that aim to make a modest original contribution to the scholarly conversation, typically by providing original research, proposing a new solution, or creating a new communications tool. We develop and present all of this research-driven academic writing hypertextually, developing printable versions in the form of a traditional research essay. These printable versions are occasions for significant revision of the language of the hypertext: the linear and nonlinear writing typically contribute meaningfully to each other.
Winter 2012 Writing with New Media 2: Remixing Little Brother
We look beyond hypertext to explore the prospects of a wide variety of new media technologies for the digital composition of academic writing. We’ll begin by remixing Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother in machinima (animated film) shot in the Second Life virtual community, a project we first tried last year inEnglish 138 (about ten films are available on this YouTube playlist). We’ll also make use of new media for assisted creativity, such as the Bitstrips comic builder, the Xtranormal text-to-video animator, and the Glogster poster maker.
Fall 2011 Senior Seminar Melodrama
Winter 2011 English 138: The Internet as Participatory Culture
Fall 2010/Spring 2011 Writing with New Media 1&2: Remixing Little Brother
Fall 2009/Spring 2010 Writing With New Media 1 & 2
Winter 2010 English 138 Internet Culture
Spring 2009 English 138 Internet Culture
Machinima (animated film) shot in Second Life, inspired by Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother… a group project for spring term. This playlist is from the spring 2010 section
Spring 2008
English 138 Internet Culture
Winter 2008
English 66 The Radical Imagination
English 100 Literature and Democracy
Fall 2007
English 2: Writing With New Media
Teaching at SCU Fall 2005-Spring 2007
Teaching at U of Louisville and Indiana University, 1998-2005
Special thanks to the inventive and dedicated Gloria Hofer, Teri Escobar,
Mike Ballen and James Linehan at SCU Media Services and Technology Training