THE COLLEGE OF THE BAHAMAS

                                                                                                       

COURSE PROPOSAL FORM

 

                                                                                               

COURSE ABBREVIATION & NUMBER

       

E

N

G

 

 

1

2

5

                                                                                                                                                                       

SCHOOL:

English Studies

 

DEPARTMENT:

 Bahamian and Caribbean Cultural Studies 

 

COURSE TITLE:

 Introduction to Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION FOR CATALOGUE:

 

This course introduces the history, concepts and techniques of cultural studies.  Students study the differences and similarities in substantive, methodological and paradigmatic approaches to culture in various disciplines. Students learn how cultural practices and socio-economic relations and contexts mutually determine systems of meaning, discourses, and individual and group identity.

 

PURPOSE OF COURSE:

 

University transfer                               ( X )                                                        External Examination            (    )

College Diploma or Certificate           (     )                                                        Recreational/General Interest

College Degree                                     ( X )                                                        (non-credit)                           ( X )

 

PRE-REQUISITE(S):

ENG 119

 

CO-REQUISITE(S):

 

 

HOURS PER WEEK:    

Lecture

3

Laboratory

 

Seminar/Tutorial

 

 

SEMESTER HOUR CREDITS:

3

 

 

SEQUENTIAL COURSE(S):

ENG 2--, Culture and Power I

 

OTHER  COB COURSES HAVING CONTENT OVERLAP:   None     

 

 

COURSE DEVELOPED ( X )/REVISED (  )  BY: 

 (1) 

School of English Studies

Date:

 

 (2)

(P. Burkhardt)

Date:

 

 (3)

 

Date:

 

 

APPROVALS:

Chair of School:

 

Date:

 

 

Head of Department:

 

Date

 

 

Dean:

 

Date

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Academic Board

 

Date

 

NOTE:

 

1.         A detailed course description must be attached. This must include course objectives, list of topics covered, prescribed textbooks, reading list, method of assessment, and external examinations which are prepared for in this course.

2.                  The course description must be suitable for distribution to students.

3.                  Only lecturers/instructors approved by The College will be allowed to teach this course.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

This course introduces students to the history, concepts and techniques of cultural studies.  It focuses on the substantive, methodological and paradigmatic approaches to culture in various disciplines and on how cultural practices and socio-economic relations and contexts mutually determine systems of meaning, discourses, and individual and group identity.

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES                                                                                         

 

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

 

1.      Define and distinguish between the general conceptual and methodological approaches to the study of culture in traditional disciplines.

2.      Describe the historical development of cultural studies including disciplinary roots, influential scholars and key concepts and methodologies.

3.      Identify and define the central terminology, concepts and issues of contemporary cultural studies.

4.      Articulate how cultural practices are taught and reproduced and how they can contribute to identity, promote inequality, resist domination and transform social relations. 

5.      Critically analyse a specific cultural context, everyday practice or site in which they are engaged employing appropriate cultural studies approaches.

6.      Understand the responsibilities and ethics of research as active intervention in contemporary society.

 

COURSE CONTENT

 

I.          Overview

·        Definition of Disciplines

·        Definition of Paradigms

·        Disciplinary definitions of culture

·        High, elite, mass, pop, traditional, folk cultures

·        Values and expectations in disciplinary studies of culture

·        General methodologies, introduction to qualitative and quantitative studies of culture

·        Examples of disciplinary approaches to culture

·        Interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and counterdisciplinary approaches in the academy (e.g., American Studies, Women's Studies, African Studies, etc.)

 

II.        Culture and Cultural Studies

·        History of cultural studies

·        Disciplinary roots (Literary and Critical Theory, Sociology, History, Anthropology)

·        Major figures (Hoggart, Thompson, Williams, Hall)

·        Institutional roots (CCCS)

·        Early central concepts, issues, concerns and methodologies

·        Communication and representation

·        Ideology

·        Linguistics & semiotics:  signs, symbols, signifiers and signifieds

·        Capitalist social relations

·        Structure and social formations

·        Texts, contexts and discursive systems

·        Textual analysis

·        Ethnography

 

III.       Culture, Power and Inequality

·        Power relations and culture

·        Authority and inequality

·        Discipline

·        Hegemony

·        Consensus and resistance

·        Domination and exploitation

·        Power relations and cultural contexts

·        Sex / gender

·        Race / ethnicity

·        Class

 

IV.       Identity and Culture

·        Subject positions, subjectivity

·        Interpolation

·        Cultured bodies

·        Race / ethnicity

·        Nationality

·        Sex / gender

·        Class

·        Age

·        Embodied cultures

·        Performance

·        Cultural reproduction and transformation

·        Tradition, conflict and social change

 

V.                 Contemporary Cultural Studies

·        Contemporary methodological approaches

·        Qualitative, interpretative and critical work

·        Moments of production, distribution, promotion, and consumption of culture

·        Central issues in contemporary case studies

·        Place and space

·        Time and history

·        Cultural politics and political culture

·        Youth and subcultures

·        Locations and scales of cultural studies

·        Traditional culture

·        Media industries, popular culture, consumerism and leisure

·        Everyday life

·        Urban culture

·        National culture and globalisation

·        Analyzing visual, auditory, spatial and other texts

 

VI.       Research, Intervention and Ethics

·        Ethics and interaction of research and cultural fields

·        Relations between researcher, objects of study and status and effects of research

·        Postmodernism, poststructuralism and representation

·        Research design, implementation and writing in cultural studies

 

EVALUATION

 

In-Class Exams                        25%

3 Short Essays                          30%

Proposal                                   10%

Final Research Project  25%

Participation                             10%

 

 

COURSE TEXT

 

Baldwin, E., Longhurst, B., McCracken, S., Ogburn, M., & Smith, G. (1999).  Introducing cultural studies.  Hemel Hempstead:  Prentice Hall.  ISBN  0134-33301-2

 

 

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

 

BOOKS

 

*Alexander, J.C. & Seidman, S.  (1990).  Culture and society:  Contemporary debates.  New York:  Cambridge UP.  

 

Althusser, L.  (1971).  Lenin and philosophy and other essays.   (Ben Brewster, Trans.).  London:  N L B.

 

*Barker, C.  (1999).  Television, globalization and cultural identities.  Buckinghman:  Open UP.

 

Barker, C. (2000).  Cultural studies: Theory and practice.  London: Sage.

 

*Brooker, P.  (1998).  Cultural theory:  A glossary.  New York:  Arnold.

 

*Curran, J. & Gurevitch, M. (Eds.).  (1996).  Mass media and society (2nd ed.).  New York:  Arnold.

 

Curran, J., Morley, D., & Walkerdine, V. (Eds.).  (1996).  Cultural studies and communications.  London: Arnold.

 

*Dines, G. & Humez, J.M. (Eds.).  (1995).  Gender, race and class in media:  A text and reader.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage.

 

During, S. (1999).  The cultural studies reader (2nd ed.).  New York:  Routledge.

 

*Gelder, K., & Thornton, S. (Eds.).  (1997).  The subcultures reader.  New York:  Routledge.

 

Gramsci, A.   (1981).  Selections from the prison notebooks.   (Q. Hoare and G. N. Smith, Eds. and Trans.).  New York:  International Publishers.

 

*Grossberg, L., Nelson, C., & Treichler, P. (Eds.).  (1992).  Cultural studies.  New York: Routledge.

 

Hall, S. (Ed.).  (1997).  Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices.  London: Sage.

 

Hall, S.  and  Jefferson, T. (Eds.).   (1976).  Resistance through rituals.   London:  Hutchinson.

 

Hoggart, R.  (1957).  The uses of literacy.  London:  Chato and Windus.

 

Lamont, M., & Fournier, M. (Eds.).  (1993).  Cultivating differences:  Symbolic boundaries and the making of inequality.  Chicago:  U. Chicago Press.

 

McRobbie, A. (Ed.).  (1997).  Back to reality? Social experience and cultural studies.  Manchester: Manchester University Press.

 

Mosco, V.  (1996).  The political economy of communication.  Thousand Oaks:  Sage.

 

Mukerji, C., & Schudson, M. (Eds).  (1991).  Rethinking popular culture:  Contemporary perspectives in cultural studies.  Berkeley:  U. California Press.

 

*Storey, J. (Ed.).  (1996).  What is cultural studies?  A reader.  London: Arnold.

 

Storey, J.  (1997).  An introduction to cultural theory and popular culture (2nd ed).  London: Prentice Hall.

 

Storey, J. (Ed.).  (1998).  Cultural theory and popular culture: A reader. Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

 

*Storey, J.  (1999).  Cultural consumption and everyday life.  London:  Prentice Hall.

 

Thompson, E.P.  (1966).  The making of the English working class.  New York:  Vintage.

 

Turner, G.  (1996).  British cultural studies (2nd ed).  New York: Routledge.

 

*Williams, R. (1958).  Culture and society.  Harmondsworth, UK:  Penguin.

 

Williams, R.  (1977).  Marxism and literature.  New York:  Oxford University Press.

 

*Williams, R.  (1983).  Keywords:  A vocabularly of culture and society.  London:  Fontana.

 

Willis, P.  (1981).  Learning to labor:  How working class kids get working class jobs.  New York:  Columbia University Press.

 

 

JOURNALS

 

Canadian Journal of Communications   

Critical Inquiry                                     

Critical Studies in Mass Communications

Cultural Logic                                                  

Cultural Studies   

Culture, Theory and Critique  

International Journal of Cultural Studies

Journal of Communication Inquiry

Media, Culture and Society

New Left Review

Postmodern Culture

Social Text

Theory, Culture and Society

 

Note:  * indicates titles currently held by the COB library.

            Order requests for other titles will be submitted upon approval by the Academic Board.

 

 

WEBSITES

 

http://www.theory.org.uk/                                 Media, Gender, Identity Theory

http://www.popcultures.com/                            Sarah Zupko's Cultural Studies Center

http://www.culturalstudies.net/               The New Cultural Studies Central

http://eng.hss.cmu.edu/theory/               Cultural Studies and Critical Theory Readings

http://vos.ucsb.edu/shuttle/theory.html    Voice of the Shuttle

http://www.tiac.net/users/thaslett/                      Black Cultural Studies Site

http://www.sosig.ac.uk/                         Social Sciences Information Gateway