NEW COURSE PROPOSAL SHEET

 

Proposed Course Title:   Culture & Technology:  Representation, Communication & Power

Proposed Course Prefix and Number:                AIID 3xx              

Proposed by:          Paul Burkhardt                          Date:   10/11/2001   

 

 

Course Description: 

 

This interdisciplinary course acquaints students with the mutually constitutive relationship of science/technology and culture. Students will study a series of productive and representational technological systems in distinct historical cultural contexts ranging from antiquity to the present.  Technology and culture will be conceptualized and critiqued as discursive and material practices and systems that can transform, illuminate, justify or cloak social relations of exploitation and domination.  Close reading and analysis of artistic cultural texts will accompany historical, anthropological and political economic secondary texts treating each period, technology and social structure. Students will write regular short essays connecting humanistic and social science texts, and will complete a longer research paper analyzing corresponding technological and cultural systems.

 

Rationale:

 

This course builds on the conceptual knowledge and methodological skills gained by students in the first and second year core curriculum by blending and applying theoretical and methodological approaches from the social sciences and humanities.  The combination of theoretical and substantive materials are designed to complement several existing AIC programs and concentrations.   AIC’s strengths in Sustainable Development, Globalization and Intercultural Relations will be increased by a course that hones students’ understandings and evaluations of the reciprocal effects of technological and cultural systems.  The course will appeal to and benefit students in the programs in The Built Environment, International Management & Culture, and Multimedia & Information Design, as well as from concentrations in Fine and Performing Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.  This course complements AIWA 302 and AICS 403 with a broader sweep and distinct combination of conceptual and methodological approaches.

 

Course Type:  ___  Experimental (1 year)   __X_ Permanent

 

Instructor Name(s):              Paul Burkhardt                                                     

                            

Effective as of Semester/Year: Fall 2001

 

Credits:     3                Minimum: _3__  Maximum__3__: 

 

Semesters To Be Offered:                       X        Fall          Spring   ____ Summer 1  ___  Summer II

 

Course Repeatability for Credit:

                                    __X__  No

                                    _____  Yes. This course may be repeated  ___  times.

                        OR      _____  Yes. This course may be repeated up to a total of ___ units.

 

Funding Analysis

             Is proposal of this course associated with a new hire? __  Yes  _X  No

             What course, if any, does this course replace? ___None__________

             What space is required for this course?           Standard Classroom                                             

             What equipment is needed for this course?     Standard A/V    

 

Prerequisite Course(s):                                                                                                                                                                         

Prerequisite Condition(s):     Completion of 2nd year AIID core, or concurrent enrollment with instructor permission

 

Type of Class:   ___X_ Lecture      ____  Discussion   ____ Studio  (See explanation on back.)

 

Approved by Faculty (date):                 11/29/01                              

Approved by Office of the Dean (date):                                                                             

 

Course Entered into System (Date): __________