By the end of this course, you should feel comfortable:
Analyzing the major components of any cultural studies research project.
- You will learn to articulate a research question that can be successfully addressed in the allotted space for writing
- You will learn how to identify objects to help ground your research question.
- You will find useful books and essays to serve as lenses to help with your theoretical deliberations, and you will be assigned theoretical materials to read that are ‘classics’ in our field.
- You will be exposed to a range of research designs, or ‘methods’, and learn to evaluate which might be best for a particular project.
- You will be exposed to a range of presentation styles for sharing your research, including live presentations, photo installations, blogs, interactive games, films, and screencast lectures.
Appreciating the parameters of a GLS-appropriate thesis project, including:
- Projects that focus comparatively across cultures
- Projects that focus comparatively across histories
- Projects that focus comparatively across academic disciplines
Accessing scholarly and popular materials for research, including:
- Appreciating the difference between a popular and scholarly source
- Negotiating specific databases available at NYU
- Locating appropriate Internet resources for your work
Articulating the basics of common theoretical paradigms used in contemporary visual, media and cultural studies, including but not limited to:
THEORIES OF
- Semiotics, Mythology, Ideology
- Representation, Identity, Hybridity
- Production & Consumption
- Simulation, Mimesis & Mimicry
- Performance & Performativity
- Place, Space & Belonging
- Saussure, Barthes, Foucault
- Freud, Hall, Stam & Shohat,
- Lefebvre, DeCerteau, hooks
- Marx, Adorno, Benjamin
- Goffman, Butler, McLuhan
- Baudrillard, Adrejevic, Bhaba
Articulating the basics of the common methodological strategies used
TRADITIONAL METHODS
- Interviewing
- Observation (participant or non)
- Semiotic , Film and photography methods
- Place-based research methods
- Digital culture research methods
- Participatory action as method
- Photography as method
- Filmmaking as method
- Creative writing as method
- Ethno-performance as method
In this class, you will be shown how to brainstorm, research, and create your own Statement of Research Interests, meant to guide you as you enter your Junior Year Abroad
Closely reading primary theoretical texts in cultural and media studies
In this class, you will be shown how to engage in a close reading of a portion of a theoretical text by developing a précis that summarizes the author’s main arguments, inventing a glossary for special terms used in the text, and delivering a line-by-line paraphrase of five-six paragraphs that demonstrates how the author uses rhetoric to communicate argument.
Constructing a personalized syllabus:
In this class, you will learn to create a personalized syllabus constructed along thematic lines, with self-designed readings and assignments designed to assist you as you enter your Study Abroad field sites.
Becoming familiar with digital tools for various purposes including:
- time management (we'll use ToDoist.com)
- project management (we'll use Trello.com)
- scholarly research (we'll use Google Scholar, NYU’s database engines and Ebrary for online books)
- shared bibliographies (we'll use Refme.com)
- group communication (we'll use Slack.com)
- web clipping and storage (we'll use Evernote.com)
- following and resarching blogs (we'll use Feedly.com)
- offline reading while in transit without wifi (we'll use Pocket.com)
- storage of all passwords (we'll use LastPass.com)
- and, of course, storage (we'll use Googledrive.com)