TEACHING

Winter 2020

COMM132: Media Spectacle and the War on Terror

The Global War on Terror initiated after the attacks of September 11, 2001 continues to be intensely mediated. This course analyzes the circulation of images as they move across the globe, depicting eruptions of political conflict and neo-colonial adventures. We look back to the Vietnam War and end of the Cold War to understand the political logic of spectacle as it is developing through a global dialogue of violence.

SPR 2020

COMM190: Photography: Between 

Social Change and Social Media

Photography has long been considered a powerful vehicle for political mobilization. Since the rise of social networking, however, photography as a medium of activism has been transformed. While photographs continue to bear witness, their testimony often drowns in a sea of other images. This theory/practice course contemplates documentary photography as a tool for affecting social change in the social media era.

SPR 2020

COMM113T: Media Arts, Media Activism

This course considers the works of artists whose activist-oriented practice lies at the intersection of advocacy and public space. We will engage with the works of world-famous contemporary artists — such as Banksy, Doris Salcedo, JR, and Ai Weiwei — as well as lesser known figures of the SD/TJ art scene. Students will conceptualize their own “artivist” intervention on a pressing global issue of their choosing.