| | 01 | M-W-F-- | 9:00A-9:50A | TBA | Aylin Bademsoy | Paper/Project/TakeHome | 19 | 3 | 0 | | Desc: | First-Year Seminar: Topics in Comparative Literature: Global Narratives of Migration and Exile
The history of humanity is a history of migration": Humans have been sedentary for just a fraction of our existence. And yet it is this sedentary condition, rather than nomadism, that is considered the norm in Western metropolitan nations. Tellingly, the notion that people have "natural" roots anchoring them to specific geographies retains its seductive and punitive force. Do history and narratives of migration make a case against a root-based understanding of humanity? This course explores various narratives on migration and diaspora, spanning a period of 80 years and numerous geographies, including Europe, the Near East, Africa, and North America. Throughout, we will examine the relationship between migration, photography, and memory; the construction and deconstruction of (national) borders; and the politics of migration, race, and identity. |
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| 02 | M-W---- | 11:30A-12:50P | TBA | Kita | Paper/Project/TakeHome | 18 | 2 | 0 | | Desc: | First-Year Seminar: Topics in Comparative Literature: Storytelling Through Sound
This course explores the art of storytelling as an acoustic experience. In addition to reading critical texts on listening, sound, and voice, we examine a variety of kinds of aural art - from live performances (music, spoken word, literary readings) to recordings (podcasts, audiobooks, radio dramas, sound art), and study how sound is transposed into and combined with literature and the visual arts. Our inquiries into sound will also attend to the relationship between sound and power, silence, and deafness. Students will have the opportunity to visit arts institutions in the St. Louis area and to craft their own creative audio project at the end of the semester. This course is designed for First Year Students - no special background is required. |
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| 03 | -T-R--- | 4:00P-5:20P | TBA | Sarah Koellner | Paper/Project/TakeHome | 18 | 2 | 0 | | Desc: | First-Year Seminar: Topics in Comparative Literature: Global Surveillance Cultures
Surveillance in its most basic definition is often understood as "watching someone from above" and has proven to be one of the most effective ways of exercising power in political communities since the Middle Ages. Metaphors such as "Big Brother" and the "panopticon" have become cultural ciphers for twentieth-century surveillance cultures. With the advent of Big Tech, these metaphors are being challenged by artists, policymakers, and scholars alike to demonstrate their limitations in addressing the societal effects of contemporary surveillance capitalism. This course examines various media and literary narratives on surveillance from Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East to explore the impact of the changing nature of information collection, the societal effects of (mass) monitoring, and the desires of social media sharing cultures. The media and artistic engagement with surveillance becomes a vantage point from which the complexities, contradictions, and tensions of cultural change can be observed. At the end of the semester, students have the opportunity to work on a (digital) humanities project that explores the themes of "Sharing is Caring," "Counter-Surveillance," and "(In)Visibility in Surveillance Capitalism." |
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