In our media saturated culture, how to read and interpret words and images (together and apart) is an increasingly important skill. Words and images not neutral or benign; they tell us much about the social relations, power and privilege, and taken for granted attitudes of the society within which they circulate. Words and images circulate through a variety of media to make meaning: books, film, advertising, social media of all kinds, YouTube...even bodies and our self-presentations are ways in which we make and communicate meaning. This cluster of courses is ideal for students interested in questions such as: how do images and words construct meaning across a range of media? How are they read and interpreted by different groups of people--and why and how are the differences in responses important? What kinds of meanings do people make of words and images as they circulate? Can people remake them to mean something different—and why and how do they do that?

Suggested Courses:

• DSJS 3110 (Anth 3100; Eng 3140): Identity and Popular Culture
• DSJS 1090: Selected Topics - Unruly Bodies
• ThSt 2440 (Engl 2440): Introduction to Theatre Studies
• English 2220: Reading Film
• English 3790: [The Graphic Novel Course]
• Anth 4560 (DSJS 4560): Visual Culture
• PST 3090: Selected Topics: Politics of Media, Spin, Manipulation
• Eng 4040: Writing and Rhetoric in Context
• French 3390 - Théâtre canadien-français
• French 4320 - Littérature et cinéma
• Spanish 2090 - Latin American Film and Society