courses:

technology and society: from Gutenberg to Blogs�A Short History of Writing

spring '05, MW 7:30-8:45 p.m. This is a first year writing seminar

Is it true that in our technological age anyone can be an author? The seminar will investigate how technology is intertwined with writing-from the invention of movable type to the proliferation of web-logs (blogs). Particularly, we will explore the ways in which the Internet and the transition from analog to digital technologies change our conceptions of knowledge, its creation, and its institutions. We will read excerpts from books, manifestos, journal articles, personal letters and blogs, and engage in writing using the technologies we encounter: paper, instant and short messaging, emails, and blogs. For a final project we will collaborate on a research project in the form of a class Wiki (joint online diary). Our emphasis will be on creative and team work.
you can download the syllabus

the sociology of contemporary culture

(with prof. Christine Leuenberger-Pinch )
fall '04 - MW 1115-1205P HO 206 SEC 01 R 0125-0215P RF 127

This course introduces students to the rapidly expanding body of work at the intersection of sociology, cultural studies, and science and technology studies. It provides an introduction to theoretical debates in cultural studies and to sociological studies of culture. We will discuss the emergence of the tourist industry, the significance of consumption in modern life, the culture of music and art, the use of rhetoric in social life, cultural and feminist analyses of knowledge and science, and the social construction of self, bodies and identities.
you can download the syllabus