Spring 2020

Youth, Schooling, and Popular Culture

Listed in: American Studies, as AMST-203  |  Anthropology and Sociology, as SOCI-203

Faculty

Kristen V. Luschen (Section 01)

Description

(Offered as AMST 203 and SOCI 203) What do we understand about schools, teachers, and students through our engagement with popular culture? How do we interrogate youth clothing as a site of cultural expression and school-based control? How do race, class, and gender shape how youth make sense of and navigate cultural events such as the prom? Contemporary educational debates often position schools and popular culture as oppositional and as vying for youth's allegiance. Yet schools and popular culture overlap as educational sites in the lives of youth. In this course, we will employ feminist, critical race, and cultural studies perspectives to analyze representations of schooling and youth in popular culture. By doing so, we will consider the historically shifting meaning of youth, interrogate an oppositional stance to school and popular culture, and examine relationships of power and representation in educational sites. Readings, class discussions, and frequent film screenings will support our examination.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Luschen.

If Overenrolled: preference to American Studies majors

Keywords

Attention to Issues of Class, Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality, Attention to Issues of Race, Attention to Issues of Social Justice, Attention to Research, Attention to Writing

Offerings

2022-23: Offered in Fall 2022
Other years: Offered in Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Fall 2022