SYLLABI

A selection of syllabi which I’ve used for various semesters and quarters at various universities, such as, New York University, Fordham University, Pitzer College, and American University of Beirut.

CAPITALISM, TECHNOLOGY & RACE (Pitzer, Fall 2022)

This is a lecture and discussion-based class geared towards giving student the historical and theoretical tools to understand our contemporary society’s continued reproduction of racial identity and ideologies. The texts in the class survey 1- the theoretical literature on the (re)production of class under a capitalist system 2- the historical literature on the racialization of the working class in the United States under industrial and post-industrial production and 3- the literature on the nature of capitalist production in the contemporary mediated world of digital technology. In the end, the students are expected to synthesize these three strands into a critical discussion of contemporary reproduction of racial identities in their final paper.

INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MEDIA STUDIES (Pitzer, Spring 2021)

This course is an introduction to digital media as we focus on the media’s technological, cultural, political, and economic aspects. Doing so requires students to grasp the importance of a historical understanding of the topics at hand in the context of the contradictory and contested values of contemporary society. We will employ diverse methods and theories in order to explore: 1- the role of digital technologies in our public sphere; 2- the ways in which digital circulation of media texts affects their meaning; and 3- the role of digital media in the constructions of our individual and collective selves. The fundamental objective of the class is to promote the students’ critical thinking abilities about the media technologies around them. This form of critical approach aims to broaden our notions of what counts—conceptually and geographically—in grasping the new regimes of circulation, power, and resistance enabled by digital technologies.

DIGITAL ETHNOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING (AUB, Spring 2019)

This is a practice-based course meant to introduce students to both the possibilities as well as the problematics of documenting human social and cultural phenomenon through digital technology. The course will challenge students to think actively and critically about their use of digital tools for documentary and ethnographic purposes. First, the course will provide an overview of the ethnographic documentary tradition. Second, it will explore the practical and ethical questions that digital devices and the internet present as both tools and sites of studying human societies and sociality. Finally, the course will guide students to use digital tools (smart phones, cameras, sound recorders, the internet) to gather and produce digital documentation on an ethnographic topic. The course works best for students with some understanding of their interests and ideas who will use digital methods and field sites to further their projects. Possible final projects for the course could be: a video documentary, an audio soundscape, an ethnographic study of an online community, using the internet as a component of multi-sited fieldwork, or a critical analysis of a case of the digitization of social or institutional processes.

CULTURAL CAPITAL: MEDIA AND ARTS IN NEW YORK CITY (NYU, Summer 2015)

New York City has been long imagined as one of the cultural capitals of the world. Over the years great material and creative resources have gone into developing and fashioning the city as such. This course offers a broad introduction to understanding New York’s role as a cultural and economic hub for media and the arts, highlighting the relationship between the city’s role as a center of finance capital and its role as a center of cultural production. Classroom instruction and readings are supplemented by site visits, guest lectures, and field research to develop an appreciation of the ways that media and the arts have shaped the work and leisure of life in New York City for the past one hundred years. How has conscious planning provided a framework for the City’s role as a cultural capital? How do large and small institutions symbiotically survive (or fail) in the city? How have independent artists and media makers defined the city’s art and mediascapes? What are the roles of the market and the state? What are the valences of and relationships between the production of culture and the production of capital? Who are the winners and losers in this cultural capital? Co-taught with Carlin Wing

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE (NYU, Fall 2017)

This course examines major concepts, theories, and research perspectives within the field of human communication and culture. It will introduce and review key approaches to the study of human interaction, rhetoric, language, persuasion, identity formation and cultural processes across diverse contexts. As a student of this class, you will explore the field’s interdisciplinary character, examining the role of language and meaning; how language structures reality; as well as the nonverbal aspects of social interaction. Specifically, the course provides a framework from which you can think seriously about how culture, society and identity are constructed in and by our communicative practices. We will examine the social, cultural, and political impacts of communication as it unfolds in everyday life. By semester’s end, you will develop the critical tools to consider the process and role of communication in contemporary society and begin to establish your own perspectives on the study of human communication.