This is the blog for the ENC 1131: Writing Through Media course themed Race, Gender, and Technology. This course will be taught by Dhanashree Thorat at the University of Florida in Fall 2014 .
Course Description
This course is based on the premise that technology is not neutral; it is socially and culturally inflected. Our broad goal is to study how technologies are historically and contemporaneously informed by race and gender politics. How do technologies express race and gender politics reflected elsewhere in society? How do race and gender shape technologies, technical design, and technology policies? And how are technologies used to direct the conversation on race and gender? We will begin by defining the key terms, race, gender, and technology, and examining how these terms have evolved. The course is then divided into three units, Colonial Technologies, Mediating 9/11, and New Media Politics. In these units, we will trace the intersection of race, gender, and technology in three different time periods.
As this class emphasizes writing through media, we will regularly engage with media objects as well as produce them in class activities and assignments. A related goal is to develop a critical lens to analyze the new media objects that we encounter in our daily lives. Hence, we will study film & photography (colonial and contemporary), social media, and digital games. Weekly course screenings will be used to watch or interact with these media, and to develop related digital production skills (eg editing Wikipedia). Students will be expected to write in various genres, and learn to tailor their writing to different audiences.
Time
Class Meets M W F in Period 6, and Screenings are held W E1-E3 in CSE E211A
For additional details, see http://english.ufl.edu/courses/undergrad/2014fall_low.html
What is ENC 1131: Writing Through Media?
Purpose
This course originated as an extension of “writing about literature” to entertainment and popular culture media (cinema, television, music, video games, pop literature, comics, magazines, zines, and the like). One difference from 1102 besides the object of study is the method of study: writing through media. Students not only analyze and interpret media works but also use “creative” forms and practices to explore the production of meaning. 1131 with its overview of pop media is distinguished from 1145 special topics and 2300 film analysis.
Goal
The goal of the course is to introduce students to the transition underway between literacy and post-literacy (electracy) in contemporary culture. This shift is approached through its rhetorical implications, with the students as makers (and not just consumers) of new media effects. Hence this course is best taught in a computer classroom, in the context of which its more “writerly“ assignments seem less experimental than they do in a conventional setting. At the same time, the course is adaptable to the conventional classroom.
For additional details about Writing Through Media courses, please visit this page.
Race, Gender, and Technology 