Courses

Current Courses

Department of Media Studies and Film, The New School:

FALL 2010

MEDIA STUDIES: IDEAS (Monday 4:00-5:50pm)
MEDIA STUDIES: IDEAS (Wednesday 8:00-9:50pm)
This course is required of all first-year Media Studies students; students may be advised to take the course either concurrently with or in the semester after Understanding Media Studies. Media Studies: Ideas overviews the major schools of academic thought that have had an influence on the field of Media Studies, as they pertain to three central themes: Media and Power, Media and Technology, and Media and Aesthetics. The historical and philosophical roots of the discipline are emphasized through a wide variety of readings, discussions, and academic writing assignments. This course replaces Foundations of Media Theory.

SPRING 2011

ROBOTS IN/AS MEDIA
This course examines the complex relationship between robots and the media, from both the perspective of representations of robots in the media-including film, television, and news media-and the development of robots as a new form of media. In the first part of the course we consider the types of narrative roles that robots have occupied, as well as how the concepts of robotics and automation are reflected in the social and cultural contexts in which those media are produced. The second part of the course examines recent developments in robotics as forms of digital media, both continuous with and distinct from other types of digital media. We assess how contemporary debates about the potential uses and social impacts of robotic media intersect with popular narratives about robotics, both pessimistic and optimistic. The class also considers what makes contemporary discourses on robotics unique, and what that might tell us about contemporary society and culture.

DESIGNING METHODOLOGIES FOR STUDYING MEDIA

 

Past Courses

Department of Media Studies and Film, The New School:

FALL 2008

MEDIA STUDIES: IDEAS
This course is required of all first-year Media Studies students; students may be advised to take the course either concurrently with or in the semester after Understanding Media Studies. Media Studies: Ideas overviews the major schools of academic thought that have had an influence on the field of Media Studies, as they pertain to three central themes: Media and Power, Media and Technology, and Media and Aesthetics. The historical and philosophical roots of the discipline are emphasized through a wide variety of readings, discussions, and academic writing assignments. This course replaces Foundations of Media Theory.

Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University:

SPRING 2008

01:730:329. MINDS, MACHINES, AND PERSONS(3)
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Comparison of the nature of the human mind and that of complex machines. Consequences for questions about the personhood of robots.

Department of Philosophy, University of Illinois:

Film Series: