Courses

National University of Singapore (NUS)

SEX IN THE MEDIA
Communications and New Media, Cultural Studies, upper division undergraduate

Semesters (Student Evaluations): SPRING 2023 (ongoing); FALL 2021 (4.6/5); SPRING 2021 (4.4/5); SPRING 2020 (4.3/5)

Course Overview
This module explores questions of sex, gender, sexuality, and power in contemporary media and popular cultures. It examines issues and themes such as gender identity and representation of sex, women in media production and consumption, and reception and fandom of pop culture, from critical approaches in cultural studies, feminist theory, film theory, queer studies and communication theory. Materials discussed include film, music, television, advertising, comics, animation, video games, and social media. Students completing this module will be able to analyze the representation of gendered and sexual identities and desires in the media.

THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION AND NEW MEDIA
Communications and New Media, Cultural Studies, lower division undergraduate

Semesters (Student Evaluations): SPRING 2023 (ongoing)

Course Overview
This module provides an overview of the theories and perspectives applicable to the study of communication and new media. While the course takes a broad view of communication and new media, it focuses on contemporary, internet-based systems as objects of inquiry. Students will employ different theories from both critical/cultural and social scientific approaches to analyze various digital phenomena and controversies. We will tackle questions like: how do we relate to others differently through digital technologies; how does social media change our consumption of news; how does the conception of work change in an era of crowdsourcing; how can media content be made more persuasive? This initial foray into concepts and theories will provide students with the foundational knowledge to navigate the exciting and diverse field of communications and media studies.

SPORTING BODIES
College of Humanities and Sciences, lower division undergraduate, hybrid
Co-taught with: Go Mei Lin, Koh Hwee Ling, & Shobha Avadhani

Semesters (Student Evaluations): FALL 2022 (4.3/5)

*New class! Look for us when you register.
Our code is HS2903.

Course Overview
Sports offer an important arena for the study of bodies and bodies in their various forms (e.g. bodies that do or govern sports) are also vital sites for studying sports. This module blends cultural and scientific perspectives to encourage diverse interests and multiple approaches toward sporting bodies. We will discuss a variety of issues including elite, college, and everyday sports and mental and physical health; sport industry and race, ethnicity, nation-state, and globalization; sports media, culture, and the embodiment of genders and sexualities; doping, substance (ab)use, and “sex-testing” in sport; disability, digital technologies, and sport inclusion and exclusion. 

QUALITATIVE COMMUNICATION RESEARCH METHODS
Communications and New Media, lower division undergraduate, fully online

Semesters (Student Evaluations): SPRING 2022 (4.5/5); FALL 2020 (3.9/5); FALL 2019 (4.2/5)

Course Overview
This module is designed to help students understand what qualitative communication research is, the role it plays in the development of communication theories and applications, and the steps in carrying out qualitative research projects. It covers fundamental concepts in qualitative research design, sampling strategies and protocol development, data collection, data analysis, and evaluation. This module also introduces basic concepts of qualitative methods such as interpretation, meaning making, co-construction, and performance. A set of field-based experiences will be designed to give students opportunities to become familiar with specific forms of qualitative data gathering such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, and ethnography.

Objectives
This module offers an introduction to qualitative research methods in communication, media studies, and cultural studies. We will employ a praxis-centered approach throughout the semester by executing and workshopping Methods Practicums (hands-on training). Special attention will be paid to research approaches that promote diversity and inclusivity. We will explore how these approaches shape our own practices, experiences, and interventions in research on contemporary society. With its focus on developing qualitative skills, this module will involve a significant amount of writing, synthesis, and discussion.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
Communications and New Media, Cultural Studies, graduate

Semesters (Student Evaluations): FALL 2020 (4.7/5); FALL 2018 (5/5)

Course Overview
This module is designed to help graduate students understand what qualitative communication research is, questions of design in qualitative communication research, and the steps in carrying out qualitative research projects. It covers fundamental concepts in qualitative research design, sampling strategies, data generation, data analysis, evaluation, writing and performance. This module also introduces basic concepts of qualitative methods such as interpretation, meaning making, reflexivity, poetics, and co-construction. A set of field based experiences will be designed to give students opportunities to become familiar with specific forms of qualitative data gathering such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, and ethnography.

Objectives
This interdisciplinary seminar offers an introduction to qualitative research methods in communication, media studies, and cultural studies. We will employ a praxis-centered approach throughout the semester by executing and workshopping Methods Practicums (hands-on training). Special attention will be paid to research approaches that promote diversity and inclusivity. We will explore how these approaches shape our own practices, experiences, and interventions in research on contemporary society. This is an intensive seminar and therefore will involve a significant amount of reading, synthesis, and writing.

THEORY AND PRACTICE IN CULTURAL STUDIES (SPRING 2019)
Communications and New Media, Cultural Studies, upper division undergraduate

Semesters (Student Evaluations): SPRING 2019 (4/5)

Course Overview
The course is intended as a ‘capstone’ to unify and ground the Cultural Studies Minor. As such, it explores the critical tradition from which Cultural Studies emerged and examines some of the directions that this critical tradition went as it encountered and modified institutions and institutional practice in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students gain additional coverage and depth as they work the theoretical terrain underpinning all courses in the minor while also generating essays and projects that reveal this critical ground in an applied fashion.

Objectives
This interdisciplinary seminar is by no means exhaustive, although it does offer an introduction to some of the major theoretical traditions in cultural studies ranging from studies of mass culture, to feminist, ethnographic and postcolonial cultural studies. These theoretical traditions will be used by students to produce detailed and specific studies of contemporary cultural practices. Students are encouraged read and experiment more broadly on their own. By understanding diverse national and international tendencies in cultural studies, students will engage with some of the significant problems of the cultures we inhabit.

This seminar is intended for undergraduates minoring in Cultural Studies but students from all disciplines are welcome to attend. This is an intensive seminar and therefore will involve a significant amount of reading, synthesis, and writing.

Stony Brook University (SUNY)

As Instructor of Record:

GENDERS AND SEXUALITIES IN EAST ASIA
Women’s and Gender Studies, upper division undergraduate

Semesters (Student Evaluations): SPRING 2016 (4.61/5)

Course Overview
This course is designed to introduce students to shifting notions of gender and sexuality in East Asia. Instead of understanding nation, culture, gender, and sexuality as static (as these terms tend to reinforce), we will study East Asia as a contested region of heterogeneous cultures, languages, and peoples in which diverse forms of genders and sexualities proliferate. To this end, we will draw on approaches from different fields, such as East Asian studies, cultural anthropology, and women’s and gender studies. We will explore the production of gendered, sexual, and national bodies, desires, and identities in East Asia within the following overarching topics: social movements and academic discourses, sex, gender and (affective) labor, and media and popular cultures.

INTRODUCTION TO JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE
Cultural Studies/Women’s and Gender Studies, upper division undergraduate

Semesters (Student Evaluations): FALL 2015 (4.85/5)

Course Overview
This course (conducted in English) is designed to introduce students to Japan’s vibrant mass and popular cultural scene. We will examine multiple forms of Japanese mass and popular culture ranging from the Edo period (1603-1868) to contemporary era using approaches from different disciplines, such as cultural studies, Japanese studies, and women’s and gender studies. We will explore the production of racial, class, gendered, sexual, and national bodies, desires, and identities in Japan within the following domains: the mass media, affective labor, cute/girl culture, anime, manga, pornography, fandom, race, and popular music.

INTRODUCTION TO QUEER STUDIES IN THE HUMANITIES
Women’s and Gender Studies, lower division undergraduate

Semesters (Student Evaluations): SPRING 2015 (4.42/5)

Course Overview
This introductory course examines the study of queer(ness) and sexualities situated in specific cultural, geographical, and historical contexts using interdisciplinary and transnational approaches. We will interrogate shifting understandings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and “straight” as theory, practice, and identity, dealing with one or more of the following domains: race, dis/ability, sports, the media, performativity, pornography, transnational sexualities, bodies and subjectivities. This course is designed to expose students to the themes, methods, and questions pertaining to queer studies, and draw connections between them and their everyday lives.

INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES
Women’s and Gender Studies, lower division undergraduate, fully online

Semesters (Student Evaluations): SUMMER 2016 (4.33/5); SUMMER 2015 (4.19/5); SUMMER 2014 (4.33/5)

Course Overview
This introductory course to women’s and gender studies is taught entirely in the virtual classroom and examines the study of gender using interdisciplinary and transnational approaches. We will explore the production of gendered bodies, identities, and desires situated in specific cultural, geographical, and historical contexts, dealing with one or more of the following domains: histories of Western science and medicine, the construction of sexual and racial difference, identity politics and nationalism, colonialism, imperialism, laws, activism within and across borders, body politics and medical tourism, transnational labor flows, media representation, popular culture, sports, and dis/ability. This course is designed to expose students to the themes, methods, and questions pertaining to women’s and gender studies, and draw connections between them and their everyday lives.

As Teaching Assistant:


HISTORIES OF FEMINISM
Women’s and Gender Studies, upper division undergraduate
Instructor: Nancy Hiemstra

Semesters (Student Evaluations): FALL 2014 (no formal evaluation)

A core seminar for majors that examines the historical developments of contemporary feminism, focusing mostly on the United States context.

INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES
Women’s and Gender Studies, lower division undergraduate
Instructor: Francoise Cromer

Semesters (Student Evaluations): SPRING 2014 (4.74/5)

A survey course to introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender Studies. As one of three teaching assistants, I managed a weekly recitation section of 39 students.

INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES
Women’s and Gender Studies, lower division undergraduate
Instructor: Victoria Hesford

Semesters (Student Evaluations): FALL 2013 (4.09/5)

An introductory course surveying Women’s and Gender Studies scholarship and interdisciplinarity as a cluster of methods—literary, historical, theoretical, and sociological—used to analyze and interpret social and cultural phenomena. As one of three teaching assistants, I managed a weekly recitation section of 33 students.

SEXUALITY IN LITERATURE
Humanities, lower division undergraduate
Instructor: Patrice Nganang

Semesters (Student Evaluations): SPRING 2013 (no formal evaluation)

An introductory course on the treatment of sexuality in literature, drawing on film, the arts, and literary and theoretical texts. As one of three teaching assistants, I managed a weekly recitation section of 23 students.

SEX AND SEXUALITY IN LITERATURE
Humanities, lower division undergraduate
Instructor: Robert Harvey

Semesters (Student Evaluations): FALL 2012 (no formal evaluation)

A survey course exploring the expression and interpretation of sex and sexuality in art and literature. As one of three teaching assistants, I managed a weekly recitation section of 40 students.