Communication and transportation technologies connected the world as never before in the past century. As people and ideas move with increasing speed, how are traditional notions of culture being reinforced or broken down? How do ideas about culture create and justify inequalities between different nationalities, socioeconomic classes, and racial and religious groups? How can we distinguish between mutually beneficial cultural exchange and exploitative forms of appropriation?  

This course uses theory and contemporary case studies from news, social media, and popular culture to shed light on ideas of culture and cultural difference from classical theories to contemporary ideas of global cosmopolitanism and hybridity. This course explores the political and economic consequences of mediated ideas of culture, including its relationship to race, class, and transnational inequities. We will examine how identity, social value, and inequality are constructed using ideas about culture and identify the new currency of cultural difference in global times.