From K-pop to Pokémon, from Cyber-politics to comic book, this course introduces you to the media and popular cultural scene in one of the most dynamic regions of the world economy today. It gives you the theoretical tool to understand and analyze these media and cultural phenomena. While acknowledging some common defining characteristics of East Asian societies, we will pay attention to the internal diversity, differences and transcultural flow within the region as well as East Asian nations’ connection to the world. The class is divided into three big sections with each focusing one East Asian region: Greater China, Japan, and Korea. In each section, we will start with a brief introduction to the modern history of the region. Then we will examine case studies selected from the region’s media and pop culture realm. Some of the topics include cyber culture and e-commerce in China; Japan’s anime culture and cat café; and Korean popular music and its global fans. By the end of the semester, you should be able to have a basic understanding of East Asian societies and cultures, critically analyze cultural trends and media events using the theories learnt in this class, and be able to engage in productive conversations with people from these societies.  

Course Description - Through the lens of cinema, this course examines representations of various mental health struggles and deconstructs pathological notions of social and relational being. To provide context, we will take a close look at various models of “mental illness” (e.g., moral, medical, social, cultural), and via film, attend to how dominant discourses are reproduced, contested, and negotiated. Supplemented by readings of first-person accounts, we will also examine alternative and grass-roots perspectives based on the lived experience of the so-called mentally ill. Ultimately, this course seeks to destigmatize mental health struggles and challenge contemporary notions of what it means to be normal. Students will watch one film together per week during a separate screening period. In small groups, students will also have the opportunity to produce a short film, which will be showcased at the end of the semester.

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.