Public discourse regarding addiction has made the definition of “drugs” take on new forms. Food, opioids, sugar, sex, legal stimulants, marijuana, screens, medicinal vs. recreational. There is much to consider, especially given the myriad mixed messages regarding substance use in our media. This course will explore these dynamics, along with the history of illicit drugs, our cultural relationship to altered consciousness, diagnostic features, and treatment for Substance Use Disorders. Ultimately the course will reflect on narratives of addiction and how they impact policy and interpersonal relationships.

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Regal Theatre, Southside Chicago, Russell Lee, Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse

Course Description: This course examines the medium of film as it developed from a technological novelty and sideshow attraction into a powerful form of art, entertainment, industry, and socialization. We cover the emergence and spread of “moving pictures” in the 1890s and 1900s, the rise of Hollywood and the shift to feature films and international film styles in the 1910s and 1920s, and the institutionalization of classical Hollywood narratives and genres within a vertically integrated big business model in the 1930s and 1940s. These developments are examined in relation to larger social, political, cultural, and economic contexts of 19th and 20^th century history, such as industrialization, urbanization, immigration, race, class, gender, nationalism, fascism, imperialism, consumerism, censorship, and the Great Depression, among others. Rather than taking history as a closed book of settled facts, this course approaches history as an active mode of inquiry through which new knowledge is produced and shared. Our goal is to engage in historical thinking as an ongoing process of questioning, discovering, imagining, verifying, interpreting, and debating the facts of history to better understand the past and grasp its significance for the present and future. Toward this end, the course emphasizes experiential learning, as students apply historical research methods to develop original projects that are both collaborative and independent in nature and designed for broader dissemination to public and scholarly audiences.

Course Objectives and Outcomes: As a result of this course, students will be able to:

1.     Understand how film grew from a novelty into an art form, social institution, and industry.

2.     Connect the history of film to broader social, cultural, and economic historical contexts.

3.     Conduct historical research using primary information sources at local and national levels.

4.     Develop research projects that blend high quality primary and secondary information sources.

5.     Think critically about historical writing as a form of evidence-based argument and debate.