Teaching
This seminar takes the paradox of visibility as a starting point to interrogate the cultural politics of transgender media representation beyond debates over whether visibility is “good” or “bad.” The course is divided into three units. The first unit will introduce students to foundational concepts in transgender studies and transgender media history. The second unit problematizes the issue of media representation, asking students to think critically about how increased visibility has impacted the trans community. The final unit focuses on media produced by transgender artists and the role of digital media technologies in allowing trans producers to bypass legacy media industry gatekeepers.
Can artificial intelligence be racist? How is inequality coded into technology? Centering the work of digital studies, media studies, and communication studies scholars of color, this course will provide an overview of foundational and emerging discussions surrounding race, big data, technology studies, and digital media. Topics will include the role of people of color in histories of technology; algorithmic bias and technochauvinism; digital and hashtag activism; social media and Black Twitter; digital platforms as alternatives to legacy media; and queer, trans, and feminist approaches to race and digital media studies.
One of the first decisions we all make in the morning is what to wear, whether it’s a conscious decision or not. As a cultural phenomenon, fashion shapes our everyday experiences: it is one of the most immediate ways that we express ourselves to the external world. At the same time, fashion is also a global industry that relies on the labor of disconnected people in opposite ends of the world coming together to produce the clothes we wear every day. This course asks how fashion operates in the world: what is fashion? How does fashion impact society? Does fashion have politics?