This class is a critical, theoretical, and practical examination of the constitution and performance of personal identity within popular media as it relates to identity politics in everyday life. Through lectures, readings, film, and critical writing, students will examine elements of personal identity and diversity in popular media in order to foster a deeper understanding of how identity is constructed and performed in society.

This course provides the student with an introduction to film as an art form. The course presents a vocabulary for film analysis as well as the critical and analytical skills for interpreting films. The course examines the major aesthetic, structural, historical, and technical components of film. It considers how a film works, by looking internally at the multiple aspects that comprise the construction of a film, and externally at how a film affects the viewers. Students will watch a variety of feature films, primarily American, ranging in date from the 1940's through the 2000's. Clips from alternative films and foreign films will also be screened and discussed. Any artistic background in film, music, theatre, painting, sculpture, etc., is helpful, but no specific technical knowledge of film, video, or photography is required or expected.

In this course we examine representations of queer sexuality in art, film and popular culture beginning in the repressive 1950s, followed by the Stonewall Riots of 1969. We situate the birth of gay liberation in the U.S. in the context of the civil rights struggles, feminism and the anti-war movement. We turn to the work of Andy Warhol that looms over the post-war period, challenged subsequently by the onset of AIDS and the work of General Idea and Act-Up, on the one hand, and the more graphically provocative work of Robert Mapplethorpe, on the other. We examine the diversification of the queer community as transgendered identity asserts itself and the opening of popular culture to issues of diverse sexual identities. We explore expressions of queer sensibility outside of North America and Europe. We turn finally to the issue of gay marriage, both in the U.S. and abroad.

This course will investigate the complexities of queer and trans identities as they are represented within the specific form of artistic production that is graphic narratives. Content will focus on how the blending of image and text within mainstream and independently created graphic narratives functions artistically to both create and express meaning. The course will pay particular attention to works created by openly queer and trans artists and how those artists use the artistic medium of graphic narratives to reclaim narrative agency. Students will analyze these artistic narratives in their social, historical, and cultural contexts to better understand how form and context artistically combine to present new opportunities for communicating a greater diversity of queer and trans experiences.

In this class, we will investigate the complexities of queer and trans identities as represented across a variety of major film genres understood as a form of artistic expression. Content will focus on mainstream narrative fiction films but clips from independent or "alternative" cinema will also be screened and discussed. We will explore how queer and trans stories are told, how they function, and how those stories have evolved based on factors such as historical context and genre conventions. Through a variety of interpretive approaches, including allegorical readings and addressing the differences between implicit and explicit representation, we will seek to gain a greater understanding of how these films lend themselves to unique opportunities for exploring the queer and trans experience.

In this course we examine representations of queer sexuality in art, film and popular culture beginning in the repressive 1950s, followed by the Stonewall Riots of 1969. We situate the birth of gay liberation in the U.S. in the context of the civil rights struggles, feminism and the anti-war movement. We turn to the work of Andy Warhol that looms over the post-war period, challenged subsequently by the onset of AIDS and the work of General Idea and Act-Up, on the one hand, and the more graphically provocative work of Robert Mapplethorpe, on the other. We examine the diversification of the queer community as transgendered identity asserts itself and the opening of popular culture to issues of diverse sexual identities. We explore expressions of queer sensibility outside of North America and Europe. We turn finally to the issue of gay marriage, both in the U.S. and abroad.

This class is a critical, theoretical, and practical examination of the constitution and performance of personal identity within popular media as it relates to identity politics in everyday life. Through lectures, readings, film, and critical writing, students will examine elements of personal identity and diversity in popular media in order to foster a deeper understanding of how identity is constructed and performed in society.

This course will investigate the complexities of queer and trans identities as they are represented within the specific form of artistic production that is graphic narratives. Content will focus on how the blending of image and text within mainstream and independently created graphic narratives functions artistically to both create and express meaning. The course will pay particular attention to works created by openly queer and trans artists and how those artists use the artistic medium of graphic narratives to reclaim narrative agency. Students will analyze these artistic narratives in their social, historical, and cultural contexts to better understand how form and context artistically combine to present new opportunities for communicating a greater diversity of queer and trans experiences.

In this class, we will investigate the complexities of queer and trans identities as represented across a variety of major film genres understood as a form of artistic expression. Content will focus on mainstream narrative fiction films but clips from independent or "alternative" cinema will also be screened and discussed. We will explore how queer and trans stories are told, how they function, and how those stories have evolved based on factors such as historical context and genre conventions. Through a variety of interpretive approaches, including allegorical readings and addressing the differences between implicit and explicit representation, we will seek to gain a greater understanding of how these films lend themselves to unique opportunities for exploring the queer and trans experience.