Cultural Studies: An Introduction - JMMZ326

• Title: Cultural Studies: An Introduction
• Guaranteed by: Department of Russian and East European Studies (23-KRVS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2018 to 2018
• Semester: summer
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: 15 / unknown (15)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: doc. Maria Alina Asavei, D.Phil.
• Teacher(s): doc. Maria Alina Asavei, D.Phil.

Annotation

Last update: doc. Maria Alina Asavei, D.Phil. (24.10.2019)

This introductory course attempts to illuminate and disentangle why we need a concept of culture and what kind of
concept of culture we need in order to understand and/or explain social and political phenomena. It introduces
students to various conceptions of culture, methods of analysis, analytical techniques, and interpretative strategies
through which we can understand our social and political world. Please note! This course attempts to engage the
theory, the methodologies and interpretation of Cultural Studies. It is not a course about studying "other cultures" or
intercultural communication.

Aim of the course

Last update: doc. Maria Alina Asavei, D.Phil. (24.10.2019)

At the end of this course, students are expected to use interdisciplinary perspectives to explore cultural production from various regions and contexts. They will learn how to use various methodologies to inquiry in Cultural Studies and to combine cultural and other approaches in their research papers. At the same time, students are expected (at the end of the course) to be familiar with Cultural Studies' terminology and concepts for a unique research problem (eg modernity - post-modernity, deconstruction, Marxism-ideology, power-agency, hegemony) -resistance, identity-subjectivity, myth-symbol, high and popular culture, popular culture and populism and so on).

Teaching methods

Last update: doc. Maria Alina Asavei, D.Phil. (24.10.2019)

We will attempt to integrate voices from multiple disciplines. The course explores how different artifacts and cultural processes are produced, disseminated, apprehended, and used. It also investigates the various dimensions of culture understood in their broader political, social, aesthetic and ethical contexts. We will explore the ways in which the concept of culture has been interpreted from a historical and political perspective. At the same time, we will combine cultural approaches with other approaches from Social Sciences and Humanities to answer and set questions: To what extent and how social and political cultures can be invented, manipulated by elites, transmitted, and dislodged? Is Culture Learnt or Invented?Is culture an individual or social construct? Is culture a descriptive or evaluative concept? Is culture uniformly distributed among members of a group? 

 To answer these questions, the course will employ micro-lectures and students' presentations followed by debates and inquiry-based instruction.