(Disclaimer: The following post doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with James L. Brooks’ Broadcast News)

A common problem experienced by course-based students is how to make best use of the mandatory spring/summer semester, during which Film Studies courses traditionally are not taught. Keep an eye on this space in the future for information on advice on how to organize independent studies and internships. In the meantime, check out this exceptional Film Studies course that is being offered to MA and PhD students over the 2015 spring/summer semester. “Gender, Media, Technology” promises to take on an interdisciplinary approach that marries well with our spectrum of research interests. All the details follow below:

FMST 665/1 Topics in Film Studies: Gender, Media, Technology

Instructor: Megan Fernandes

May 4 to June 17, 2015

Tuesday, Thursday 13:15 to 17:15

This course asks students to reexamine the critical practices and discourses of media and technology through the theoretical lens of gender studies. As new technologies emerge that visualize and narrate our haptic intimacy with other vital forms, the socio-political construction of gender stability is continually undermined, thwarted, and re-imagined. In this class, students will be asked to consider how conversations about gender contribute to evolving discourses around computing, animation, hacker culture, commercial surrogacy, sex organ reassignment, tissue cultures, and toxicity/contagion. Students will be expected to participate in discussion of course material, give formal presentations on assigned readings and screenings, write a research paper, and complete a creative assignment.

Megan Fernandes is an interdisciplinary affiliate faculty member. She holds a PhD in Literature from University of California at Santa Barbara and she has published widely as a scholar and a poet. She has previously taught at M.I.T., Boston University, Lesley University, and Brown University.

PhD students may also enrol in this course as 865/1.