Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: HYBRID BEINGS, MULTIPLE SELVES: THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN A DIGITAL AND MATERIAL AGE (BROWN)

Department: College Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 1

Description: How much time do you spend online and how does that compare to your time offline? How do these different experiences mesh to influence the type of person you are? What kind of person does existing in these two planes make you? Hybrid Beings: Multiple Selves investigates the impacts of technology on our conceptions of self and embodied experience; focusing on visual technologies like print and screens. This course will focus predominantly on 21st century technologies, particularly the impact of social media on the way we conduct our lives and the ramifications of the corporate control of social life. A critical portion of the course will investigate the forms that social justice takes in the "real world" versus online; echo chambers, politically charged "news" generated by extremist groups, and the facilitation of these negative outcomes via the anonymity and lack of accountability afforded by the internet. Through our meanderings we will discuss ideas pertaining to materiality turn, phenomenology, power, gender, sexuality, race, intersectionality, and the social construction of experience. The ultimate question we pose is: What does it mean to BE in the 21st century and how can we adjust our behaviors to adapt to the inevitability of technology's growing guidance of our lives?