52 courses with the subject MCST, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
MCST 110Texts and Power: Foundations of Media and Cultural Studies4
This course introduces students to the intellectual roots and contemporary applications of cultural studies, including critical media studies, focusing on the theoretical bases for analyses of power and meaning in production, texts, and reception. It includes primary readings in anti-racist, feminist, modern, postmodern, and queer cultural and social theory, and compares them to traditional approaches to the humanities. Designed as preparation for intermediate and advanced work grounded in cultural studies, the course is writing intensive, with special emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking and scholarly argumentation and documentation. Completion of or enrollment in MCST 110 is the prerequisite for majoring in media and cultural studies. Every semester.
This class gives an introduction to the many media platforms that are vital to contemporary journalism, and provides a strong foundation in news writing and reporting. It is taught by a veteran editor and writer, who is a Macalester graduate and currently a digital editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune ( startribune.com ). Campus and Twin Cities communities are used as students plan, develop, report and write stories individually and in groups. Cookies are usually served in class.
In this course students analyze the social, cultural, economic, political, and regulatory factors shaping the nature of US communications media, and then investigate how this affects local media organizations and their role in recognizing, serving and facilitating (or not) local populations, communities, interaction, identity, and civic engagement. Considering the history and practices of American journalism, and the current shifts in media technology and economics, the class examines the degree to which media function to provide effective access to news and information, foster diversity of content, encourage civic engagement, and serve the interest of citizens and diverse communities in a democratic society. Individual student projects for the course begin by identifying particular geographic, ethnic, or cultural neighborhoods and communities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, and proceed to explore the degree to which these communities are recognized, defined, or served by various media institutions and journalism practice. Students explore various attempts to revitalize local communication, news delivery and civic discourse through experiments in community media, citizen journalism, community-based news aggregation, media arts, community service and other media innovations and reforms across neighborhood, ethnic, immigrant, gender, sexuality, and other public issues and community participation. Every year.
This course introduces the aesthetics of film as well as selected issues in contemporary film studies. Its aesthetic approach isolates the features that constitute film as a distinct art form: narrative or non-narrative structure, staging, cinematography, editing, and sound. Topics in contemporary film studies that might be considered include one or more of the following: cultural studies and film, industrial organization and globalization, representations of gender and race, and theories of authorship, horror, and spectatorship. Several papers, a test covering basic film terms, and a short video project emphasizing abstract form are required. Suitable for first year students. Every semester.
Cross-Listed as AMST 160 The theorization of difference is an important aspect of cultural theory. In this class we will look at the role of difference as it is understood through ideas of representational and aesthetic politics as well as through the practice and production of knowledge. We want to examine the turn to difference within cultural studies and how this move has shifted how we think about power relations and meaning making in society. We will look at the foundational work of critical race and ethnic studies in cultural theory as well more recent scholarly work that focuses on the administration of difference through surveillance technology and social media. The class will expose students to a range of material including print, digital media, film, television, and internet and social media. Every year.
Cross-Listed as AMST 162 This course is a survey of cultural production of and about Blackness. Looking at the work of artists, filmmakers, and theoreticians, we will analyze the ways that Blackness is performed as a visual language and genre, how it appears or disappears as a racialized, gendendered, and (dis)abled set of embodied practices looking from late 19th century to today. We will read works by Tina Campt, Legacy Russel, and Teju Cole. While the course is focused primarily on the US, we will also talk about racial formations beyond the US, including the Caribbean, UK, West and Southern Africa. We will look at how cultural workers outside the US have engaged the idea of Blackness as a way of seeing, a way of listening, and a process of being. Every year.
Cross-Listed as INTL 202 Global media collectively have tremendous influence in how many see and comprehend the world and therefore on the information and beliefs upon which they feel or act. While media are central to the continued production of a sense of “the world” at large or the “global” scale, media industries are situated geographically, culturally and institutionally. Even if they promise worldwide coverage or are multinational companies, there is much to be gained from studying how media are produced and distributed differently according to specific social, political, economic and historical conditions. This course considers media industries around the world with a focus on the relationships between the labor and infrastructures behind representations in a broad range of media (television, radio, cinema, news, telecommunications, internet).
MCST 220Podcasting: Creative and Practical Elements of Audio Nonfiction4
In this course, students will gain hands-on podcasting experience (in the narrative, documentary style), including brainstorming story ideas, researching, interviewing, writing, editing, and producing their own podcast segment. They will also learn industry terminology, access music and archival databases, work with standard audio software, and learn to pitch their stories to media outlets. By the end of the semester, students will have created their own nonfiction audio story from start to finish. Spring Semester Only.
This course is designed as a basic introduction to digital video production. The objective of the class is to familiarize students of film theory and history with the language of cinema from the standpoint of production in order to deepen your appreciation and knowledge of the technical aspects of film/video and to develop your capacity to use video as a tool for research and communication. In this way, the course will be a combination of technical instruction, critical engagement, and creative exploration. We will analyze and employ a variety of filmmaking techniques as well as constructing narrative and non-narrative strategies for doing so. The focus of the course will be to familiarize you with some basic conventions of experimental, documentary, and narrative cinema. In each assignment, you will be encouraged to think about how formal decisions enhance and further narrative or thematic elements. We will thus pay very close attention to formal aspects of cinematic production: mise-en-scene. cinematography, editing, and sound design. In addition to this attention to form, success in the class will be dependent on a commitment to working through the technical aspects of video production (camera operation, lighting, editing software) in order to create short, original video pieces. Every year.
In the last couple of decades we have seen the invention and popularization of a wide assortment of digital technologies and with them, a wide variety of new media forms. The internet (which includes a collection of media forms, from web pages and peer-to-peer software to social media and video sharing sites), massively multiplayer online video games, ubiquitous computing, software, mobile phones - together, many argue, these and other forms of new media are reshaping how we live, create, work and even, what it means to be human. In this class we’ll examine a cross-section of contemporary humanistic research that has sought to understand the impact(s) of new media through a comparison to earlier, pre-digital media. In addition, we will engage in hands-on workshops, where we will use and learn some of the tools, software, and websites that our texts consider. Every year.
MCST 128 recommended. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
MCST 258The Middle East Through Film4
Cross-Listed as INTL 258 and ANTH 249 This course provides an introduction to the history, politics, and aesthetics of Middle Eastern cinema. Over the course of the semester, we will examine the development of both local and regional cinematic traditions; the role of cinema in the production of the collective memory of conflict and war; the international circulation of film as a form of soft power; and, not least, the profound discursive power of cinematic humor. Readings will offer an introduction to methods of film analysis as well as to the political and artistic history of the modern Middle East. Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as THDA 264 The camera has a way of capturing truth in an unflinching way. The acting techniques needed to be able to communicate honestly and authentically are magnified when acting for the camera. This class will explore the expression of truth for both drama and comedy while building acting skills uniquely required for film and video. Students will develop critical response techniques that will enable constructive feedback. With the current industry trend towards video content, this class will give a strong foundation to succeed in any of the various film and video platforms. Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as GERM 366 Taught in English; there is an optional German component for those who want to have the course count toward their German-taught courses. In this case, students must do the reading and writing assignments and some of their oral presentations in German. In this course we focus on the exchanges and influences among French, German, and American cinematographers within the genre of road movies. We begin with a couple of 1940s-1950 American films that cut across the genres of road movie and film-noir and had an impact on the French nouvelle-vague director Jean-Luc Godard, whose films, in turn, inspired American road movies during their acme in the 1960s-1970s (Dennis Hopper, Bob Rafelson). We shall then turn to the German director Wim Wenders to focus on the relation of his 1970s-1980s road movies to both the German literary canon and American cinematography, notably Jim Jarmusch. The course will conclude with the German director of Turkish descent, Fatih Akin, who complicates the above exchanges by intertwining them with the significant German-Turkish cultural exchange. Students will gain insight into film as an aesthetic, ideological, and political medium, and into specifics of the culture of the countries involved. No pre-knowledge required; appropriate for all students. Alternate spring semesters.
This course is designed to be a critical look at an often-unexamined medium, television. We will approach TV as an industry, a medium or mode of culture, a sometimes-maligned object of discourse, and a site of textual, social, and political practices. Our guiding principle will be that TV matters. And we will ask not just what ideas and practices it produces, but, importantly, how it produces them and how they have changed over time. Starting in the postwar period, we will trace the emergence of television culture, mostly within the United States, and think about how this particular media institution shaped, and was shaped by, its social and historical context. Specifically, this portion will focus on how the television was constructed as a domestic appliance and was used as an instrument for producing and policing the ideal or normative family. Then, the course will examine the history and politics of racial representation on television, starting with the symbiotic relationship between the civil rights movement and television news institutions in the mid-20th century. We will follow this into the present, with particular emphasis on television’s role in molding ideas about policing, protest, and racism. Throughout, we will consider the distinct textual, aesthetic, and stylistic aspects of individual television programs as well as the larger discursive environment in which they operate. Screening these episodes along with theoretical, historical, and analytical readings, this course will use class discussion, lecture, and written assignments to develop critical frameworks for understanding TV. Every year.
MCST 271”Dead White Men” in the Era of Antiracism4
Cross-Listed as GERM 271 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. Commenting on the relation between Africa and European philosophy and culture, Kwame Anthony Appiah maintains that the temptation for Africa “to forget Europe is to suppress the conflicts that have shaped our identities; since it is too late for us to escape each other, we might instead seek to turn to our advantage the mutual interdependencies history has thrust upon us.” Appiah’s interracial approach is equally recommendable for the epistemological relation between the European philosophical tradition and contemporary culture-a culture that understands itself as post-ideological and declares any truth to be constructed (except for the inexorable laws of the market). In this culture, we can hear the question: Why should we bother with “dead white men”-who harbored universal truths and a universal self-conscious rational (male and white) subject-now that we understand that truth depends on historical context, that the self is decentered by the unconscious, that identity is constituted by factors such as class, race, and gender, and that truth is interlaced with imagination, ideology, and power? The faultiness of this question consists in presuming a clear-cut distinction or even break between philosophical tradition and contemporary culture, as if the latter had emerged autonomously and had not been shaped in relation and in conflict with this tradition. To gain insight into these mutual interdependencies, both epistemological and racial, in this course we shall pursue a double movement. On the one hand, we shall read closely texts by various “dead white men” as the unconscious (i.e., repressed and, for that matter, possibly all the more powerful) undercurrent of contemporary culture. And on the other hand, we shall read critiques of “dead white men” that point to the racialist unconscious that undergirds their argumentations. Emphasis may be placed on one or several main figures of any period since the early modernity (17th century) (e.g., Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, Sartre, Lacan, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida) and on their commentators and critics. The course may be offered in different iterations, and under different topics this course may be taken more than once for credit. Offered occasionally.
MCST 273German-French Dialogues in Critical Theory: Marx-Freud-Sartre-Lacan4
Cross-Listed as GERM 273 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. This course focuses on the dialogue and mutual influence between the German- and French-speaking traditions of political economy and philosophical and theoretical thought, as it becomes evident in the relations among German Idealism, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, (post-)Structuralism, and their productive interconnections in the development of Critical and Political Theory. While becoming familiar with the work of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacque Lacan, as well as the work of relevant thinkers who influenced their thought, we shall be examining the structural and conceptual homologies and differences among political economy, abstract thought, and human subjectivity. The dialogue will include the voices of race and feminist theory (e.g., Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Fanon, Julia Kristeva, Jacqueline Rose). The last part of the course will focus on the relation between these interconnections (among economy, ideas, culture, and the constitution of identities) and the exercise of power in the era of global capitalism, as theorized by thinkers who draw on this German-French-speaking line of thought. French majors and minors may read the French texts in the original and do some writing in French. Offered occasionally.
MCST 275Theoretical Approaches to European and American Cinema4
Cross-Listed as GERM 275 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall approach films as a medium that, through all of its means (from dialogue to more formal aspects, such as camera angle or editing), raises and attempts to negotiate philosophical, ideological, and political issues and conflicts. We shall be exposed to different methodologies of film analysis while examining: (a) a few representative films of three influential European film movements (German expressionism, Italian Neo-Realism, French nouvelle-vague), as a means of tracing the itinerary of European cinema from an action-oriented to a reflection-oriented practice; (b) the British and later American work of Alfred Hitchcock, as a mode of cinematography that employs the “gaze” as a principle of structural organization; and (c), American films of the 1970’s - 1990’s, as attempts to represent the world of late capitalism. Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as GERM 276 , POLI 276 , and RELI 276 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. Marx’s contribution to the theorization of the function of the imaginary in both the constitution of subjectivity and the mechanisms of politics and economy-usually referred to as ideology-cannot be overestimated. The first part of this course traces Marx’s gradual conceptualization of the imaginary throughout his work-as well as further Marxist theoreticians, such as Louis Althusser, Étienne Balibar, and Slavoj Žižek-while exploring how the imaginary enabled Marx’s discovery of three further crucial concepts: structure, the unconscious, and the symptom, all of which are central in the analysis of culture and ideology. In the second part of the course, we shall focus on the logic and mechanisms of power in contemporary neoliberalism, including the claim that today Marx’s theory is no longer relevant (readings will include Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Maurizio Lazzarato, McKenzie Wark). Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as GERM 278 , POLI 278 , and RELI 278 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall examine the relation of religion to both capital and the modern forms of political power (what Michel Foucault termed biopolitics or biopower), as well as the biopolitical formations of race and racism as means for sustaining power-while discovering the enduring pertinence of Marx’s work in theorizing the above issues. Biopower emerges gradually in secular capitalist modernity as a form of power that legitimizes itself not through its right to “take life” (as in traditional forms of sovereignty) but through its obligation to protect and enhance life. Yet, albeit “secular,” biopower is a form of “pastoral power” (Foucault). We shall explore: the interconnectedness of modern biopower and religion; Marx’s critique of the dominant (Enlightenment) critique of religion and his thesis that the secular state presupposes religion; the colonial and racial constructions of religion; racial capitalism; the biopolitical constructions of race in its relation to social class and other forms of domination; and anti-racist criticisms of both Foucault and Marx. Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as GERM 279 All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. For thousands of years value has been scrutinized in philosophy, art history, and economic analysis, as it cuts across three constitutive aspects of social, cultural, and political life: economy, aesthetics, and ethics. Not only do we have and impose on the world our moral, aesthetic, and exchange values, but these three fields often become difficult to distinguish, as is evident in the slippery flexibility of words that allow us to say as much “this painting is bad or worthless” as “I think this person is bad or worthless,” or “this is a bad, or worthless, remark” and “this is a bad or worthless check.” This course will focus primarily on influential accounts of value in aesthetic theory, while also examining the ways in which aesthetic value demarcates itself from or implicates its moral and economic counterparts, and what the interplays among the three fields entail for aesthetic value. Our readings will focus on the formation of modern aesthetic theory-from the early eighteenth century through the Enlightenment and Romanticism to high modernism, the Frankfurt School, and postmodernism. Occasionally.
Cross-Listed as AMST 281 and ASIA 283 This discussion-based course is entirely focused on Bruce Lee, the actor and leading martial arts icon of the 20th century. Using American Studies and Critical Race Studies frames to examine the construction of racialized and gendered bodies, we will discuss Bruce Lee in terms of his biography, identities, politics, philosophy, and filmography. We will take time to appreciate the entertainment value and athleticism that Bruce Lee brought to his work, but we will also learn to distinguish the commercialized, commodified Bruce Lee (from t-shirts to posters to action figures) from the serious historical figure who symbolized the spirit of cultural independence and political sovereignty around the world. Among the required books and movies: The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, and “Way of the Dragon” (1972). Every year.
MCST 284Radical Reelism: Indigeneity, Politics, and Visual Culture4
Cross-Listed as AMST 284 Join us as we explore the roots and routes of Native Cultural Studies through photography, film, television, print and media. How have Indigenous people been represented in visual culture? And what can Indigenous visual artists or film theory teach us about the past, present and future in the United States? No previous coursework required. Fall semester only.
Cross-Listed as INTL 321 Neoliberal theory posits the relative autonomy of the economic sphere from both culture and politics. Rejecting this assumption, the course will give students the ability to understand the interconnection of economic, political and cultural practices as well as the ways that economic theories are shaped by cultural assumptions about what constitutes a person, a life, a society, etc. We will read some of the foundational texts from the neoliberal school of economic thought (Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman) alongside more contemporary reflections on the culture and politics of neoliberalism from the fields of Anthropology, Geography, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, and Critical Race Studies. Additionally, we will look at both the global institutions that craft and enforce economic policies as well as their impacts in multiple international contexts. This course will emphasize interdisciplinarity and original research. Finally, in addition to key texts, we will examine recent documentaries that attempt to render economic structures visible.
Cross-Listed as INTL 330 This course considers surveillance as a social formation, inseparable from the theory and exercise of power. On the one hand, it takes up the pressing questions surveillance raises, from the development of cutting-edge technologies to the complex work of international regulation. On the other hand, it situates surveillance historically as central to projects of imperial conquest, state formation, and colonial rule. Engaging with theoretical works, primary sources, empirical studies and artistic renderings, students will grapple with problems of surveillance and power across geographic and historical contexts. Every year.
MCST 110 - Texts and Power: Foundations of Media and Cultural Studies or permission of instructor. MCST 128 - Film Analysis/Visual Culture recommended for film studies seminars. Non-majors are welcome if they have taken MCST 110 or a comparable course. Every semester. (4 Credits)
MCST 601Tutorial1
Closely supervised individual or small group study for advanced students on a subject not available through regular catalog offerings.
Junior or senior standing, and permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
MCST 621Internship1
The department offers a variety of internships in educational, business, and governmental institutions. Internships sponsored by department faculty are available only to juniors and seniors who have made substantial progress toward the major or have completed a media studies minor or the equivalent and must be grounded in previous coursework. Normally, internships are graded pass/fail. Exceptions to this policy permitting a letter grade may be made at the discretion of the individual faculty member sponsoring the internship. Internships may be of variable credit as determined by the instructor, and up to four credits may be applied to the department major.
Permission of instructor; work with Internship Office. Every semester. (1 Credits)
MCST 622Internship2
The department offers a variety of internships in educational, business, and governmental institutions. Internships sponsored by department faculty are available only to juniors and seniors who have made substantial progress toward the major or have completed a media studies minor or the equivalent and must be grounded in previous coursework. Normally, internships are graded pass/fail. Exceptions to this policy permitting a letter grade may be made at the discretion of the individual faculty member sponsoring the internship. Internships may be of variable credit as determined by the instructor, and up to four credits may be applied to the department major.
Permission of instructor; work with Internship Office. Every semester. (2 Credits)
MCST 623Internship3
The department offers a variety of internships in educational, business, and governmental institutions. Internships sponsored by department faculty are available only to juniors and seniors who have made substantial progress toward the major or have completed a media studies minor or the equivalent and must be grounded in previous coursework. Normally, internships are graded pass/fail. Exceptions to this policy permitting a letter grade may be made at the discretion of the individual faculty member sponsoring the internship. Internships may be of variable credit as determined by the instructor, and up to four credits may be applied to the department major.
Permission of instructor; work with Internship Office. Every semester. (3 Credits)
MCST 624Internship4
The department offers a variety of internships in educational, business, and governmental institutions. Internships sponsored by department faculty are available only to juniors and seniors who have made substantial progress toward the major or have completed a media studies minor or the equivalent and must be grounded in previous coursework. Normally, internships are graded pass/fail. Exceptions to this policy permitting a letter grade may be made at the discretion of the individual faculty member sponsoring the internship. Internships may be of variable credit as determined by the instructor, and up to four credits may be applied to the department major.
Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (4 Credits)
MCST 631Preceptorship1
Work in assisting a faculty member on a varied range of activities involved in the planning and teaching of a course. Duties usually include course attendance, library research, test correction, conducting group study sessions, and tutoring individual students. Normally available only to juniors and seniors who have taken the course they will precept.
Permission of instructor; work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (1 Credits)
MCST 632Preceptorship2
Work in assisting a faculty member on a varied range of activities involved in the planning and teaching of a course. Duties usually include course attendance, library research, test correction, conducting group study sessions, and tutoring individual students. Normally available only to juniors and seniors who have taken the course they will precept.
Permission of instructor; work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (2 Credits)
MCST 633Preceptorship3
Work in assisting a faculty member on a varied range of activities involved in the planning and teaching of a course. Duties usually include course attendance, library research, test correction, conducting group study sessions, and tutoring individual students. Normally available only to juniors and seniors who have taken the course they will precept.
Permission of instructor; work with Academic Programs. Every semester. (3 Credits)
MCST 634Preceptorship4
Work in assisting a faculty member on a varied range of activities involved in the planning and teaching of a course. Duties usually include course attendance, library research, test correction, conducting group study sessions, and tutoring individual students. Normally available only to juniors and seniors who have taken the course they will precept.
