MEDS 240 - Gender and the Digital

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as WFQS 240) In this course we explore how the gendered body is represented, consumed and (dis)embodied through digital media. Beginning with an interrogation of our colonized modes of media consumption we acknowledge the first coders and digital laborers, specifically the work of Women of Color, Cisgender women and Queer pioneers. Turning to media processes and interfaces we examine how gender, race and class are transversally present in the digital divide, media-making, algorithms, surveillance, revenge porn, social media, cyberbullying and gaming. Challenging assumptions about the analog and cyberspace, we study constructions of avatars, hackers, cyborgs and androids in contemporary mainstream films and television series. We end by analyzing the future of gender in a post-media, post-human era, on the cusp of the singularity. Assignments offer students opportunities to theorize gender and the digital through writing and multi-media projects. Eva Woods.

Prerequisite(s): WFQS 130.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS