Teaching

Division of Critical Studies,  School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

Undergraduate Courses

CTCS 464: Film and/or Television Genres: Zombies!

Spring 2013

Without any doubt, the figure of the zombie has completely captured contemporary media. Where does our fascination with the undead come from and what does it tell us about our anxieties and priorities today? In addition to providing a history of the zombie genre, this course examines zombie media across a range of contemporary cultural practices, from film and television, to graphic novels, video games, and “viral” media. Along the way, the course examines the critical importance of genre and popular culture in everyday life (and death).

Syllabus

CTCS 367: Global Media

Fall 2013

This course examines media globalization from aesthetic, political, and cultural perspectives. The course considers a broad array of historical and contemporary media with an attention to the connections between media forms, practices, and industries across local and global contexts. It also investigates the current imagination of the “global” in media arts and practice. Topics covered include Bollywood, urban transformation, political activism, Danish television, the Olympics, the materiality of the Internet, social media and revolution, the environment, and global Hollywood.

Syllabus

CTCS 191: Introduction to Television

Spring 2014

What and where is American television today? Will video streaming replace cable TV? Has the quality of television outpaced feature films? Has reality TV run out of steam? Are women auteurs in television the next big thing? What is the relationship between technologies, institutions, narratives, aesthetics, and audiences? To discuss these questions, this course introduces students to the study of television as a dramatic form with a history of industrial and creative practices that both overlap and diverge from that of other media. The course focuses on innovations in American television over the past 15 years and reads history, theory, and criticism pertaining to television as a textual form and industrial practice.

Syllabus

Graduate Courses

CTCS 500: Seminar in Film Theory

Fall 2012 and Fall 2013

This course is a graduate introduction to classical and contemporary film theory, focusing on form, narrative, experimentation, and cultural transformation. The course works through the major traditions that have informed film theory from across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Some of the themes to be considered include the relationship between film and the other arts, film as document and archive, the role of technology, spectatorship as ideology and apparatus, affect and embodiment, subjectivity and difference, and film as spectacle, attraction, and magic. The present and historical condition of “theory” as form and practice frames the course content, with an emphasis on developing the ability to analyze and construct theoretical arguments.

Syllabus

CTCS 510: Case Studies in National and/or Regional Media: Imagination of “Asia”

Spring 2013

This course investigates the production and the multiple meanings of Asia as a mediated concept, examining sites of linkage and tension between “East” and “West,” as well as exploring the possibilities of rethinking (if not transcending) these longstanding binaries. What is the conceptual future of Asia, given frictions between the local, regional and the global? The course focuses on how film and media have engaged the imagination of Asia as a way to reorient the organizing tenets of contemporary global capitalism, from tradition and modernity to materiality and spirit. The present and historical condition of Asia as form, method, theory and practice frames the inquiry. Required readings are drawn from a broad tradition of interdisciplinary inquiry, extending outward from film and media studies to the broader arts, humanities and social sciences.

Syllabus

CTCS 510: Case Studies in National and/or Regional Media: Comparison as Method in Asian Media

Spring 2014

This graduate seminar explores contemporary “Asian” media by focusing on comparative methods. Comparison is the theme and primary mode of analysis – with the aim to denaturalize and “unthink” comparison, locating it within broader intellectual and ideological trajectories across global and local contexts. The present and historical condition of comparison as the categorically modern form will frame the course. Required readings are drawn from a broad tradition of interdisciplinary inquiry but focus on contemporary film and media studies. Through an investigation of the production and multiple meanings of comparison as a mediated concept, the course engages sites of linkage and tension between “East and West” as well as exploring the possibilities of rethinking (if not transcending) these longstanding binaries. What is the conceptual future of comparison, given frictions between the local, regional and the global? The course focuses on how film and media have engaged the imagination of comparison as a way to reorient the structuring tenets of media analysis.

Syllabus


Communication Department, University of California, San Diego (2005-2012)

Undergraduate Courses

COSF 186: The Film Industry

COSF 140A: Comparative Media Systems: Asia

COGN 20: Introduction to Communication

COCU 175: Advanced Topics in Communication and Culture: Science Fiction

COGN 150: Senior Seminar: Media and Convergence

Graduate Courses

COGR 200A: Introduction to Communication as a Social Force

COGR 275: Special Topics: Comparative Media, Alternative Modernities

COGR 275: Special Topics: Film Studies