INTP 091. Discipline + Culture

What kind of object of knowledge and study is culture? Considering both casual uses and complex theories of the idea of culture, this class’s readings and case studies will stretch from the 18th through the 21st centuries and span a variety of different disciplines. We will pay special attention to the various ways culture has been constructed as an object of disciplinary knowledge in English and History departments over the last 40 years. How and why has cultural studies-or the study of culture-grown up alongside and come to seem identified with certain types of political and social critique? And what is cultural critique - how have we done it, how do we do it, and what are the alternatives? Because this course functions as the INTP capstone, we will be especially interested in the ways you may have attended to the concept of culture in your previous and current coursework and independent reading. What relation does the idea of culture bear to your Swarthmore education as you have known it? Assignments will include both collaborative and individual projects, formal and informal writing, and attendance at some additional lectures. Expect visiting speakers, group endeavors, comparative methodologies, studies of materiality, digital methods, and more.
1 credit.
Spring 2015. Azfar, Buurma.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/interpretation-theory
Interpretation Theory

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