Undergraduate Seminar (398-0-70)

Topic

Digital Intimacies in MENA

Instructors

Leila Oum Kulthoum Tayeb

Meeting Info

Northwestern Qatar Room 2-256: Tues, Su 11:30AM - 12:45PM (AST)

Overview of class

"What does it feel like to live out some of our most important relationships through our computers and our phones? Is the era that we're living through radically different from all those which preceded it in how we imagine and experience our relational lives? This course explores continuity and rupture in human intimacy and relationality by taking contemporary practices in online dating as a case study. How has the proliferation of dating apps and social media platforms shaped how young people build relationships? How have love, attachment, and intimacy changed in the wake of these media? If the internet gives us both greater connection and more isolation, how are we changing to adapt ourselves to these conditions? We undertake an interdisciplinary study of these questions as they manifest in the global city of Doha and further afield through original research. Students learn and apply ethnographic methods, both on and offline, and contribute to knowledge production in the emerging field of digital intimacy studies.

Registration Requirements

Prerequisites: None

Open to Sophomores and above, MIT majors only

Open for cross registration

Satisfies Africana Studies Minor & Middle East Studies Minor

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Registration is reserved for COMM Majors who are Sophomores and above.