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Undergraduate Seminar (398-0-75)

Topic

Feminist Media Historiography

Instructors

Kirsten Marie Pike

Meeting Info

Northwestern Qatar Room 1-244: Mon, Wed 4:00PM - 5:15PM (AST)

Overview of class

"This course explores the theories and practices of media historiography—that is, researching and writing media history—from a feminist perspective. During the first half of the course, students will learn and practice methods of historical research by investigating a range of media produced for girls and young women between 1968-1980—the era commonly referred to as "second-wave feminism" in the U.S. Artifacts to be examined include teen's and women's magazines, diaries, high school yearbooks, young adult fiction, self-help books, popular music, TV shows, films, advertisements, games, and toys as well as a range of primary documents related to these artifacts—from trade and fan press discourses and journalistic reviews,
to box office figures, Nielsen ratings data, and archival materials. One of our primary goals will be to consider how different resources count as "evidence" and can be used to uncover, expand, complicate, and/or challenge contemporary histories of youth, gender, and popular culture. During the second half of the course, students will apply the theories and practices of media historiography to an original, gender-related research project of their own choosing. Students will be responsible for locating and reading primary and secondary sources carefully and critically, assessing sources in relation to the historical context in which they were produced, bringing their research to class for workshopping sessions, and writing a final paper (and giving a presentation) that showcases their unique historical and analytical research discoveries. In addition to enhancing students' interests and abilities in feminist historical research, the course aims to help students develop a polished research paper that could be submitted to an international conference on gender and media history.

Registration Requirements


  • Prerequisites: None

  • Open to Sophomores and above, MIT majors only

Enrollment Requirements

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