Symposium: Issues in RTVF (398-0-21)
Topic
Immigrant Narratives
Instructors
Nathaniel Rossi
Meeting Info
Helmerich Auditorium: Mon, Wed 10:00AM - 11:50AM
Overview of class
Who are immigrants? What role do film and media makers play in defining how the greater public understands the immigrant experience? How do immigrant creatives negotiate a sense of identity and belonging through the media-making process? This course seeks to explore these questions through a historical and cultural lens that examines how both Hollywood and Independent film have created images of immigration that reflect and critique popular sentiment of immigration in the U.S. Through engaging with the cultural production of immigrants we will consider various lens through which the immigrant experience is often understood, including diaspora, exile, and borderlands. Through interrogating these terms, we will cover concepts such as ethnic otherness/assimilation, the good/bad immigrant stereotype (and the model minority myth), social death, and cultural citizenship. We will also evaluate immigrant activist strategies and speculative border abolitionist futures. This course takes a relational approach that considers immigration narratives of the Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African diasporas.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, students should be able to identify and analyze major theories used to understand the immigrant experience, such as diaspora, exile, and borderlands, as well as the scholarly conversation around these contested terms. Students will also be able to evaluate and analyze creative approaches to capturing and making meaning of immigration through cinema and other forms of media. Finally, they will be equipped to conduct a final paper/project that utilizes textual and discursive analysis of a chosen film or media text dealing with the immigrant experience in the U.S.
Class Materials (Required)
None
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for Radio/TV/Film Major and Minor Students until the end of preregistration, after which time enrollment will be open to everyone who has taken the prerequisites.