A Blast from the Past: David Halperin Writes About Slash

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Three decades ago, at the start of my career, I was a professor in the Literature section at MIT and more or less across the hall from me was my colleague, David Halperin, who was one of the founding figures in Gay and Lesbian Studies. Halperin was an important influence on my early work. He and Ruth Perry ran an informal workshop on the study of gender and sexuality which introduced me to a wide array of new authors and ideas as queer approaches to culture were becoming more wide-spread in academia and as the AIDS crisis was pushing queer activism into the streets, not to mention the museums (debates around Robert Maplethorpe’s work were boiling over). Halperin was a patient and sometimes petulant guide through this material, which would become a core foundation for the ways I wrote about fan fiction especially in Textual Poachers. And in return, fan fiction became a topic which we collectively considered.

I could not have been more flattered when Halperin, a considerably more senior scholar, began to incorporate some of my work into his writing as part of his larger project of “queering” classical studies. He spoke on more than one occasion of what could be learned by juxtaposing slash fiction with other works of fiction. But he never published this writing and through the years, I have found myself reaching for it since it feels like a lost chapter in the history of fan and fandom studies. When he retired recently, he stumbled upon the manuscript of one of those talks and shared it with me. He explained, “I never finished that essay, and I gave up hope of publishing it long ago. I think the whole project of “queering” canonical texts got very old very quickly — which is not to say it has run out of steam. On the contrary, there is a new vogue for queering Greek tragedy — but since tragedy is about what happens when things go wrong, to say that it is queer does not really tell us anything we didn’t already know. Anyway, I rather liked that old paper, fully thirty years old now, when I reread it, but I don’t write that way any more.…”

I asked if I might share it with my blog readers, nevertheless, and he consented. So here for the first time in print is his essay on slash fan fiction.

Enjoy.

Back to School Special: Participatory Politics and the Civic ImaginationM

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My other class this term is one which I have taught before but I find I need to do significant updating each time it is offered, because the political world has been evolving so rapidly. I am teaching the class this time with Sangita Shrestova, my former student and oft-time writing and research collaborator. In many ways, this class is Civic Paths, the class. Civic Paths is the research group, consisting of 15 or so PhD students who work on various activities associated with the MacArthur-Foundation funded Civic Imagination Protect. We are vert busy at the moment with a strong focus on “plant-based democracy,” political de-polarization, and debates around monuments and memorials.

We are reading core texts which are foundational to our research and interpretive paradigm, going back to the work of the Youth and Participatory Politics project, including our book, By Any Media Necessary. Much of what we read from there comes from former students and collaborators who have continued to do important work on these topics. We are going to be drawing on the activities described in Sangita’s book, Practicing Futures, as well as discussions to shape the pedagogical approach to the class, and help students put these ideas into practice. We believe that the class offers a rich fusion of political communication and cultural studies — a political approach to culture and a cultural approach to politics — which helps us make sense of our current moment and its relationship to the larger media environment. Hope you enjoy seeing what we are teaching this term.

COMM 576: Civic Media, Participatory Politics and the Civic Imagination

4.0 Units

Fall 2022, Tuesdays 12:30-3:20pm

Section: 20854D

Location: ASC 240

Henry Jenkins and Sangita Shresthova

Contact Information:

Henry Jenkins

Office: ASC 101C

Office hours by appointment. Please send all inquires regarding office hour appointments to Amanda Ford (amandafo@usc.edu) and questions regarding the course to Professor Jenkins at hjenkins@usc.edu.

Sangita Shresthova

Office hours by appointment. Please contact at shrestho@usc.edu

Course Description: 

Civic Media: “Any use of any technology for the purposes of increasing civic engagement and public participation, enabling the exchange of meaningful information, fostering social connectivity, constructing critical perspectives, insuring transparency and accountability, or strengthening citizen agency.” (Jenkins)

Participatory Politics: “Interactive, peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on issues of public concern. Importantly, these acts are not guided by deference to elites or formal institutions. Examples of participatory political acts include starting a new political group online, writing and disseminating a blog post about a political issue, forwarding a funny political video to one’s social network, or participating in a poetry slam.” (Joe Kahne and Cathy Cohen)

Civic Imagination: The capacity to imagine social change, including the ability to envision a better world, the process of change which might achieve it, the shared interests of an imagined/imagining community, one’s own civic agency, the perspectives of others, and for the most oppressed, opportunities for freedom and equality that have not yet been experienced.

What can approaches rooted in cultural and media studies contribute to our understanding of civic practices, organizations and movements? How might a closer consideration of democratic citizenship contribute to our understanding of core concepts, such as the relationship between publics and audiences, civics and politics, the nature of participation, imagination and action, the power of storytelling, or the implications of remix practices? Over the past few years, political movements, such as Occupy Wall Street, March for Our Lives, #blacklivesmatter, the Women’s March, and the Arab Spring movements, to cite a few examples over the past years, have explored new strategies that rely heavily on networked communication to build community, mobilize their base and increase public awareness. At the same time, new work in political science and communication studies seeks to understand the ways these movements have tapped into the expanded communication capacities of everyday people and the ways that cultural participation might spill over into engagement with civic and political issues. In this class, we will be looking at how scholars and practitioners have responded to these new movements and the ways that their work is reframing our understanding of the nature of democracy.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Often, we think about civic engagement as grounded in a rationalist discourse and shaped by structures of information, but democratic deliberation also has strong cultural roots and is shaped by what Raymond Williams would call “a structure of feeling.” We may ask in the first instance what citizens need to know in order to make wise decisions and, in the second, what it feels like to be an empowered citizen capable of making a difference, navigating difference, and sharing common interests with others . Across the trajectory of the course, we will explore a range of other institutions and practices that have similarly contributed to the public awareness, civic engagement, and social connectivity required for a functioning democracy. By the end of the semester, we will have collectively engaged, re-imagined, and experienced the multi-faceted relationships between civic media, participatory politics, and civic imagination in a changing media landscape.

Course Requirements

Required Readings and Supplementary Materials

Eric Gordon and Paul Mihailidis (Eds.) (2022). Civic Media: Technology/Design/Practice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Gabriel Peters-Lazaro and Sangita Shresthova (2020). Practicing Futures: A Civic Imagination Handbook. New York, New York: Peter Lang Verlag.

All other readings can be found on Blackboard.

Description and Assessment of Assignments

  • Contributions to Class Forum on Blackboard (10 Percent)

Students will contribute questions and comments to the class forum on Blackboard.

  • Attendance and Participation in Class Discussion (10 Percent)

  • Short Paper  (20 Percent)

Students will either develop a five-page case study report on a civic or cultural organization or network they feel is making innovative use of civic media, or students will develop a five-page report which traces the political impact of a particular story (from popular culture, folklore, history, religion, etc.) as it becomes a resource or battleground for the civic imagination. 

  • Media Prototype (20 percent)

Students will work collaboratively to prototype a media action informed by case studies introduced in class, guests and personal knowledge / experience. The action can include text, short videos, podcasts, slideshows, photo-essays, or anything else approved by the instructors. The prototypes will be shared in short pitch-like presentations.  

  • Final Paper (40 percent)

Students will develop a final project or paper that applies the broad ideas of the course. Students should discuss their project with the instructor early in the semester so we can set an appropriate scale for this project. Students will be ready to give a 10-15 minute presentation on their project in the final weeks of the class. Final paper will be due on final exam date for the class: Tuesday, December 13, 2022. 

Add/Drop Dates for Session 001 (15 weeks: 8/22/22 – 12/2/22)

Link: https://classes.usc.edu/term-20223/calendar/

Friday, September 9: Last day to register and add classes for Session 001

Friday, September 9: Last day to drop a class without a mark of “W,” except for Monday-only classes, and receive a refund for Session 001

Friday, September 9: Last day to change enrollment option to audit for Session 001

Friday, September 9: Last day to change a Pass/No Pass to a letter grade for Session 001

Friday, September 9: Last day to purchase or waive tuition refund insurance for fall

Tuesday, September 13: Last day to add or drop a Monday-only class without a mark of “W” and receive a refund or change to Pass/No Pass or Audit for Session 001

Friday, October 7: Last day to drop a course without a mark of “W” on the transcript for Session 001. Mark of “W” will still appear on student record and STARS report and tuition charges still apply. [Please drop any course by the end of week three (or the 20 percent mark of the session) to avoid tuition charges.]

Friday, November 11: Last day to drop a class with a mark of “W” for Session 001

Statement on Academic Conduct and Support Systems

Academic Conduct:

Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, either verbatim or recast in your own words – is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism in SCampus in Part B, Section 11, “Behavior Violating University Standards” policy.usc.edu/scampus-part-b. Other forms of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable. See additional information in SCampus and university policies on scientific misconduct, http://policy.usc.edu/scientific-misconduct.

Support Systems:

Student Counseling Services (SCS) – (213) 740-7711 – 24/7 on call

Free and confidential mental health treatment for students, including short-term psychotherapy, group counseling, stress fitness workshops, and crisis intervention. engemannshc.usc.edu/counseling

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1 (800) 273-8255

Provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Services (RSVP) – (213) 740-4900 – 24/7 on call

Free and confidential therapy services, workshops, and training for situations related to gender- based harm. engemannshc.usc.edu/rsvp

Sexual Assault Resource Center

For more information about how to get help or help a survivor, rights, reporting options, and additional resources, visit the website: sarc.usc.edu

Office of Equity and Diversity (OED)/Title IX Compliance – (213) 740-5086

Works with faculty, staff, visitors, applicants, and students around issues of protected class.

equity.usc.edu

Bias Assessment Response and Support

Incidents of bias, hate crimes and microaggressions need to be reported allowing for appropriate investigation and response. studentaffairs.usc.edu/bias-assessment-response-support

The Office of Disability Services and Programs

Provides certification for students with disabilities and helps arrange relevant accommodations.

dsp.usc.edu

Student Support and Advocacy – (213) 821-4710

Assists students and families in resolving complex issues adversely affecting their success as a student EX: personal, financial, and academic. studentaffairs.usc.edu/ssa

Diversity at USC

Information on events, programs and training, the Diversity Task Force (including representatives for each school), chronology, participation, and various resources for students. diversity.usc.edu

USC Emergency Information

Provides safety and other updates, including ways in which instruction will be continued if an officially declared emergency makes travel to campus infeasible. emergency.usc.edu

USC Department of Public Safety – UPC: (213) 740-4321 – HSC: (323) 442-1000 – 24-hour emergency or to report a crime.

Provides overall safety to USC community. dps.usc.edu

WEEKLY BREAKDOWN 

WEEKLY BREAKDOWN

Day 1 (August 24): What Do We Mean by Civic Media?

DAY 2 (August 30):  Participatory Politics

DAY 3 (September 6): Rethinking the Civic

Day 4 (September 13): The Work of the Imagination

First Paper Due

DAY 5 (September 20): Utopia and Dystopia

DAY 6 (September 27): Publics/Audiences and Participation

DAY 7 (October 4)  Why Media Matters

*Media Prototype Due

In Class Activity: Students share case studies

DAY 8 (October 11): Monuments

DAY 9 (October 18): Performance, Ritual, and the Body

DAY 10 (October 25): Pedagogies

DAY 11 (November 1): Polarization

DAY 12 (November 8): Green Imagination

DAY 13 (November 15): Feeding Civic Imagination

Day 14  (November 24): Thanksgiving week (workshopping final projects)

Day 15 (November 29): Final Presentations

*Final Paper Due

Day 1 (August 24): What Do We Mean by Civic Media?

Optional

  • Andrew Schrock, “Introduction,” in Civic Tech: Making Technology Work For People (pp. 1–21), (Long Beach: Rogue Academic Press, 2018).

  • Jonny Sun, “Media-Consciousness as Part of Resistance,” in Maureen Johnson (Ed.), How I Resist (pp. 141–152), (New York: Wednesday Books, 2018).

  • Kevin Driscoll, “Cultivating Community,” in The Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media (pp. 132 – 167), (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022).

In class workshop: Origin Stories

DAY 2 (August 30):  Participatory Politics 

Optional 

DAY 3 (September 6): Rethinking the Civic

  • Ethan Zuckerman, “Cute Cats” in Danielle Allen (Ed.) From Voice to Influence: Understanding Citizenship in the Digital Age (pp. 131–154) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015).

  • Peter Dahlgren, “Civic Cultures: An Analytic Frame," in Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication, and Democracy (pp. 102–123) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

  • Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, “‘Decreasing World Suck’: Harnessing Popular Culture for Fan Activism” in By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism (New York: New York University Press, 2016). Available online

  • adrienne maree brown, “Introduction,” in Emergent Strategies: Sharing Change, Changing Worlds (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2017)

  • Eve Ewing, “The Quality of the Light: Evidence, Truths, and the Odd Practice of the Poet-Sociologist,” in Perlow, O., Wheeler, D., Bethea, S., Scott, B. (Eds.) Black Women's Liberatory Pedagogies (pp. 195–209). (London: Palgrave Macmillan) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65789-9_11

Optional

  • Henry Jenkins, “From Culture Jamming to Cultural Acupuncture,” in Marilyn DeLaure and Moritz Fink (Ed.) Culture Jamming: Activism and the Art of Cultural Resistance (New York: New York University Press, 2017).

  • Caesar McDowell and Melissa Yvonne Chinchilla, “Partnering with Communities and Institutions” in Eric Gordon and Paul Mihailidis (Eds.) Civic Media: Technology/Design/Practice (pp. 461–480) (Cambridge: MIT Press).

Day 4 (September 13): The Work of the Imagination

  • Alex Khasnabish and Max Haiven, “Lessons from Social Movements: Six Notes on the Radical Imagination,” in Truthout (August 9, 2014) http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25411-lessons-from-social- movements-six-notes-on-the-radical-imagination

  • Robin D. G. Kelley, “When History Sleeps” and “Dreams of the New Land,” inFreedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (pp. 1–12; 13–35) (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002).

  • Gianpaolo Baiocchi et al., “The Civic Imagination,” in The Civic Imagination: Making a Difference in American Political Life (pp. 52–76) (New York: Routledge, 2014).

  • Drucila Cornell and Stephen D. Seely, “What Has Happened to the Public Imagination and Why?” Global-e, 10(19). https://globalejournal.org/global-e/march-2017/what-has-happened-public-imagination-and-why

  • Henry Jenkins, Gabriel Peters-Lazaro and Sangita Shresthova “Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Foundations” in Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change (pp. 1–30) (New York: New York University Press, 2020).

  • Gabriel Peters-Lazaro and Sangita Shresthova. “Introduction” in Practicing Futures: A Civic Imagination Action Handbook (pp. 3–21) (New York, New York: Peter Lang Verlag).

Optional

  • Geoff Muligan, The Imaginary Crisis (and How We Might Quicken Social and Public Imagination (London: UCL STEaPP and Demos Helsinki, 2020)

  • Bridgit Antoinette Evans, “From Stories to Systems: Using A Narrative Systems Approach to Inform Narrative Change Strategy,” in Pop Culture Collaborative (2022)

  • Maya Rupert, “I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman,” in Maureen Johnson (Ed.) How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation (New York: Wednesday Press, 2018).

  • How Do You Like It So Far?: Warren Hedges on the Fantasy Roots of the Capital Insurrection https://www.howdoyoulikeitsofar.org/episode-81-warren-hedges-on-the-fantasy-roots-of-the-capital-insurrection/

First Paper Due

DAY 5 (September 20): Utopia and Dystopia

  • Steven Duncombe (2012). “Utopia is No Place: An Interview with Stephen Duncombe,” in Walker Art Center. https://walkerart.org/magazine/stephen-duncombe-utopia-open-field

  • Curtis Marez, “Farm Worker Futurisms in Speculative Culture,” in Farm Worker Futurism: Speculative Technologies of Resistance (pp. 119–153) (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016).

  • William Lempert, “Navajos on Mars: Native Sci-Fi Film Futures,” in Medium (2015, September 21) https://medium.com/space-anthropology/navajos-on-mars-4c336175d945

  • Isabel Delano, Mehitabel Glenhaber, Do Own (Donna) Kim, Paulina Lanz, Ioana Mischie, Tyler Quick, Khaliah Peterson-Reed, Christopher J. Persaud, Becky Pham, Rahul Reddy, Javier Rivera, Essence L. Wilson, Henry Jenkins & Sangita Shresthova (2022) “Flying cars and bigots: projecting post-COVID-19 worlds through the atlas of the civic imagination as refuge for hope”, Continuum, 36:2, 169-183, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2021.2003303

  • Ezra Klein Podcast, “An Inspiring Conversation About Democracy with Danielle Allen,” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/podcasts/the-daily/proud-boys-jan-6.html

In Class Activity: Atlas of the Civic Imagination

DAY 6 (September 27): Publics/Audiences and Participation

  • Sonia Livingstone, “On the Relationship Between Audiences and Publics,” in Sonia Livingstone (Ed.) Audiences and Publics: When Cultural Engagement Matters for the Public Sphere (pp. 17–41) (London: Intellect, 2005).

  • Zeynep Tufekci, “Censorship and Attention,” in Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest (pp. 28–48) (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017).

  • Patrisse Marie Cullors-Brignac, “We Didn’t Start a Movement. We Started a Network” (2016, February 22). (https://medium.com/@patrissemariecullorsbrignac/we-didn-t-start-a-movement-we- started-a-network-90f9b5717668#.4q060svov)

  • Zizi Papacherssi, “Affective Publics,” in Affective publics: Sentiment, Technologies, and Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)

  • Victoria Bernal, “Infopolitics and Sacrificial Citizenship: Sovereignty in the Spaces Beyond the Nation,” in Nation as Network: Diaspora, Cyberspace and Citizenship (pp. 29–54) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014).

Optional

  • Manuel Castells, “Networking Minds, Creating Meanings, Contesting Power,” in Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age (pp. 1–19) (New York: Polity, 2012)

  • Pierre Rosanvallon and Arthur Goldhammer, “Introduction,” in Counter-democracy: Politics in the Age of Mistrust (pp.1–27) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)

  • Michael Warner, (2002). Publics and Counterpublics. Public Culture, 14(1), 49–90. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-14-1-49

  • Christopher Kelty, “From Participation to Power,” in Aaron Delwiche and Jennifer Henderson (Eds.) The Participatory Cultures Handbook (pp. 22–31) (New York/London: Routledge, 2013).

DAY 7 (October 4)  Why Media Matters

Optional

*Media Prototype Due

In Class Activity: Students share case studies

DAY 8 (October 11): Monuments

  • James W. Carey, “A Cultural Approach to Communication,” in Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (pp. 11–28) (New York: Routledge, 1992).

  • Svetlana Boym, “Restorative Nostalgia” and “Reflexive Nostalgia,” The Future of Nostalgia (pp. 41–48; pp. 49–55)  (Boston: Basic Books, 2002). 

  • Karen L. Cox, “Introduction” and “Charleston, Charlottesville and Continued Challenges to Removal,” in No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice (pp. 1–11; pp. 149–167) (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021)

  • American History TV C-SPAN (2020, July 22), “Debating and Removing Monuments" [Video file] (https://youtu.be/NhtyJs_xUxE)

  • Alexandra Schwartz, “The Historian Scrutinizing Our Idea of Monuments,” in The New Yorker, March 3, 2022. (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/the-historian-scrutinizing-our-idea-of-monuments)

  • Brian S. Hood. “What Goes Wrong in Debates over Public Monuments,” in Social Science Quarterly, Vol.102 (3), p.1074-1083.

In Class Activity: Monuments from the Future Workshop

DAY 9 (October 18): Performance, Ritual, and the Body

  • Victor Turner (1974), "Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology." Rice Institute Pamphlet - Rice University Studies, 60, no. 3 https://hdl.handle.net/1911/63159.

  • José Esteban Muñoz, “Queers, Punks, and the Utopian Performative,” in 

  • Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (p. 97–114) (New York: New York University Press, 2009)

  • Sangita Shresthova, “Embodiment, Space & Empathy,” in Paul Mihailidis, Sangita Shresthova & Megan Fromm (Eds.), Transformative Media Pedagogies (pp. 33–37) (New York: Routledge, 2021), https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003031246

  • Aswin Punathambekar (2009), “Television, Participatory Culture, and Politics: The Case of Indian Idol,” Flow, 10(5). http://www.flowjournal.org/2009/08/television- participatory-culture-and-politics-the-case-of-indian-idol-aswin-punathambekar-the- university-of-michigan/

  • Sangita Shresthova, “Dance It, Film It, Share It: Exploring Participatory Dance and Civic Potential” in David Elliott, Marissa Silverman & Wayne Bowman (Eds.), Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis (pp.146–162) (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).

Optional

  • Barbara Ehrenreich, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy (New York: Holt, 2007).

  • Benjamin Shepard, "Notes Towards an Introduction" in Play, Creativity and Social Movements: If I Can't Dance, It's Not My Revolution (pp. 1–23) (New York: Routledge, 2011).

DAY 10 (October 25): Pedagogies

  • Paulo Freire, excerpt from Pedagogy of the Oppressed (M. Bergman Ramos, Trans.) (New York/London: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005) (Original work published in 1970).

  • Paulo Freire, excerpt from Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage (P. Clarke, Trans.) (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998).

  • bell hooks, ”Paulo Freire,” Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (pp. 45–58) (New York: Routledge, 1994).

  • Paul Mihailidis, Sangita Shresthova & Meg Fromm, “The Values of Transformative Media Pedagogies,” in Transformative Media Pedagogies (pp. 14–28) (New York: Routledge, 2021), https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003031246

  • Roman Gerodimos, “Authentic Encounters,” in Paul Mihailidis, Sangita Shresthova & Megan Fromm (Eds.), Transformative Media Pedagogies (pp. 38–49) (New York: Routledge, 2021), https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003031246

DAY 11 (November 1): Polarization

  • Honestly with Bari Weiss (2021), “Condoleezza Rice on Race, Russia, Freedom and Why America’s Best Days Are Still Ahead,” [Audio file] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/condoleezza-rice-on-race-russia-freedom-and-why/id1570872415?i=1000551866282

  • Braver Angels Podcast, “A Conservative Perspective on January 6th & the 2020 Election | Peter Wood with Ciaran O'Connor,” (2022, January 20) [Audio file].

https://braverangels.org/a-conservative-perspective-on-january-6th-the-2020-election-peter-wood-with-ciaran-oconnor/

  • Braver Angels Podcast, “Depolarization in the Age of Misinformation | Jonathan Rauch with David Blankenhorn & Ciaran O’Connor,” (2022, February 19) [Audio file].

https://braverangels.org/depolarization-in-the-age-of-misinformation/

  • Monica Guzman, “Introduction” and (one other chapter), in I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times (Dallas: BenBella Books, 2022).

  • Whitney Phillips and Ryan M . Milner, “The Gathering Storm,” in You are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories and Our Polluted Media Landscape (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2021).

  • Sarah Banet Weiser, “Introduction,” in Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny (Durham: Duke University Press, 2019).

  • The Daily (2022, June 9), “Proud Boys’ Path to Jan. 6” [Audio file and transcription] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/podcasts/the-daily/proud-boys-jan-6.html

Optional

  • W. Lance Bennett and Alexandra Segerberg, “The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics,” in E. Gordon & P. Mihailidis (Eds.), Civic Media: Technology/Design/Practice (pp. 77–105), (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2016).

  • danah boyd, “Learning All the Wrong Things”, in  DML 2017 Keynote [Video file], https://youtu.be/WWrD9wSsn3c

DAY 12 (November 8): Green Imagination

Optional

  • Joost Raessens, “Collapsus, or How to Make Players Become Environmental Citizens” and Jennifer Gabrys, “Sensing the Air and Experimenting with Environmental Citizenship,” in S. Lammes, J. Raessens, M. de Lange, R. Glas, & I. de Vries (Eds.), The Playful Citizen: Civic Engagement in a Mediatized Culture (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022).

DAY 13 (November 15): Feeding Civic Imagination

  • Donna Kim, Paulina Lanz and Sangita Shresthova. “Introduction”, in Feeding Civic Imagination Forum, Lateral (forthcoming).

  • JS, Passing Down and Following up: Jewish Cuisine’s Umbrella Potential, Feeding Civic Imagination Forum, Lateral (forthcoming).

  • BE, They Broke Bread with Sincere Hearts: Imagining New Gymnastics Cultures. Feeding Civic Imagination Forum, Lateral (forthcoming).

  • Iñaki Martínez de Albeniz, “Sweet Disturbances: Candy as Speculative Imagination for a Socially Grounded Memory” in Beth Forrest and Greg de St. Maurice (Eds.) Food in Memory and Imagination: Space, Place, and Taste (Massachusetts: Bloomsbury, 2022).

  • Gravy Podcast (2021, September 15), Migration: Making Meals and Homes in Alabama [Audio file] https://www.southernfoodways.org/gravy/migration-making-meals-and-homes-in-alabama/

Day 14  (November 24): Thanksgiving week (workshopping final projects)

Day 15 (November 29): Final Presentations

*Final Paper Due

Back to School Special: Imaginary Worlds

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This semester. I am teaching a large lecture class for the USC Cinema School focused on imaginary worlds and the craft of world-making. My core propositions are that there has been a shift across the entertainment industry towards more detailed, more fully elaborated worlds and towards undertanding franchising in terms of “worlds” and “universes.” As this happens, certain crafts, such as production design and costume design, take on new importante as they add so much information about the world, some of which is integrated into the narrative, some of which hints at other potential stories that pave the way for extensions. And certain contemporary filmmakers are more interested in their worlds than their stories, which does not totally break with the classical Hollywood system but does raise the possibility of other aesthetics and ways of watching, especially when coupled with greater control over the image flow and greater access to paratextual and metatextual information online.

The class starts with the prehistory of the cinema — with George Melies and the other magicians who saw film as an extension of their performances, with earlier immersive technologies including wax museums, panoramas and cycloramas, and magic lanterns, with the focus on travel across early films whether actualities or fantasies. From there, we will consider Thief of Bagdad as an immersive entertainment experience, thinking about it in the context of the age of movie palaces, theater orchestras, and live stage productions before movies. We will consider the tension between decorative and narrative use of setting in these early films. Across the term, I am interested in a comparative media approach, including the graphic Aerts, architecture, and various media. And we will be taking advantage of our LA location by bringing in all kinds of media professionals — especially art directors and costume designers, but also writers, game designers, activists and fans, etc. who will bring new perspectives to our appreciation of the worlds on screen.

There are more and more world building classes being taught, especially in the wake of Mark J. P. Wolf’s remarkable anthologies on sub creation and world-building. And I am making use of podcasts as secondary readings, especially episodes of Imaginary Worlds, a great podcast to which my course title pays tribute. So below you will see my syllabus which may give you some ideas about how to approach this topic.

The highlight of the course — other than my own stunning lectures, of course — are the guest speakers from our local industry — production designers, costume designers, game designers, writers, fans, and activists, etc. I am going to learn so much through these conversations. I had a great pre-interview last weekend with Rick Carter, who has done iconic work with Spielberg, Zemeckis, Abrams, and Cameron, among others and has two Oscars. I would love to hear from others teaching in this space. Write me at hjenkins@usc.edu.

CTCS 469: Imaginary Worlds

Prof. Henry Jenkins

Weds. 6-10pm

While the Cinema School rightfully stresses the importance of story in the Hollywood tradition, there has been an increasing recognition that worlds (and world-building) have always played important roles in shaping cinema and an aesthetic focused on rich world-building is central to understanding contemporary cinema movements around the world. In this class, we will be focusing primarily on forms of fantasy and speculative fiction to which world-building plays a central role, but we are also expanding outward to include historical fiction. We want to explore how the nature of world-building has changed through the years, how world building fits into the larger transmedia logics of the contemporary film industry, how media ranging from the architecture of movie palaces to contemporary games design has changed Hollywood’s world-building practices, why a focus on world-building helps us to better understand the creative contributions made by production designers and art directors, and why certain filmmakers are better received as world-builders rather than storytellers. Our class sessions will include frequent guest speakers, including production designers, art directors, costume designers, special effects artists, animators, and others. Screenings range from silent epics, such as Thief of Bagdad, to more contemporary works including Snowpiercer, Black Panther and Dune.

Henry Jenkins

ASC 101

Office Hours: By Appointment

For content questions: hjenkins@us .edu

For appointments: Amandafo@usc.edu (Amanda Ford)


Assignments:

Blackboard Forum: Each week students will write 2-3 paragraphs on the Blackboard Discussion Forum. These posts should reflect on points of comparison between the two films assigned for that week and should draw where appropriate on one or more assigned readings. Due Weds. afternoons by 3pm. (20 points)

Papers:

You can complete these assignments in any order but one should be due on each due date (Oct. 5, Oct. 20, Nov. 30) and all three topics should be addressed by the end of the term:

  1. Take one production design detail or costume and explain what it contributes to the film as a whole. (20 points)

  1. Visit one of the following exhibitions and share your thoughts on how it illuminates key issues from the class. Draw on course materials to provide some conceptual vocabulary for the assignment: (20 points)

  • Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum

  • Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Museum

  • Rick Carter, “Time,” El Segundo Museum of Art



  1. Write a close reading of the world-building practices deployed by one film from the class. Assess the world based on criteria from Mark J.P. Wolf’s “Worlds Within the World”. Discuss specific elements from the film to illustrate your ideas. (20 Points)

Take Home Final Exam: Due on the exam date for the class. (20 points)


Assigned Books:

Deborah Landis, Film Craft: Costume Design

Week 1 (Aug. 24) Attraction, Illusion and Immersion in Early and Silent Cinema

Before Class:

Reading:

  • Leah Lehmbeck, Britt Salveson, and Vanessa R. Schwartz, City of Cinema: Paris 1850-1907

  • Mark J. P. Wolf, “World Design,” Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds

Guest: Vanessa R. Schwartz

Screening: Thief of Bagdad (1924, Raoul Walsh, 140 min, William Cameron Menzies, Mitchell Leisen)


Week 2 (Aug. 31) The Work of Production Design

Before Class: Thief of Bagdad (1940, Michael Powell et al, 106 min, Vincent Korda, John Armstrong et al)

Reading:

  • Lily Alexander, “Mythology,” in The Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds

  • Lucy Fisher, “The Silent Screen,” Art Direction and Production Design

  • Charles Affron, “Set as Artifice,” Sets in Motion: Art Direction and Film Narrative


Recommended Resources:

Guests: Rick Carter

Screening: Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale, 75 min, Charles D. Hall, Vera West)


Week 3 (Sept. 7) The Work of Costume Design

Before Class:

Reading: Deborah Landis, Film Craft: Costume Design

Guests: Deborah Landis

Screening: Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming, 101 min, Cederic Gibbons, Adrian)


Week 4 (Sept. 14) The Wonderful Worlds of Oz

Before Class:

  • Return to Oz (1985, Walter Murch, 113 min, Norman Reynolds, Raymond Hughes)

  • Lost in Oz (2016, Craig George, 30 min)

Reading:

  • Henry Jenkins, “‘All Over the Map’: Building (and Rebuilding) Oz,” Revisiting Imaginary Worlds

  • Henry Jenkins, “Matter, Antimatter, Doesn’t Matter,” World-Builders on World-Building

  • Gerard Hynes, “Locations and Borders” and “Geography and Maps,” Jennifer Harwood-Smith, “Portals,” Companion to Imaginary Worlds

Recommended Resources: 

Guests: Mark Warshaw

Screening:

  • Belle et Bete (1942, Jean Cocteau, 93 min, Christian Bérard, Antonio Castillo)

  • Salome (1923, Charles Bryant and Alla Nazimova 74 min, Natacha Rambova)


Week 5 (Sept. 21) Modernism, Surrealism, and Imagination

Before Class: 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953, Roy Rowland, 114 min, Rudolph Sternad, Cary Odell)

Reading:

  • Jessica Aldred, “Authorship,” Companion to Imaginary Worlds

  • Lily Alexander, “Fictional World Building as Ritual, Drama and Medium,” Revisiting Imaginary Worlds

Recommended Resources: Henry Jenkins, “A Person’s a Person, No Matter How Small,” Where the Wild Ones Were

Guests: Junot Diaz, Patrick Tatopoulos

Screening: Jason and the Argonauts (1963, Don Chaffey, 104 min, Jack Maxsted, Toni Starzi-Braga)


Week 6 (Sept. 29) Imagining and Re-Imagining the Adventure Genre

Before Class: 2000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954, Richard Fleischer, 127 min, Harper Goff, Emile Kuri)

Reading:

  • David Bordwell, from Film Art: An Introduction (on functions)

  • Seth Barry Watter, “On the Concept of Setting: A Study of V.F. Perkins,” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Howard Rodman, Michael Green

Screening: The Masque of the Red Death (1964, Roger Corman, 90 min, Daniel Haller, Laura Nightingale)


Week 7 (Oct. 5) Camp, Pop and Excess in Film and Television

Before Class:

  • Batman (1966, Leslie Martinson, 104 min, Serge Krizman and Jack Martin Smith, Pat Barto)

  • Barbarella (1968, Roger Vadim, 98 min, Mario Garbuglia, Jacques Fonteray)

Reading:

  • William Urrichio and Roberta Pearson, “I’m Not Fooled By that Cheap Disguise,” Many More Lives of The Batman

  • Angelos Koutsourakis, “A Modest Proposal For Re-Thinking Cinematic Excess,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video

Recommended Resources:

  • Robin Blaetz, “The Auteur Renaissance,” Costume, Make-up and Hair

  • Henry Jenkins and Lynn Spigel, “Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel, The Many Lives of the Batman

Guests: Francois Audouy, Giovanna Melton, Marina Toybina

Screening: The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Irven Kirshner, 124 min, Norman Reynolds, John Mollo)


Week 8 (Oct. 12) World-Building in Spielberg and Lucas

Before Class: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg, 115 min, Leslie Dilley and Joe Jackson, Deborah Nadoolman)

Reading: 

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Richard LeMarchand, James Bissell 

Screening: Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott, 117 min, Lawrence Paull, Michael Kaplan and Charles Knode )


Week 9 (Oct. 20) Speculative Fiction and the Art of World-Building

Before Class: Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg, 145 min, Alex McDowell, Deborah Lynn Scott)

Read:

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Alex McDowell

Screening: The Fellowship of the Rings (2001, Peter Jackson, 178 min, Grant Major, Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor)


Week 10 (Nov. 2) Establishing, Expanding, and Sharing Worlds

Before Class: Pirates of the Caribbean: At The World’s Edge (2007, Gore Verbinski, 167 min, Rick Heinricks, Cheryl Carasik)

Reading: 

  • Mark J. P. Wolf, “Invented Cultures,” Benjamin H. Robinson, “History and Timelines,” and “World Completeness,” Companion of Imaginary Worlds

  • Dan Hassler-Forest,  “World Building and Convergence Culture,” Science Fiction, Fantasy and Politics

  • James Castonguay, “The Modern Entertainment Marketplace, 2000-Present,” Costume, Make-up and Hair

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Wynn Thomas; Bo Welch

 

Screening: Gangs of New York (2002, Martin Scorsese, 167 min, Dante Ferretti, Sandy Powell)


Week 11 (Nov. 9) World Building in Historical Fiction and Action Cinema

Before Class: John Wick (2014, Chad Stahiski, 101 min, Dan Leigh, Susan Bode)

Reading:

Screening: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011, Rupert Wyatt, 105 min, Claude Parre, Renee April)


Week 12 (Nov. 14) Solarpunk and Fictional Environments

Before Class: Spirited Away (2001, Hayao Miyazaki, 125 min, Norobu Yoshida)

Reading:  

Guests: Lauren Baumaroun, Stefan Dechant

Screening: Black Panther (2018, Ryan Coogler, 134 min, Hannah Bechler, Ruth E. Carter)


Nov. 23: Thanksgiving Holiday


Week 13 (Nov. 30) Afrofuturism, Fan Activism and Global Culture

Before Class: Snowpiercer

Reading: 

  • Kara Kennedy, “The Softer Side of Dune,” Exploring Imaginary Worlds

  • Scott Bukatman, “The Wakandan Dream,” Black Panther

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Panel of contemporary film costume designers (Deborah Landis), Terry Marshall


Screening: Dune (2021, Denis Villeneuve, 156 min, Patrice Vermette, Bob Morgan and Jacqueline West)