CMS 572 A: Historiography

This course, designed for graduate students in Cinema and Media Studies and related disciplines, introduces a variety of methodological approaches to the history of media technology. We will ask how new media technologies emerge, how these technologies obtain stable cultural meanings, and how media technology structures human communication Readings and discussions will focus on Media Archeology, a set of methods that push against linear and progressivist narratives of media emergence, often by focusing on failed or forgotten technologies. The class will also stage encounters between Media Archeology and other approaches from Film History, Science and Technology Studies, Cultural Studies, and Infrastructure Studies. We will remain especially attentive to the influence of Michel Foucault on all of these methods, and to the distinction between his “archeological” and “genealogical” approaches.

Full syllabus with readings list here: Word   |    PDF