| Syllabus | Schedule | Assignments | Attendance | Contract |
Syllabus, English 597Hello! This course is called called "Digital Diversity." The issues of cultural diversity in relation to new technologies have been tangential to most discussions, both academic and popular, for too long. As more of our workplace, educational, and informational resources go on-line, it becomes critical to interrogate what kinds of diversity the World Wide Web supports and what it ignores or erases.The
purpose of this course is to analysis diversity (issues of
race,
ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality... to name a few) in relation
to
computer technologies. This course takes a rhetorical perspective --
examining
the claims that are made about these new technologies and seeing
if such
claims are valid. Questions we will consider: Who uses these
technologies
-- who has access, who is promised access, and what might
that mean? Will
users really leave behind their race, their gender, class,
or sexuality
as they interact on-line? If more and more of our
communication is virtual
and digital, what will that mean for our situated
bodies on this side of
the screen? In addition to critiquing the rhetoric
surround new technologies,
we will also explore what potential might exist
for these new forums to
allow for the expression of non-dominant
discourses.
0415921635, 1999, Routledge Perelman, Michael Class Warfare in the Information Age 03122477x, 2000, St. Martin's Press Eisenstein, Zillah, R. Global Obscenities: Patriarchy, Capitalism, and the Lure of Cyberfantasy 0814722067, 1998, New York University Press Schon, Donald A. edt High Technology and Low Income Communities: Prospects for the positive use of advanced information technology 026269199x, 1998, MIT Press Berger, Maurice. White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness 0374527156. 2000. Farrar Strais & Giroux Selected Essays There will be other readings as assigned. Essays and online readings. |