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Dr. Paul Mullins Office: Cavanaugh 413B; phone 317-274-9847 Office Hours: Monday 1:303:00, Tuesdays 4:00-6:00 and by appt. |
Course Outline Popular culture has been taken to encompass
almost everything in public space from everyday Medieval life to Homer Simpson's
philosophical reflections. Some scholars consider popular culture to be
focused on the lives of "ordinary people"; others see it as a commercial
phenomenon rooted in mass media; and some celebrate it as an expression of mass
consumer resistance. In this course we approach
popular culture as a body of widely shared and contested beliefs, practices, and
material objects that presents ordinary social life’s extraordinary
possibilities: the "popular" accents the potentially remarkable dimensions of
"ordinary" practices, such as style, literature, and music. In this sense,
popular culture mirrors real life, but it is a distorted and selective
reflection that presents familiar realities in their most spectacular forms.
Popular culture illuminates how we are all ordinary yet desire to be
extraordinary or can at least envision extraordinary possibilities within ourselves. |
| Until quite recently, anthropologists were somewhat ambivalent about popular culture. Ethnographers and archaeologists have been among a century of scholars scrutinizing the spread of Western social, cultural, and material practices throughout the world, but many anthropologists were dismayed by the arrival of Western popular practices and commodities that apparently spelled the death rites of traditional cultures. Anthropologists tended to observe a notion of culture as unified and bounded sets of practices rooted in discrete social collectives and see our subjects as "Others" whose lives and stable sociocultural heritage contrasted with the dynamicism of the Western world. Increasingly, though, anthropologists have led a broad scholarly charge examining globalization, transnationalism, and the social and material blurring of boundaries between groups that has tempered the facile opposition of Other to the West and the suggestion that anthropologists appropriately should study the "Other." Contemporary popular culture research is thoroughly interdisciplinary, international, and sophisticated, and anthropology brings to this research an ethnographic commitment to illuminating peoples' experiences, contextualizing them in a breadth of forms, and assessing the complex material dimensions of popular culture. |
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The Facts of Life Undergraduate students' final grade will be based on attendance (10%); a class presentation on a course reading (10%); an article review (10%); a band web page analysis (20%); a selfies page analysis (20%); and a term paper (30%). Participation in class discussion and attendance at lecture are key to comprehension. All students who attend class and do not miss more than one meeting will receive the full ten points toward attendance. If you miss two class meetings two points will be deducted from your attendance score (i.e., you would receive eight attendance points); miss three days and four points will be deducted from the final score (six); miss four and get a four on attendance; miss five or more and you will not receive any credit for attendance. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class meeting on a course roster that circulates through class. If you come in late, you must ensure that you sign this roster at the end of class; at the end of the semester I will not negotiate over the days you actually attended but forgot to sign the attendance roster. Please do not plan to leave the class early or at the break and expect to receive attendance credit. An excused absence is a documented illness (i.e., a physician's note, not simply sniffles in the next class or sounding really crappy on the phone) or an absence for participation in an Athletic Department-excused event. I will be reasonably forgiving about things over which you have no control, like chronic illness and sick children. I will negotiate these things on a case-by-case basis, but please let me know immediately via email and do not plan to barter over these absences at semester's end. |
| All readings in the class are
online. Some required readings will be on the class'
Oncourse page, and other
readings are available on ebrary or journal web pages. We will discuss readings
weekly in a classroom discussion led by students. You are responsible for reading each week's articles
prior to their discussion in class; please let me know if you have any
problems accessing readings online.
At some point in the semester, each student will present a selection of the readings assigned in the same night (10% of your final grade). The readings page will include all readings and indicates the class members who will present those readings. You must prepare a Powerpoint on the reading to present in class. You should expect to direct the class' discussion of the reading: your review should minimally be about 15 minutes. Anybody who does not complete the Powerpoint presentation will not receive credit for the reading. You can volunteer to present any reading of your choosing on a first-come, first-serve basis; any students who do not sign up by the second class will be assigned a reading. Anybody who does not attend on the night of their reading will receive no credit unless they have a substantial excuse. |
The term paper will examine a popular cultural subject using the anthropological insights presented during the semester. You will be expected to produce a paper at least 10 double-spaced pages in length that refers to course readings and outside literature (graduate student papers must be 15 pages or you can skip the web page exercises and turn in a 25-page paper). Paper topics are due by SEPTEMBER 23; any topics that are not approved at this time may be rejected at semester's end. Anybody who does not turn in a paper proposal SEPTEMBER 23 will have a full letter grade deducted from the final grade on their term paper. The papers must draw on scholarly literature and popular literature (e.g., newspapers, MTV, etc.); regardless of eloquence, no postmodern musings without citations or structure will be acceptable. A detailed guide to preparation and format of the paper is on the term paper page. Any papers that are not turned in by the due date will be penalized significantly.
| If you cannot complete an assignment on
time for any reason, you should contact me as soon as possible. I can always
be contacted before or after class, you can schedule an appointment, and I
check my email virtually everyday. Late assignments will be penalized a letter grade each day if you do not negotiate an extension with me beforehand. You may email me late assignments, but please provide other assignments to me in paper form. You also can leave assignments in my mailbox in the Anthropology Department in Cavanaugh Hall. Even if you miss a due date, contact me so that you can complete a partial credit makeup: to miss any assignments is, at best, mathematically ill-advised. This syllabus includes deadlines for all assignments and test dates: it is your responsibility to know when assignments are due and tests are scheduled. There will not be any extra credit material. If you do not complete course work by semester's end you will not pass the course unless you have a substantial reason for tardiness. You can monitor your grades over the semester at Oncourse.
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All work in the course is conducted in accordance with the University’s academic misconduct policy. Cheating includes dishonesty of any kind with respect to exams or assignments. Plagiarism is the offering of someone else’s work as your own: this includes taking un-cited material from books, web pages, or other students, turning in the same or substantially similar work as other students, or failing to properly cite other research. If you are suspected of any form of academic misconduct you will be called in for a meeting at which you will be informed of the accusation and given adequate opportunity to respond. A report will be submitted to the Dean of Students, who will decide on further disciplinary action. Please consult the University Bulletin’s academic misconduct policy or me if you have any questions. |
Be absolutely certain to keep a copy of any emailed assignments you send to me should the email disappear or not arrive at my end, and save every single assignment in two places until grades have been assigned: Don't just save it on your laptop or one thumb drive, since they can crash, get lost, or be purloined by somebody who undervalues your commitment to education, and do not delete assignments instantly after their due date until their grades have been posted to Oncourse. Even if you miss a due date, contact me so that you can complete a partial credit makeup. Even if it is embarrassing to acknowledge that you simply forgot an assignment due date or your boss unexpectedly demanded a long shift when you planned to do the assignment, please come see me and I will do my very best to resolve it in some way that doesn't mean you receive no credit at all.
The Office of Adaptive Educational Services (AES) ensures that students with disabilities receive appropriate accommodations from the University and their professors. Students must register with the AES office in order to receive such services.
Portable electronic devices, such as cell phones, pagers, two-ways, and PDA’s, should be turned off before entering the classroom. You can use a laptop in class for note-taking but should silence it; do not surf the web in class or listen to iTunes. Let me know in advance if you carry around a communication device for familial reasons (e.g., pregnancy monitoring, disabled family, or contact with kids--not to stay in touch with a significant other who just loves your voice, buddies planning a pub crawl, and so on). Anyone whose electronic device continually disturbs class will be asked to meet with me if they cannot remember to silence themselves.
The classroom is a safe speech situation in which it is your responsibility to treat other classmates fairly and with mutual respect, even if they have the audacity to disagree with you, champion an opinion that is inconsistent with your worldview, or simply bore you. Anyone who talks when someone else is talking, is hostile, or otherwise violates classroom etiquette (e.g., does other homework, reads the newspaper) will be considered to be in violation of this policy. Students who fail to adhere to these guidelines will be asked to meet with me.
The course material includes material from a variety of popular discourses that may strike some of us as crass or tasteless. It is perfectly reasonable to be offended by some popular symbolism or find the latest new band talentless or just vulgar, and I definitely do not think that "shock value" is a useful teaching tool. Please always try to think reflectively about why such symbolism is acceptable to at least some marketers, if not our neighbors, even if we may find that symbolism unpleasant.
All work in this course is intended to fulfill the University's Principles of Undergraduate Learning. The class focuses on critical, self-reflective thinking, integrates knowledge from a variety of disciplinary and sociocultural perspectives, examines social and cultural complexity, and probes the impact of knowledge on our everyday decision-making. Do let me know if the course does not satisfy any of the missions included in the Principles.
A basic requirement of this course is that you will participate in class and conscientiously complete writing and reading assignments. If you miss more than half our class meetings within the first four weeks of the semester without contacting me, you will be administratively withdrawn from this section. If you miss more than four classes in the first four weeks, you may be withdrawn. Administrative withdrawal may have academic, financial, and financial aid implications. Administrative withdrawal will take place after the full refund period, and if you are administratively withdrawn from the course you will not be eligible for a tuition refund. If you have questions about the administrative withdrawal policy at any point during the semester, please contact me.
Graduate students will be taking the class alongside undergraduates and will do the same coursework assigned to those students. However, your paper will be a minimum of 20 pages in length.
A- 89-91
B+ 86-88
B 82-85
B- 79-81
C+ 76-78
C 70-75
D 60-69
F 0-60
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The course readings are available online. Many are available as electronic books that are free to all IUPUI students at ebrary. To access ebrary connect to the IUPUI university Library electronic resources and scroll down to ebrary. Click on ebrary; if you have not already logged in with your IUPUI password you will prompted to do so. You also can click directly on the book title in the syllabus below and you will be taken directly to the book (and prompted to log in if you have not already done so). Additional required readings are available on Oncourse; full citations and where you can find each week's readings are included in the reading schedule. Readings will be discussed in weekly discussions and included in test material, and they should be cited in your term paper. We are using several chapters out of Simon Frith's now out-of-print Sound Effects, which is available online for as cheap as you can photocopy a handful of chapters. Readings for the review essay are on Oncourse. You will be responsible for reading any one of the review essay readings and preparing a written review of the paper. You may choose to use one of these review essay papers for your paper, but you will NOT be responsible for reading the essays that you do not choose for your review essay. |
NO CLASS August 26
September 2
Ways to Think about Popular Culture: Society's distorted mirror
September 9
Anthropology and Popular Culture: is there Culture in mass culture?
September 16
Subculture and musical politics
Term paper topic proposal due September 23
September 23
Horatio Alger with a drawl: Southern history and Southern Culture
BAND WEB PAGE ANALYSIS DUE SEPTEMBER 30
September 30
"White Trash": Racializing Class in the South
October 7
Race and Popular Culture
Ron Eglash, "Race, Sex, and Nerds: From Black Geeks to Asian American Hipsters" Social Text 71(2):49-64.
October 14
Synthesis in Popular Culture: Who Makes Popular Culture?
NO CLASS OCTOBER 21 FALL BREAK
October 28
Young and Beautiful: Video, Cinema, and the Aesthetics of Popular Culture
NO CLASS November 4
SELFIES ANALYSIS EXERCISE Due November 11
November 11
Body as subject: The ambiguities of sexuality and gender in popular culture
November 18
Dead Elvis: Popular Culture as Religion
November 25
The Cult of Elvis: Civil Religion and Elvis Memories
THANKSGIVING BREAK NOVEMBER 26-30
December 2
More Real than Real: the impersonators and Life after Death
December 9
Course Wrap-Up
Review readings
You may choose any one of these readings for your review essay. These readings are on Oncourse or can be directly linked to from this page. You are NOT responsible for reading articles that you do not choose to review. Visit the review guidelines page for full directions.
Adams, Ruth
2008 The Englishness of English Punk: Sex Pistols, Subcultures, and Nostalgia. Popular Music and Society 31(4):469–488. Oncourse
Bennett, Andy
1999 Subcultures or Neo-Tribes? Rethinking the Relationship between Youth, Style, and Musical Taste. Sociology 33(3):599-617.
Clouse, Abby
2008 Narratives of Value and the Antiques Roadshow: "A Game of Recognitions." The Journal of Popular Culture 41(1):3-20.
Cubbison, Laurie
2012 Russell
T Davies, “Nine Hysterical Women,” and the Death of Ianto Jones.
In New Media Literacies and Participatory
Popular Culture Across Borders, eds. Bronwyn
Williams and Amy A. Zenger, pp.
135-150. Taylor and Francis,
Florence, KY. Ebrary
Duffett, Mark
2003 False
Faith or False Comparison? A Critique of the Religious Interpretation of Elvis
Fan Culture. Popular Music and Society 26(4):513-522. Oncourse
Genter, Robert
2007 "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility": Cold War Culture and the Birth of Marvel Comics. The Journal of Popular Culture 40(6):953-978. Oncourse
Lawrence Grossberg
2013 " Identity and Cultural Studies: Is That All There Is?" In Questions of Cultural Identity, eds. Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, pp.87-107 (SAGE Publications, 2013). Ebrary
Henry, Matthew
2007 "Don't Ask Me, I'm Just a Girl": Feminism, Female Identity, and The Simpsons. The Journal of Popular Culture 40(2):272-303. Oncourse
McLeod, Ken
2006 "We are the Champions": Masculinities, Sports and Popular Music. Popular Music and Society 29(5):531-547. Oncourse
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Dr. Mullins |
Last updated July 28, 2014
