PSC315 Politics and Media: Mass Persuasion (Fall, Spring)

PSC315 Politics and Media: Mass Persuasion (Fall, Spring)

This course investigates the power of news journalism to persuade audiences and shape public perception. It is designed especially for the study abroad context, examining global news as a form of mass persuasion about international politics, more than domestic politics or election campaigns. Understanding mass persuasion requires delving into the psychology of mass audiences and national cultures, and even into our own minds. It also requires looking critically at the industries and technologies of news journalism as vehicles for mass persuasion, and analysing global news reporting to expose the most typical persuasive techniques used in shaping political views and values. Three categories comprise the main units of this course:

  • The minds of news consumers,
  • The industries of news production, and
  • The texts of news reporting.

Global political topics covered range from conflict and security, to development and inequality, and humanitarian aid and human rights. This course will likely raise many questions for students about their political identity and values, and how deeply they may be bound up with ideas about nation and national identity. Fundamentally, this is a course on political epistemology—how we know what we think we know about international politics and the part one’s nation plays in it. Like travelling abroad, much of the work involves consistently putting oneself in the position of “the other,” examining one’s own assumptions from the outside looking in. This shifting of position, as we will see, also poses a challenge to the very notion of “objectivity,” the supposed gold-standard of professional journalism. Is there a universal definition of what it means to be “objective”?

Most semesters, registration limited (including minors) to only one Political Science class (PSC prefix and courses cross-listed with PSC) except for Political Science majors. Check the current semester’s Schedule of Classes for more information.

MUI408 Music Industry Practicum: The Global Workplace (Fall, Spring)

Open only to Music Industry majors and minors who have committed to an internship by the published deadline. This course is designed to guide students’ professional development during experience in the London workforce. Participation in the course will equip students with the practical skills needed to thrive in a globalised world of work—as well as the theoretical background and critical thinking abilities necessary to reflect on their position in that interconnected system.

This course must be taken for a letter grade. Internship placements typically require a commitment of two days per week. Students initially registered for BPS400 and update their registration following the Add Deadline once abroad.

Prereq: MUI 205 and MUI 206

Course Restriction: Open only to music industry majors and minors who have committed to an internship by the published deadline.

HST474 A History of London in Eleven Objects (Fall, Spring)

This course is an object-led study of the history of London through some of London’s most important art. Examining a selection of nine paintings, one sculpture set and one building, this course will introduce students to a variety of ways in which objects tell their stories and, by extension, what those objects say about the history of the city where they are housed. Each week, students will learn about an artist and their context in class, while also tracing the history of a specific object in London up to the present day. While London has had its share of world-class artists and architects, many of the works studied in this course were not made in London. How did London accumulate these objects? Why were they brought or made here? Most importantly, what do these objects tell us about the history of London as the world’s most global city?

This course may also be registered under HOA 474.

Most semesters, registration limited (including minors) to only one History of Art class (HOA prefix and courses cross-listed with HOA) except for art history majors. Check the current semester’s Schedule of Classes for more information.

CRS300.2 Performance Live: London (Fall, Spring)

Performance Live: London invites you to question what ‘performance’ might be and to become more aware of yourself as a spectator in all your experiences of viewing, listening, and sensing. The course helps you develop methods for thinking and feeling a performance, starting with your expectation of it, through the moments of experiencing it, and finally in the afterglow of its happening. Examining the work of artists in fields such as music, theatre, dance, and interdisciplinary art forms, we will question and apply models of critical response, comparing and contrasting how they work with different types of performance. The aim is to help you build an analytical vocabulary for the discussion of performance, finding different and diverse ways to communicate your reflections, as both a member of a collective audience and as an individual spectating subject. Weekly attendance at musical events is required.

Course note: Some seats may be reserved for Drama students, Bandier Program students, and Music Industry majors.

This course has an associated course fee. See the London Course Fees page for more information.

HOA473 London Museums: Art, History and Science in Contemporary Culture (Fall, Spring)

Through the study of London’s outstanding array of museums and galleries, and in particular Art collections, students will familiarize with museum-related debates, museum curatorial practice, and museum-skills generally. Students will analyse major art-historical and sociological themes from the perspective of both museum-goers (the public) and museum insiders (curators, restorers, trustees etc.). We shall be asking, for example, in what way have Museums evolved since the 19th century? How are public/state museums different from private ones? How do museums influence our appreciation and understanding of objects? Do museums have similar attitudes to conservation? What are blockbuster exhibitions? Etc. Students will further benefit from guest lectures and discussions with curators and directors from London’s most important museums. Weekly visits to museums will enable students to test theories put forward in class in front of original works and within specifically designed environments.

Most semesters, registration limited (including minors) to only one History of Art class (HOA prefix and courses cross-listed with HOA) except for art history majors. Check the current semester’s Schedule of Classes for more information.

HOA372 The Business of Art (Spring)

Physical works of art, in addition to being some of the most significant cultural manifestations produced by man, are also an important commercial product. This course offers an introduction to the practice and strategies of art as a tradable commodity. Topics to be discussed include the ethics of collecting, investment strategies, the conservation and preservation of art, and art-related crime with its impact on the art market. Visits may include artist studios, museums, commercial galleries, and auction houses.

Most semesters, registration limited (including minors) to only one History of Art class (HOA prefix and courses cross-listed with HOA) except for art history majors. Check the current semester’s Schedule of Classes for more information.

HOA474 A History of London in Eleven Objects (Fall, Spring)

This course is an object-led study of the history of London through some of London’s most important art. Examining a selection of nine paintings, one sculpture set and one building, this course will introduce students to a variety of ways in which objects tell their stories and, by extension, what those objects say about the history of the city where they are housed. Each week, students will learn about an artist and their context in class, while also tracing the history of a specific object in London up to the present day. While London has had its share of world-class artists and architects, many of the works studied in this course were not made in London. How did London accumulate these objects? Why were they brought or made here? Most importantly, what do these objects tell us about the history of London as the world’s most global city?

This course may also be registered under HST 474.

Most semesters, registration limited (including minors) to only one History of Art class (HOA prefix and courses cross-listed with HOA) except for art history majors. Check the current semester’s Schedule of Classes for more information.

HOA208 An Architectural History of London (Fall, Spring)

Within an outline history of western architecture, London’s architecture developed, from Roman times to the present, and includes the influences of Italy, France, and later, America. All cities are unique and London developed around two centres, two miles apart, along the River Thames. The original walled city, founded by the Romans nearly 2000 years ago, is now a world centre of finance and commerce. At the West End the once monastic settlement of Westminster is where Monarchy, State, and Church now preside. Weekly class lectures are paired with related visits, including the British Museum, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Whitehall Banqueting Hall, Somerset House, Lloyds of London, National Gallery, and Royal Opera House. Some are incorporated in walks in both the City of London, and the West End.

Most semesters, registration limited (including minors) to only one History of Art class (HOA prefix and courses cross-listed with HOA) except for art history majors. Check the current semester’s Schedule of Classes for more information.

Students in the Architecture special program are restricted from this course.

This course has an associated course fee. See the London Course Fees page for more information.

FIL416 British Masculinity On Screen: James Bond and Sherlock Holmes (Fall, Spring)

Sherlock Holmes and James Bond instantly evoke particular ideas about British masculinity: an uncannily intuitive intellectual not averse to bouts of cocaine use, and the suave, globe-trotting spy with a license to kill. 2015 marked the release of Spectre, the 24th iteration of the most successful film franchise in cinema history. Likewise, Conan Doyle’s creation is in rude health, having been the recent subject of a high-profile exhibition at the Museum of London, and the centre of two successful contemporary television adaptations, BBC’s Sherlock, and CBS’s Elementary. Just as Baker Street remains a perennial tourist attraction for Sherlockians, so too has London’s tourist industry embraced an army of fans eager to retrace the footsteps of the latest — and controversially blond — Bond, Daniel Craig. This course investigates what on-screen adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond have to say about the construction of British masculinity. Providing close readings of key examples of Sherlock and Bond adaptations, we will explore issues of gender and sexuality, class, race, ethnicity and nationhood in the construction of hegemonic and “other” British masculinity on screen. In tandem, we will explore the ever-changing places that Sherlock and Bond occupy in British film and television culture.

This course may also be registered as QSX/WGS 416, and counts towards the Film and Screen Studies track for SU English and Textual Studies majors.

ENG430.1 Reading Pictures, Seeing Stories (Fall, Spring)

This interdisciplinary seminar is about looking—close looking at works of art as well as literary texts. Prioritizing seeing over knowing, this unconventional course works back and forth between the classroom and the gallery. About a third of class time is spent on-site in different London museums and galleries, engaging with specific works. Painting, photography, sculpture, and installation are all in the mix, along with a variety of shorter literary and theoretical texts (the one novel being Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse).

The lively discussion in “Reading Pictures, Seeing Stories” is guided by participants’ interests. Over the course of the semester, students develop the skills and discover the pleasures of looking closely at works of art, visual and verbal. From their engagement with works of art in situ through individual seeing, thinking, and writing exercises, they also gain confidence in working in and analyzing a variety of public art institutions. The result is a genuinely hands-on London course, one which past students have remembered decades afterwards.

No prior knowledge of visual art is expected (this is not an art history course). Students from all disciplines are welcome; those from Architecture and Studio Arts are especially encouraged to join.