UNIVERSITY OF MAINE**********************************UNDERGRADUATE COURSE APPROVAL

Peace and Pop Culture Syllabus

Course Description: This course incorporates case studies and creative expression by active artist-peace builders working in different media throughout the World. Students will investigate the sources, causes, processes and products that reside at the intersection of peace and popular culture. Students will interpret, analyze and evaluate examples from art, music, poetry, literature, museums, gardens, trails, film, television, magazine, cartoon, radio, Internet, video game, and comic book publishing industries. Satisfies the General Education Social Context and Institutions and Artistic and Creative Expression and Writing Intensive Requirements. 3 credits.

Questions students will investigate:

1. What is the relationship between popular culture and peace?

2. Is the momentum of popular culture directed toward glorifying violence rather than non-violence? Why? So what?

3. If pop culture leads us away from peace, what alternative values would assist humanity in the achievement of peace?

4. How can popular culture help build relationships that contribute to non-violent social change?

5. In the aftermath of violence, how can artists help restore people’s capacities to imagine, listen, create and build relationships of trust?

6. What “upstream approach” to Peace Studies means and why is it important?

Learning Outcomes:

1. Students will understand how popular culture functions in relation to positive peace action in government, business and education.

2. Students will interpret, analyze and evaluate primary and secondary sources in popular culture to determine how peace and pop culture shape each other.

3. Students will investigate how public demand for freedom from war and violence influences music, film, television, radio, video game, and book and comic book publishing industries, and visa versa.

4. Using examples from this course, students will articulate how a culture of war can be transformed into a culture of peace by positive socio-political action at the intersection of peace and popular culture.

5. Through regular reactions and responses students will articulate how the popular culture of a society can influence human behavior toward violence and destruction or empathy and peace.

6. Students will demonstrate an awareness of artistic/creative intentions in aesthetic practices developed in popular culture to promote a culture of peace.

7. Students will develop the skills and intellectual tools required to make and understand artistic and creative decisions related to peace and pop culture.

8. Students will evaluate artistic and creative forms of expression related to creating a culture of peace.

9. Through regular reactions and responses students will engage in critical thinking and creative processes related to peace and popular culture.

10. Students will discover how the sources and products of pop culture impact the causes of, and movement towards, a culture in which peace is popular. When pop culture leads us away from peace, students will explore alternative activities that would help achieve peace.

Faculty Information: Dr. James F. Toner, Telephone 581-4090, jim.toner@umit.maine.edu

Instructional Materials and Methods: With the exception of science fiction novel Forever Peace (Remembering Tomorrow) by Joe Halderman, all instructional materials are available online. This includes the Elements of Style by William Strunk, and Notes on ‘The Gaze’: John Berger’s Ways of Seeing by Daniel Chandler. The following additional sources are suggested references available on URSUS: Pop Art by Lucy Lippard, Pop Art: A Critical History by Steven Henry Madoff, and Ways of Seeing by John Berger. The method of instruction is seminar. Course is divided into 12 lessons. Each lesson requires the following class participation (1) a student’s formal reaction to content and (2) student’s formal response to another student’s reaction. Graded class participation evaluates student’s ability to reflectively inquire, interpret, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, create and perhaps participate in socio-political action.

Grading and Course Expectations:

24 reaction & response essays (see Appendix 2): 40%

Test #1 15%

Test #2 20%

Test #3 25%

Total 100%

Course Infrastructure and Access

This course uses both FirstClass and WebCT and requires a fast connection to the Internet, e.g. cable or DSL. Please direct all technical questions to help@umit.maine.edu

Lessons 1-12: It is critical that Peace Studies incorporate explorations of what popular culture tells about cultural understandings of the efficacy of violence, the gendered implications of peace and war, historical roots of violence, dehumanization and stereotyping. Popular culture can be understood in many ways, e.g. as representing the dream life of the nation, as political and moral influences, sometimes negative, sometimes positive, and as a repository of collective beliefs and values influenced by gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, disability, religion and/or sexual orientation.

1. What is popular culture and why is it important to peace?

Popular Culture: A Definition

Textual, Historical, Audiences, Production, Cultural Imperialism

“Ways of Seeing” Pop Art

Visit and evaluate sources on popular culture

Browse The Center for the Study of Popular Culture

Browse NPR Popular Culture

“A Conversation with a Floundering Father,” Arthur Asa Berger, Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture 1900 to present

Browse The Journal of Popular Culture

Browse Popular Culture Database: General, Film, Television, Popular fiction, Authors, Journals, Magazines and Publications

Writing expectations – The Elements of Style by William Strunk

2. Peace Plans and Advocacy: Illustrations in Popular Culture