Intro to Media Studies

Last Updated: Tue, 01/13/2026
Course prefix:
LMC
Course number:
2400
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

Media shapes reality—but who shapes media? Humans are the first medium; every story, symbol, and system shapes who we are. This course examines the nature of media, its co-evolution with cultural systems, its role in power, and its influence on our future. From ancient myths to AI-generated worlds, we will explore how media define humanity and expand (or limit) what is possible.

Course Overview

If humans are the first medium, every story, symbol, and system rewires us—constitutions, scriptures, and memes alike are program updates to human. This course examines media as an active force that shapes perception, distributes power, and scripts the future. We will investigate its nature, its entanglement with consciousness, and its capacity to redraw reality, tracing how media from ancient myths to AI-generated worlds define humanity and set the boundaries of the possible. Media theory is not observation; it is intervention. You are expected to engage fully with readings, discussions, and projects as live parts of a shared system; contribute to culture by creating work that did not exist before; think critically and act deliberately by testing frameworks, questioning assumptions, and tracking consequences; and work the loop—readings, assignments, rubrics, and mood tracking feeding and depending on each other. By the end of this course, you will be able to analyze media as both a tool for thought and a cultural system; trace its co-evolution with consciousness, power, and possibility; apply theoretical frameworks to current and emerging media forms; and create media artifacts that actively intervene in cultural narratives.
 

Course learning outcomes:

How the Course Works

Think of this class as a living loop:

  1. Readings introduce concepts and perspectives.
  2. Assignments transform those concepts into original work.
  3. Rubrics clarify expectations and evaluate outcomes.
  4. Mood Tracking captures our collective state and informs adjustments.

This cycle repeats—each stage feeding the next—so the course evolves as both a learning environment and a cultural system.

Grade Breakdown:

  • Weekly Reading Responses: 25%
  • Discussion Leader: 20%
  • Short Paper 1 (Media-History): 15%
  • Short Paper 2 (Spacing/Presence): 15%
  • Final Project (Sankofa Futures): 25%

The Course Journey: 6 Acts of Discovery

Meaning is a provisional pattern, [stabilizing] through repeated <practice>: <text> → <code> → <interface> → <platform> → <public> → <culture> → <human> → <text> Meaning is never fixed; it’s always [deferred], [re-staged], and [remediated] by media we both produce and are produced by.

  1. Act I: Origins — Humans Were Always Media (Wks 2-4)
  • Stakes: Identity. Core Idea: We didn’t get media — we became them. Media made us human.
  1. Act II: Seeing Like a Medium (Wks 5-7)
  • Stakes: Reality, belonging, perception. Core Idea: Every apparatus tells us what is real. Cameras, broadcasts, feeds: each claims objectivity, each encodes bias. Every frame is already a program.
  1. Act III: Sensing and Ritualizing (Wk 8)
  • Stakes: Mind, attention, knowledge. Core Idea: Media retrain our bodies — our listening, our silence, our rituals of belonging. Attention is not natural; it’s engineered.
  1. Act IV: Computation and Futurity (Wks 9-11)
  • Stakes: Your future. Core Idea: Once media compute, they stop reflecting and start generating. Simulations, games, design fictions: the future is no longer predicted — it is prototyped.
  1. Act V: Haunted Presents (Wks 12-14)
  • Stakes: Time, memory, kinship. Core Idea: Reproduction didn’t kill aura, it moved it. Media fold time, carrying ghosts forward and canceling futures before they arrive. The past is never past; the future is never free.
  1. Act VI: Exhibition / Accountability (Wk 15)
  • Stakes: Responsibility. Core Idea: Meaning is provisional, staged in publics. To exhibit is to take responsibility for a world.

Guiding Frameworks: Arcs & Critical Questions

  1. Nature of Media: How do forms & systems of media reshape perception, communication, & ‘reality’?
  2. Media, Power, & Construction: How do media encode, transmit, & contest power, ideology, & identity?
  3. Temporality, Memory, & Future-Making: How do media transform time/memory, & what ethical responsibilities in designing futures?
  4. Human/Machine Co-Evolution: As humans & AI co-evolve, how are intelligence, creativity, identity, & ‘kinship’ redefined?


 

Required course materials:

Act I — Origins & Human-Media Co-Evolution (Weeks 2-4)

Stakes: Your identity. Core Idea: Every story, symbol, system doesn’t just reflect — it makes us. Media are human “program updates.” Your Task: As a primal storyteller, bind people with words that outlive you, making a world. You don’t just use media — you are media. Every story, meme, and TikTok is a ritual shaping what being human means.

Week 2: Origins — When Humans Became Media

Focus: Nature of Media; Human/Machine Co-Evolution. | Theme: Humans Were Always Media.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 2) — Thu, 01/15 @ midnight.

Session 3: Tue, 01/13 | When People Became Media: From Gatekeepers to Viral Editors

Core Idea: Networked publics make each person a node, unsettling authority. Key Question: How do media technologies alter who can author and what can be thought? Prompt: Compare Miroshnichenko’s “publicators” with Victor’s “media for thinking the unthinkable.”

Session 4: Thu, 01/15 | The Way of the Vibe Coder: Culture, Media, and the Making of “Man”

Core Idea: “What is man?” is “Through what code/medium are we written?” Key Question: Culture is human software, re-coded by new media, making the “message” the architect of reality.

Prompt: Using McLuhan/Geertz, discuss how a medium reshapes “man.” How does Rick Rubin’s “Way of Code” illuminate this?

Due: Reading Response (Wk 2) — Thu, 01/15 @ midnight.

Week 3: Semiotics, Language, and World-Making

Focus: Nature of Media; Human/Machine Co-Evolution. | Theme: Myth as Operating System.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 3) — Thu, 01/22 @ midnight.

Session 5: Tue, 01/20 | Myth Engines: Why News and Wrestling Tell the Same Story

Core Idea: Myth is the operating system of modern media. Key Question: Language is generative; it actively brings worlds into being. Prompt: Barthes (wrestling) + Ptah (words) + AI “world models”: how does language make worlds?

Session 6: Thu, 01/22 | The Medium as Operator: From Ritual Belonging to Technical Systems

Core Idea: Media don’t just transmit messages; they script social life. Key Question: Are media cultural rituals (Carey) or deterministic systems (Kittler)? How does this inform AI text–image?

Prompt: Compare Carey’s “ritual view” with Kittler’s materialist view. Apply to “operative ekphrasis” in AI.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 3) — Thu, 01/22 @ midnight.

Week 4: Digital Media Logics: Transparency and Layers

Focus: Nature of Media. | Theme: Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 4) — Thu, 01/29 @ midnight.

Session 7: Tue, 01/27 | Windows & Mirrors: The Special Effect of Immediacy

Core Idea: All “immediacy” is a special effect, remediating what came before. Key Question: New media oscillate between transparent immediacy and hypermediated self-awareness. Prompt: Analyze a digital medium (social media, game UI) for immediacy, hypermediacy, remediation (Bolter & Grusin), and closure (McCloud).

Session 8: Thu, 01/29 | Aura After Copies: The Angel of History Meets the Algorithm

Core Idea: Reproduction doesn’t kill aura; it relocates it, shaping memory and progress. Key Question: Algorithmic reproduction demands new authenticity, memory, and progress.

Prompt: Using Benjamin (“Work of Art,” “Thesis IX”), discuss how mechanical to algorithmic reproduction changes aura/historical consciousness.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 4) — Thu, 01/29 @ midnight.

Act II — Seeing Like a Medium (Weeks 5–7)

Stakes: Reality, belonging, perception. Core Idea: Every medium tells us what is real. Cameras, broadcasts, feeds — each claims objectivity, each encodes bias. Media define what is seen, heard, and valued, shaping both cultural consensus and individual experience. Your Task: Unpack the codes embedded in images, popular culture, and soundscapes, revealing how they construct our shared reality.

Week 5: The Photographic Image: Reality, Illusion, and Code

Focus: Nature of Media; Media, Power, & Social Construction. | Theme: Photography & the Frame.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 5) — Thu, 02/05 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 9: Tue, 02/03 | Caves of Light: How Photography Rewrote Reality

Core Idea: Photography frees us from reality by convincing us we’ve captured it. Key Question: All media create illusions of presence; “IRL fetish” is paradoxically born from seeking the unmediated.

Prompt: Compare Bazin’s “ontology” with Sontag’s framing. How does Jurgenson’s “IRL fetish” expand or challenge these?

Session 10: Thu, 02/05 | To Shoot Is to Program: Flusser’s Camera Rules

Core Idea: To take a photograph is to follow a program. Key Question: Photos are outputs of a technological program, making even “IRL” experience mediated/coded. Prompt: Using Flusser’s “coded system,” analyze how a photographic practice (filters, surveillance) distorts perception. Connect to Jurgenson’s online/offline.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 5) — Thu, 02/05 @ 11:59 PM.

Week 6: Media, Power, and the Politics of Representation

Focus: Media, Power, & Social Construction; Human/Machine Co-Evolution. | Theme: Encoding Bias, Decoding Ideology.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 6) — Thu, 02/12 @ 11:59 PM.

Due: Short Paper 1: Media-History Case Study — Tue, 02/17 @ 11:59 PM.

Core Idea: Encoding aims at control, but decoding organizes culture. Key Question: Media perpetuate or challenge ideologies via their “grammar” of representation. Prompt: Using Hall’s encoding/decoding, analyze algorithmic bias (Buolamwini). What challenges for oppositional readings when the encoder is an algorithm?

Core Idea: The popular is what power cannot stabilize, not just what people like. Key Question: Popular culture is struggle (Hall); media bias (Innis) shapes enduring stories. How to design media for the deep future? Prompt: Analyze a contemporary “popular” phenomenon via Hall + Innis. Consider 10,000-year endurance.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 6) — Thu, 02/12 @ 11:59 PM.

Due: Short Paper 1: Media-History Case Study — Tue, 02/17 @ 11:59 PM.

Week 7: The Sensory World: Soundscapes, Orality, and Perception

Focus: Nature of Media; Human/Machine Co-Evolution. | Theme: Listening as Interface.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 7) — Thu, 02/19 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 13: Tue, 02/17 | Tongues Before Text: Orality, Memory, and the Sounding World

Core Idea: Literacy is a cognitive plugin replacing memory with inscription. Key Question: Consciousness is shaped by media (Ong), soundscapes (Schafer), and now artificial sonic intelligence. Prompt: Compare Ong’s “primary orality” and Schafer’s “soundscape.” How do AI sounds reshape listening/world experience?

Session 14: Thu, 02/19 | Silence Has Rules: Sound, Absence, and the Shape of Attention

Core Idea: Silence is a medium with laws structuring how we listen/belong. Key Question: How do different media environments choreograph attention through sound and silence? Prompt: Analyze a media form/space (podcast, silent film) for how it uses sound/silence to guide perception/attention/connection (Cage, Sterne).

Due: Reading Response (Wk 7) — Thu, 02/19 @ 11:59 PM.

Act III — Sensing and Ritualizing (Week 8) (Week 8)

Stakes: Mind, attention, and the architecture of knowledge. Core Idea: Media retrain our bodies and minds — engineering how we listen, when we stay silent, and the rituals that bind belonging. Attention isn’t natural; it’s designed.

Your Task: Uncover the hidden curricula of digital platforms, showing how their logics shape our cognition, focus, and collective patterns of thought.

Week 8: Expanding Cognition: From Memex to Attention Economy

Focus: Nature of Media; Media, Power, & Social Construction; Human/Machine Co-Evolution. | Theme: Media as Cognitive Extension.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 8) — Thu, 02/26 @ 11:59 PM.

Core Idea: The memex was about association as interface. Key Question: How do Bush’s “memex” and Nelson’s hypertext vision reshape human intelligence? Prompt: Using Bush/Nelson, analyze a digital platform (Wikipedia, Notion) as an “extension of mind.” How does its design influence thought/memory?

Session 16: Thu, 02/26 | Custodians & Feeds: The Hidden Curricula of Platforms

Core Idea: Moderation is the hidden curriculum of the internet. Key Question: How do algorithmic feeds and moderation train us in valid speech, creativity, and belonging? Prompt: Using Gillespie/Conte, analyze a platform’s moderation/discovery. Connect to attention economy (Scanland) and individualism (Curtis).

Due: Reading Response (Wk 8) — Thu, 02/26 @ 11:59 PM.

Act IV — Computation and Futurity (Weeks 9-11)

Stakes: Your future. Core Idea: If code generates worlds, who writes the rules we’ll live by? Your Task: As an algorithm-age designer, build rules that make futures feel playable.

Week 9: Computation and Futurity (cont.)

Focus: Media as Play & Persuasion: Cybernetics, Games, and the Brain.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 9) — Thu, 03/05 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 17: Tue, 03/03 | Procedural Arguments: When Rules Persuade

Core Idea: Games persuade by what they let us do, not what they show. Key Question: How do Youngblood’s “expanded cinema” and Bogost’s “procedural rhetoric” show that rules argue more powerfully than images? Prompt: Apply “procedural rhetoric” to Everything. Relate to earlier cybernetic/algorithmic moving-image lineage.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 9) — Tue, 03/03 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 18: Thu, 03/05 | Eyes That Organize Desire: Cinema and the Gaze

Core Idea: Mainstream cinema is an algorithm for desire. Key Question: Where do “gaze,” attention design, and neuro-cinematic control intersect in film/games, and how are counter-gazes coded?

Prompt: Using Mulvey, analyze how one film/game organizes looking. Include a title-sequence/VFX that trains attention.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 9) — Thu, 03/05 @ 11:59 PM.

Week 10: Computation and Futurity (cont.)

Focus: Human-Machine Co-Evolution: Technogenesis and Thinking Machines.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 10) — Thu, 03/12 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 19: Tue, 03/10 | Reading with Machines: Cognition in the Digital Age

Core Idea: We’re already hybrid readers (close/hyper/machine). Key Question: How does technogenesis (Hayles) reshape cognition/labor as AI scales? What do we gain/lose? Prompt: Use Hayles + one artifact (Grey/Cheng) to map a concrete cognitive or labor shift you’ve observed.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 10) — Tue, 03/10 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 20: Thu, 03/12 | The Imitation Game: Conversation as Interface

Core Idea: Asking if machines “think” redesigns the medium of dialogue. Key Question: What does the Turing Test reveal about intelligence as a media problem (performance, interface, genre)?

Prompt: Read Turing + view 1968 film. Argue what kind of conversation should count as intelligence today.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 10) — Thu, 03/12 @ 11:59 PM.

Week 11: Computation and Futurity (cont.)

Focus: Speculative Design & Future-Making: Critical & Community Approaches.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 11) — Thu, 03/19 @ 11:59 PM.

Due: Short Paper 2 — Thu, 03/19 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 21: Tue, 03/17 | Diegetic Prototypes: Futures You Can Hold

Core Idea: Objects can argue a future without saying a word. Key Question: How do diegetic prototypes (design fiction) provoke ethics/policy more effectively than white papers? Prompt: Analyze one design-fiction artifact (Bleecker, Dunne/Raby, or Selfish Ledger ). What future does it argue into being—and for whom?

Due: Reading Response (Wk 11) — Tue, 03/17 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 22: Thu, 03/19 | Community Signal: Local Futures, Afrokosmic Media

Core Idea: Futures scale when they start small and stay situated. Key Question: How do community-rooted practices (Afrofuturist/queer ecologies) build durable futures beyond extractive tech? Prompt: Draft a local diegetic prototype (policy, object, ritual) using Sankofa principles and “real-fictional entanglements.”

Due: Reading Response (Wk 11) — Thu, 03/19 @ 11:59 PM.

Due: Short Paper 2 — Thu, 03/19 @ 11:59 PM.

🌴 Spring Break — March 23-27, 2026

No classes this week. Enjoy the break and prepare for the final stretch!

Act V — Haunted Presents & Ethical Futures (Weeks 12-14)

Stakes: Time, memory, and kinship. Core Idea: Media fold time, carrying ghosts and canceling futures. Authenticity, memory, and ethics are redefined by new forms of reproduction and interaction. Your Task: Read what the past left unfinished via remix, Afrofuturist myth, or uncanny AI image. Grapple with the ethical implications of co-existing with intelligent machines and the shaping of future realities. If media fold time, the fight is over which pasts and presents remain audible.

Week 12: Haunted Presents & Ethical Futures (cont.)

Focus: Hauntings, Hyperstitions, and Sympathetic Worlds.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 12) — Thu, 04/02 @ 11:59 PM.

Due: Project Proposal — Thu, 04/02 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 23: Tue, 03/31 | Haunting the Future: Afrofuturism, Hauntology, and the Uncanny

Core Idea: The future is always haunted; what haunts depends on whose time has been broken. Key Question: How do Freud’s “uncanny” and Fisher’s “crackle” intersect with Afrofuturism/hyperstition in tech futures? Prompt: Using Freud/Fisher, analyze Black Metal or Okorafor’s Mother of Invention. How do they stage hauntings? Where does hyperstition turn fiction into reality?

Due: Reading Response (Wk 12) — Tue, 03/31 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 24: Thu, 04/02 | Sympathetic Interfaces: Magic Rules Still Rule

Focus: Hauntings, Hyperstitions, and Sympathetic Worlds. Core Idea: Interfaces work because magic rules still rule. Key Question: How do sympathetic magic’s principles shape the ethics of representing memory, identity, community in media? Prompt: Use Frazer’s laws to analyze a photographic/filmic project ( Portraits and Dreams , Stranger with a Camera ). How does its “magic” raise ethical questions?

Due: Project Proposal — Thu, 04/02 @ 11:59 PM.

Week 13: Haunted Presents & Ethical Futures (cont.)

Focus: Ethical Futures: Cyborgs, Kinship, and AI Alignment.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 13) — Thu, 04/09 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 25: Tue, 04/07 | Machines of Loving What, Exactly?

Core Idea: Alignment is a pastoral fantasy—until it isn’t. Key Question: How do utopian visions of “machines of loving grace” clash with AI alignment and control realities? Prompt: Compare Brautigan’s poem with Amodei on AI alignment and Curtis’s critique. What shifts in hope/anxiety emerge?

Due: Reading Response (Wk 13) — Tue, 04/07 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 26: Thu, 04/09 | Cyborg Kin: Making Relatives with Machines

Core Idea: If we made kin with machines, problems might dissolve into negotiated obligations. Key Question: How does treating machines as kin (Haraway, Indigenous protocols) change posthuman futures? Prompt: Apply Haraway’s cyborg ontology and “making kin” to envision ethical, reciprocal AI relationships.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 14) — Thu, 04/09 @ 11:59 PM.

Week 14: Haunted Presents & Ethical Futures (cont.)

Focus: Platform Power, AI Slop, and the Limits of the Machine.

Due: Reading Response (Wk 15) — Thu, 04/16 @ 11:59 PM.

Due: Artifact Draft + Bibliography — Tue, 04/14 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 27: Tue, 04/14 | Platform Vernaculars & Enshittification: Who Owns the Feed?

Core Idea: Platforms don’t just host culture—they feed on it. Key Question: How do communities resist/adapt as platforms degrade through “enshittification”? Prompt: Use Doctorow/Brock to analyze a platform’s trajectory, factoring in AI slop and memetic trends.

Due: Artifact Draft + Bibliography — Tue, 04/14 @ 11:59 PM.

Session 28: Thu, 04/16 | Aesthetic Alignment: Do AIs Deserve Their Own Audiences?

Focus: Platform Power, AI Slop, and the Limits of the Machine. Core Idea: Reproduction doesn’t just shift aura—it may create non-human audiences. Key Question: Must aesthetic alignment serve human taste, or should machines pursue alien beauty? Prompt: Using Arielli/Dreyfus, debate whether AI aesthetics should be human-aligned or independent. Manovich’s cultural analytics?

Due: Reading Response (Wk 15) — Thu, 04/16 @ 11:59 PM.

Grading policy:

Grade Breakdown:

  • Weekly Reading Responses: 25%
  • Discussion Leader: 20%
  • Short Paper 1 (Media-History): 15%
  • Short Paper 2 (Spacing/Presence): 15%
  • Final Project (Sankofa Futures): 25% 

IV. Late Work:

  • RRs: 10% deduction/day. Due Thursday @ midnight for full credit. (80% completion of RRs earns full RR grade).
  • Papers/Projects: 10% deduction/day (max 3 days). >3 days = no credit without prior written, documented extension (24hrs in advance). Tech issues not typically excused. Communicate ahead of time.
Attendance policy:

III. Classroom Engagement & Attendance:

  • This is a 95% in-person, interactive course. Active attendance and respectful participation are crucial for your learning and classmates’ success. All members are expected to treat peers with kindness and respect, engaging constructively with diverse views. Inappropriate/abusive behavior will be reported. If uncomfortable, contact instructor immediately.


 

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

II. Academic Integrity & Honor Code:

  • This course demands the highest academic integrity. All work must be original, properly cited, and adhere to the Georgia Tech Honor Code. Plagiarism (deliberate use of unacknowledged outside sources) and undisclosed AI use are violations. Penalties include zero on assignment, course failure, Dean’s report.
  • (Full GT Honor Code: GT Honor Code)
Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

Core IMPACTS | Arts, Humanities & Ethics

This is a Core IMPACTS course in the Arts, Humanities & Ethics area, providing essential knowledge in foundational academic areas to support students’ broad academic and career goals.

Orienting Question: - How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic, and philosophical works?

Learning Outcome: - Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts or works in the visual/performing arts.

Career-Ready Competencies: - Ethical Reasoning - Information Literacy - Intercultural Competence


 

Instructor First Name:
Watson
Instructor Last Name:
Hartsoe
Section:
B1
CRN (you may add up to five):
30325
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication

Action Films

Last Updated: Wed, 01/07/2026
Course prefix:
LMC
Course number:
3257
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

Global Cinema: Action Films introduces students to the major action subgenres—from spy thrillers and buddy films to sci-fi blockbusters and superhero spectaculars—while examining its aesthetic devices, history, cultural impact, and global evolution. The course traces the emergence of action cinema through its precursors, such as film noir and westerns, to establish the genre's codes, conventions, and preoccupations. It further situates action film as a global practice by analyzing Hollywood productions alongside Hong Kong wuxia, Bollywood masala films, Japanese samurai cinema, and Korean thrillers, revealing their influence on the idiom, tempo, and aesthetic strategies of the contemporary action film. 

Course learning outcomes:

 

  • Identify key historical periods and developments in action cinema from the silent era to our present
  • Understand the deployment of formal techniques: editing, choreography, sound etc., in action sequences
  • Compare action cinema traditions across different national contexts
  • Think and write critically about cinema and popular culture 
Required course materials:

Readings will be made available on the course Canvas. Films will be available through the GT library/Swank and other streaming services 

Grading policy:

Grading System: A (90 - 100), B (80 - 89), C (70 - 79), D (60-69), F (below 60)

Attendance and Participation: 10%

Weekly Film Posts: 20%

Sequence Analysis: 20% 

Adaptation Pitch: 20%

Final Essay/Project: 30% 

[More details and rubric for each assignment will be available on Canvas] 

Attendance policy:

Attendance means being present in class, having watched the assigned film, and being ready to participate in discussions. You will earn a perfect participation score by demonstrating high-level preparedness and actively contributing to discussions through thoughtful engagement. Participation also means staying focused on discussion rather than checking texts/social media or doing homework for other classes. Students are expected to attend all classes. Punctual attendance, advance preparation, and participation are required. 

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.

Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Arts, Humanities & Ethics area.

Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.

This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:

  • How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic, and philosophical works?

Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:

  • Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts in English or other languages, or of works in the visual/performing arts.

Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:

  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Information Literacy
  • Intercultural Competence
Instructor First Name:
Koel
Instructor Last Name:
Banerjee
Section:
Hp
CRN (you may add up to five):
35404
33269
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication

Studies in Fiction—Cherokee Literature & Cultural Memory

Last Updated: Tue, 01/06/2026
Course prefix:
LMC
Course number:
3202
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

This course introduces students to the study of Cherokee literature through close reading, thoughtful discussion, and engagement with fiction and related texts grounded in the historical and cultural contexts of what became the U.S. Southeast. We will explore how literature shapes and reflects the world, considering questions of identity, society, place, and human experience as they emerge from Indigenous-authored narratives.

Focusing on historical and contemporary fiction, the course examines how Cherokee writers represent removal, survival, and the ongoing afterlives of nineteenth-century U.S. settler colonialism. Students will read novels alongside selected historical documents, excerpts from Cherokee print culture, and short critical readings to understand how fiction functions as a form of historical meaning-making rather than a departure from it. Through writing, discussion, and reflection, students will develop skills in close reading and interpretation while considering how literature articulates sovereignty, memory, and Indigenous presence in the present and future.

Course learning outcomes:

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Analyze Literature in Context
    Interpret Cherokee-authored literary texts and examine how they reflect and shape historical, cultural, and social contexts.
  2. Explore Multiple Perspectives
    Examine Indigenous fiction through different interpretive lenses to consider questions of identity, power, place, and culture.
  3. Understand Removal as Process
    Explain how literature represents Cherokee removal as a prolonged, collective, and ongoing historical experience.
  4. Engage Fiction and Historical Materials
    Analyze literary texts alongside selected historical documents and print culture materials to deepen interpretation.
  5. Connect Past and Present
    Relate Cherokee literature and historical memory to contemporary social, ethical, and civic questions.
  6. Communicate Thoughtfully and Critically
    Produce clear, evidence-based written and oral analyses that demonstrate critical reading, reflection, and engagement with course materials.
Required course materials:

Required Primary Texts

This course centers Indigenous-authored fiction. Each student is expected to have consistent access to their own copy of the following novels—either in print or digital form—to support close reading, annotation, and sustained engagement with the texts:

  • Pushing the Bear — Diane Glancy
  • Riding the Trail of Tears — Blake Hausman
  • The Removed — Brandon Hobson

Additional Readings (Provided via Canvas)

  • Selected historical materials related to Cherokee history and removal
  • Excerpts from nineteenth-century Cherokee print culture, including the Cherokee Phoenix
  • Short critical and theoretical excerpts from Indigenous literary studies, including selections from Our Fire Survives the Storm and Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice

Required Film Viewings

Films will be viewed in class or assigned for outside viewing. All required films will be made available through institutional streaming services or library reserves:

  • In the Light of Reverence (directors Christopher McLeod and Malinda Maynor)
  • The Cherokee Word for Water (directors Tim Kelly and Charlie Soap)
  • First Language: The Race to Save Cherokee (directors Danica Cullinan and Neal Hutcheson)

Optional Pre-Course Viewing

  • Reel Injun (directors Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, and Jeremiah Hayes)
    (Optional — recommended prior to the start of the semester as general background on Native representation in popular media.)
Grading policy:

Grades in this course will be based on a combination of assessment methods, which may include short written responses, analytical essays, synthesis assignments, quizzes or exams, presentations, collaborative work, and participation. Not all components listed may be used in every section or semester. Detailed grading criteria, point values, and expectations for each assignment will be provided during the semester.

Georgia Tech Letter Grade Scale:
A: 90–100%
B: 80–89%
C: 70–79%
D: 60–69%
F: <60%

Attendance policy:

Active presence and engagement are essential. Attendance and participation together count for 20 points. More than three absences may lower your final grade. Participate actively during sessions and in small group discussions. All major assignments must be completed to receive a passing grade. Late work is generally not accepted. If you experience illness or emergency, communicate promptly to make arrangements. Although some exceptions may be made for certain situations, I reserve the right to determine what constitutes any extenuating circumstance. If you are physically present but wholly unprepared or blatantly disengage, your grade will be affected and you may be counted absent. Attendance exceptions are allowed for institute-approved absences (for example, those documented by the Registrar) and situations such as hospitalization or family emergencies (documented by the Office of the Dean of Students). Some assignments and activities cannot be made up. I reserve the right to determine what can and cannot be made up after an absence. NOTE: Excessive tardiness will begin to accrue absences.

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

If you engage in plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct, you will fail the assignment and possibly be referred to the Office of Student Integrity. You should be familiar with these Georgia Tech sites:


A Note Addressing Artificial Intelligence:
This course is about growing in your ability to write, communicate, and think critically. Generative AI agents should only be used as tools. Tools cannot learn or communicate for you, and they cannot meet the course requirements for you. AI cannot stand in for your voice and your ideas. Work generated with AI and submitted will be treated as if it is plagiarized work—which leads the student to fail the assignment and possibly be referred to the Office of Student Integrity.

Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Arts, Humanities & Ethics area. Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.

This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:

  • How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic, and philosophical works?

Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:

  • Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts in English or other languages, or of works in the visual/performing arts.

Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:

  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Information Literacy
  • Intercultural Competence
Instructor First Name:
Randall
Instructor Last Name:
Harrell
Section:
RH
CRN (you may add up to five):
35299
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication

American Literature & Culture—Movements, Memory, Meaning

Last Updated: Tue, 01/06/2026
Course prefix:
LMC
Course number:
3511
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

This course surveys major movements in American literature from early foundations to the late twentieth century, with an emphasis on how literature reflects, resists, and reimagines the cultural and political forces that shaped the United States. Through poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, and novels, we will examine how authors have engaged with foundational questions around identity, freedom, race, gender, labor, and belonging. Major literary movements covered include Romanticism and Transcendentalism, Realism and Naturalism, Modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, Postmodernism, and contemporary experimentalism. Authors could possibly include Herman Melville, Kate Chopin, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ernest Hemingway, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, Frank O’Hara, Hart Crane, Henry David Thoreau, Annie Dillard, William Carlos Williams, Alison Hedge Coke, Toni Morrison, and David Foster Wallace. Students will engage in literary analysis, historical contextualization, and critical writing through a combination of essays, short reflections, and/or digital creative projects.

Course learning outcomes:

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Analyze Literature in Context: Interpret American literary texts and understand how they reflect and shape historical, cultural, and social contexts.
  2. Explore Multiple Perspectives: Examine literature through different lenses to consider identity, power, and culture.
  3. Trace Literary and Cultural Movements: Identify major American literary movements and connect them to historical events and social change.
  4. Communicate Critically: Write clear, evidence-based analyses and participate thoughtfully in discussions.
  5. Connect Past and Present: Relate literary and cultural studies to contemporary social, ethical, and civic questions.
  6. Engage Creatively and Reflectively: Produce original interpretations and projects that demonstrate critical thinking, curiosity, and engagement with course materials.
Required course materials:

All readings will be provided via links or files on Canvas. The only exception will be the novel/novella that the student chooses for their final project. You will need to purchase or acquire your chosen book. A link of those options will be disseminated at a later date.

Grading policy:

Grades in this course will be based on a combination of assessment methods, which may include short written responses, analytical essays, synthesis assignments, quizzes or exams, presentations, collaborative work, and participation. Not all components listed may be used in every section or semester. Detailed grading criteria, point values, and expectations for each assignment will be provided during the semester.

Georgia Tech Letter Grade Scale:
A: 90–100%
B: 80–89%
C: 70–79%
D: 60–69%
F: <60%

Attendance policy:

Active presence and engagement are essential. Attendance and participation together count for 20 points. More than three absences may lower your final grade. Participate actively during sessions and in small group discussions. All major assignments must be completed to receive a passing grade. Late work is generally not accepted. If you experience illness or emergency, communicate promptly to make arrangements. Although some exceptions may be made for certain situations, I reserve the right to determine what constitutes any extenuating circumstance. If you are physically present but wholly unprepared or blatantly disengage, your grade will be affected and you may be counted absent. Attendance exceptions are allowed for institute-approved absences (for example, those documented by the Registrar) and situations such as hospitalization or family emergencies (documented by the Office of the Dean of Students). Some assignments and activities cannot be made up. I reserve the right to determine what can and cannot be made up after an absence. NOTE: Excessive tardiness will begin to accrue absences.

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

If you engage in plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct, you will fail the assignment and possibly be referred to the Office of Student Integrity. You should be familiar with these Georgia Tech sites:


A Note Addressing Artificial Intelligence:
This course is about growing in your ability to write, communicate, and think critically. Generative AI agents should only be used as tools. Tools cannot learn or communicate for you, and they cannot meet the course requirements for you. AI cannot stand in for your voice and your ideas. Work generated with AI and submitted will be treated as if it is plagiarized work—which leads the student to fail the assignment and possibly be referred to the Office of Student Integrity.

Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Arts, Humanities & Ethics area. Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.

This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:

  • How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic, and philosophical works?


Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:

  • Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts in English or other languages, or of works in the visual/performing arts.


Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:

  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Information Literacy
  • Intercultural Competence
Instructor First Name:
Randall
Instructor Last Name:
Harrell
Section:
B
CRN (you may add up to five):
33349
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication

English Composition II

Last Updated: Mon, 01/05/2026
Course prefix:
ENGL
Course number:
1102
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

A composition course that develops writing skills beyond the levels of proficiency required by ENGL 1101, that emphasizes interpretation and evaluation, and that incorporates a variety of more advanced research methods. Develops communication skills in networked electronic environments, emphasizes interpretation and evaluation of cultural texts, and incorporates research methods in print and on the Internet.

Course learning outcomes:

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves understanding social and cultural texts and contexts in ways that support productive communication and interaction.

  • Analyze arguments.
  • Accommodate opposing points of view.
  • Interpret inferences and develop subtleties of symbolic and indirect discourse.
  • Use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating.
  • Integrate ideas with those of others.
  • Understand relationships among language, knowledge, and power.
  • Recognize the constructedness of language and social forms.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric focuses on available means of persuasion, considering the synergy of factors such as context, audience, purpose, role, argument, organization, design, visuals, and conventions of language.

  • Adapt communication to circumstances and audience.
  • Produce communication that is stylistically appropriate and mature.
  • Communicate in standard English for academic and professional contexts.
  • Sustain a consistent purpose and point of view.
  • Use a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences.
  • Learn common formats for different kinds of texts.
  • Develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics.
  • Control such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
  • Create artifacts that demonstrate the synergy of rhetorical elements.
  • Demonstrate adaptation of register, language, and conventions for specific contexts and audiences.
  • Apply strategies for communication in and across both academic disciplines and cultural contexts in the community and the workplace.

Process

Processes for communication—for example, creating, planning, drafting, designing, rehearsing, revising, presenting, publishing—are recursive, not linear. Learning productive processes is as important as creating products.

  • Find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize appropriate primary and secondary sources.
  • Develop flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proofreading.
  • Understand collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
  • Critique their own and others’ works.
  • Balance the advantages of relying on others with [personal] responsibility.
  • Construct and select information based on interpretation and critique of the accuracy, bias, credibility, authority, and appropriateness of sources.
  • Compose reflections that demonstrate understanding of the elements of iterative processes, both specific to and transferable across rhetorical situations.

Modes and Media

Activities and assignments should use a variety of modes and media—written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal (WOVEN)—singly and in combination. The context and culture of multimodality and multimedia are critical.

  • Interpret content of written materials on related topics from various disciplines.
  • Compose effective written materials for various academic and professional contexts.
  • Assimilate, analyze, and present a body of information in oral and written forms.
  • Communicate in various modes and media, using appropriate technology.
  • Use digital environments for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts.
  • Locate, evaluate, organize, and use research material collected from electronic sources, including scholarly library databases; other official (e.g., federal) databases; and informal electronic networks and internet sources.
  • Exploit differences in rhetorical strategies and affordances available for both print and electronic composing processes and texts.
  • Create WOVEN (written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal) artifacts that demonstrate interpretation, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and judgment.
  • Demonstrate strategies for effective translation, transformation, and transference of communication across modes and media.
Required course materials:

Writer/Designer, available through The Bedford Bookshelf

The WOVENText Open Educational Resources,

I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir

The Magic Fish

No Rules Tonight

Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse

Squire: A Graphic Novel

This One Summer

Witch Hat Atelier

Grading policy:

5% Project 0: Common First Week Video  

20% Project 1

15% Project 2

20% Project 3

15% Final Portfolio

10% Memos/Quizzes

10% Attendance and Participation

5% Other Homework/Assignments

Attendance policy:

Attendance and participation are essential to success in courses in the Writing and Communication Program. Because of this, you are expected to attend class in person. Not attending a scheduled class session in-person results in an absence.

There may be times when you cannot or should not attend class, such as if you are not feeling well, have an interview, or have family responsibilities. Therefore, this course allows a specified number of absences without penalty, regardless of reason. After that, penalties accrue. Exceptions are allowed for Institute-approved absences (for example, those documented by the Registrar) and situations such as hospitalization or family emergencies (documented by the Office of the Dean of Students).

Your instructor can communicate with you about how to access materials or make up work you may have missed during your absence or suggest ways to participate in class remotely and/or asynchronously. Students may miss a total of four (4) classes for T/Th or M/W classes or six (6) for M/W/F classes over the course of the semester without penalty. Each additional absence after the allotted number deducts 3% from a student’s final grade. Missing six (6) classes in a T/Th or M/W course or nine (9) classes for a M/W/F course may result in failure of the class, as determined by the instructor of the course in consultation with the Director of the Writing and Communication Program.

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.

Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Writing area. 

Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.  

This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question: 

  • How do I write effectively in different contexts?  

Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcomes: 

  • Students will communicate effectively in writing, demonstrating clear organization and structure, using appropriate grammar and writing conventions.
  • Students will appropriately acknowledge the use of materials from original sources.
  • Students will adapt their written communications to purpose and audience.
  • Students will analyze and draw informed inferences from written texts.  

Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies: 

  • Critical Thinking
  • Information Literacy
  • Persuasion  
Instructor First Name:
Corinne
Instructor Last Name:
Matthews
Section:
P1
CRN (you may add up to five):
28508
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication

Intro to Literary Studies—Methods to Read Well & Make Meaning

Last Updated: Thu, 01/08/2026
Course prefix:
LMC
Course number:
2060
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

This course introduces students to the study of literature through close reading, thoughtful discussion, and engagement with diverse texts from a variety of cultural, historical, and spatial contexts. We will explore how literature shapes and reflects the world, considering questions of identity, society, and human experience. Students will encounter various forms of literature, which might include poetry, fiction, drama, and hybrid texts that challenge conventions and invite multiple interpretations.

In addition to reading and discussion, students will experiment with different theoretical perspectives—social, historical, and literary—while making critical ideas accessible. Through writing, reflection, and creativity, students will develop skills in reading, thinking, and engaging with literature thoughtfully, considering both artistic form and broader social significance. This course emphasizes curiosity, critical thinking, and how literature can open new ways of seeing and understanding the world.

Course learning outcomes:

By the end of this course, students will be able to 

  1. Analyze Literature in Context
    Interpret literary texts and examine how they reflect and shape historical, cultural, and social contexts.
  2. Explore Multiple Critical Perspectives
    Apply different interpretive lenses to literature in order to examine questions of identity, power, and culture.
  3. Understand Literary Forms and Movements
    Identify key features of major literary genres and movements and connect them to broader cultural and historical developments.
  4. Communicate Critically
    Write clear, evidence-based analyses and participate thoughtfully in class discussions.
  5. Connect Past and Present
    Relate literary study to contemporary social, ethical, and civic questions.
  6. Engage Creatively and Reflectively
    Produce original interpretations and projects that demonstrate critical thinking, curiosity, and engagement with course materials.
Required course materials:
  • Primary Texts
    Selected literary texts representing multiple genres, including poetry, drama, short fiction, and narrative prose.
  • Theoretical and Critical Readings
    Short excerpts introducing foundational approaches to literary analysis (such as formalist, structural, feminist, and postcolonial perspectives). All theoretical readings will be provided via Canvas.
  • Additional Materials
    Supplemental readings, media, and contextual materials will be made available through Canvas as needed.
Grading policy:

Grades in this course will be based on a combination of assessment methods, which may include short written responses, analytical essays, synthesis assignments, quizzes or exams, presentations, collaborative work, and participation. Not all components listed may be used in every section or semester. Detailed grading criteria, point values, and expectations for each assignment will be provided during the semester.

Georgia Tech Letter Grade Scale:
A: 90–100%
B: 80–89%
C: 70–79%
D: 60–69%
F: <60%

Attendance policy:

Active presence and engagement are essential. Attendance and participation together count for 20 points. More than three absences may lower your final grade. Participate actively during sessions and in small group discussions. All major assignments must be completed to receive a passing grade. Late work is generally not accepted. If you experience illness or emergency, communicate promptly to make arrangements. Although some exceptions may be made for certain situations, I reserve the right to determine what constitutes any extenuating circumstance. If you are physically present but wholly unprepared or blatantly disengage, your grade will be affected and you may be counted absent. Attendance exceptions are allowed for institute-approved absences (for example, those documented by the Registrar) and situations such as hospitalization or family emergencies (documented by the Office of the Dean of Students). Some assignments and activities cannot be made up. I reserve the right to determine what can and cannot be made up after an absence. NOTE: Excessive tardiness will begin to accrue absences.

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

If you engage in plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct, you will fail the assignment and possibly be referred to the Office of Student Integrity. You should be familiar with these Georgia Tech sites:


A Note Addressing Artificial Intelligence:
This course is about growing in your ability to write, communicate, and think critically. Generative AI agents should only be used as tools. Tools cannot learn or communicate for you, and they cannot meet the course requirements for you. AI cannot stand in for your voice and your ideas. Work generated with AI and submitted will be treated as if it is plagiarized work—which leads the student to fail the assignment and possibly be referred to the Office of Student Integrity.

Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Arts, Humanities & Ethics area. Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.

This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:

  • How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic, and philosophical works?


Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:

  • Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts in English or other languages, or of works in the visual/performing arts.


Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:

  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Information Literacy
  • Intercultural Competence
Instructor First Name:
Randall
Instructor Last Name:
Harrell
Section:
B
CRN (you may add up to five):
35143
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication

English Composition II

Last Updated: Mon, 01/05/2026
Course prefix:
ENGL
Course number:
1102
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

A composition course that develops writing skills beyond the levels of proficiency required by ENGL 1101, that emphasizes interpretation and evaluation, and that incorporates a variety of more advanced research methods. Develops communication skills in networked electronic environments, emphasizes interpretation and evaluation of cultural texts, and incorporates research methods in print and on the Internet.

Course learning outcomes:

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves understanding social and cultural texts and contexts in ways that support productive communication and interaction.

  • Analyze arguments.
  • Accommodate opposing points of view.
  • Interpret inferences and develop subtleties of symbolic and indirect discourse.
  • Use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating.
  • Integrate ideas with those of others.
  • Understand relationships among language, knowledge, and power.
  • Recognize the constructedness of language and social forms.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric focuses on available means of persuasion, considering the synergy of factors such as context, audience, purpose, role, argument, organization, design, visuals, and conventions of language.

  • Adapt communication to circumstances and audience.
  • Produce communication that is stylistically appropriate and mature.
  • Communicate in standard English for academic and professional contexts.
  • Sustain a consistent purpose and point of view.
  • Use a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences.
  • Learn common formats for different kinds of texts.
  • Develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics.
  • Control such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
  • Create artifacts that demonstrate the synergy of rhetorical elements.
  • Demonstrate adaptation of register, language, and conventions for specific contexts and audiences.
  • Apply strategies for communication in and across both academic disciplines and cultural contexts in the community and the workplace.

Process

Processes for communication—for example, creating, planning, drafting, designing, rehearsing, revising, presenting, publishing—are recursive, not linear. Learning productive processes is as important as creating products.

  • Find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize appropriate primary and secondary sources.
  • Develop flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proofreading.
  • Understand collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
  • Critique their own and others’ works.
  • Balance the advantages of relying on others with [personal] responsibility.
  • Construct and select information based on interpretation and critique of the accuracy, bias, credibility, authority, and appropriateness of sources.
  • Compose reflections that demonstrate understanding of the elements of iterative processes, both specific to and transferable across rhetorical situations.

Modes and Media

Activities and assignments should use a variety of modes and media—written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal (WOVEN)—singly and in combination. The context and culture of multimodality and multimedia are critical.

  • Interpret content of written materials on related topics from various disciplines.
  • Compose effective written materials for various academic and professional contexts.
  • Assimilate, analyze, and present a body of information in oral and written forms.
  • Communicate in various modes and media, using appropriate technology.
  • Use digital environments for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts.
  • Locate, evaluate, organize, and use research material collected from electronic sources, including scholarly library databases; other official (e.g., federal) databases; and informal electronic networks and internet sources.
  • Exploit differences in rhetorical strategies and affordances available for both print and electronic composing processes and texts.
  • Create WOVEN (written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal) artifacts that demonstrate interpretation, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and judgment.
  • Demonstrate strategies for effective translation, transformation, and transference of communication across modes and media.
Required course materials:

Writer/Designer, available through The Bedford Bookshelf

The WOVENText Open Educational Resources,

I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir

The Magic Fish

No Rules Tonight

Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse

Squire: A Graphic Novel

This One Summer

Witch Hat Atelier

Grading policy:

5% Project 0: Common First Week Video  

20% Project 1

15% Project 2

20% Project 3

15% Final Portfolio

10% Memos/Quizzes

10% Attendance and Participation

5% Other Homework/Assignments

Attendance policy:

Attendance and participation are essential to success in courses in the Writing and Communication Program. Because of this, you are expected to attend class in person. Not attending a scheduled class session in-person results in an absence.

There may be times when you cannot or should not attend class, such as if you are not feeling well, have an interview, or have family responsibilities. Therefore, this course allows a specified number of absences without penalty, regardless of reason. After that, penalties accrue. Exceptions are allowed for Institute-approved absences (for example, those documented by the Registrar) and situations such as hospitalization or family emergencies (documented by the Office of the Dean of Students).

Your instructor can communicate with you about how to access materials or make up work you may have missed during your absence or suggest ways to participate in class remotely and/or asynchronously. Students may miss a total of four (4) classes for T/Th or M/W classes or six (6) for M/W/F classes over the course of the semester without penalty. Each additional absence after the allotted number deducts 3% from a student’s final grade. Missing six (6) classes in a T/Th or M/W course or nine (9) classes for a M/W/F course may result in failure of the class, as determined by the instructor of the course in consultation with the Director of the Writing and Communication Program.

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.

Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Writing area. 

Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.  

This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question: 

  • How do I write effectively in different contexts?  

Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcomes: 

  • Students will communicate effectively in writing, demonstrating clear organization and structure, using appropriate grammar and writing conventions. 
  • Students will appropriately acknowledge the use of materials from original sources. 
  • Students will adapt their written communications to purpose and audience. 
  • Students will analyze and draw informed inferences from written texts.  

Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies: 

  • Critical Thinking 
  • Information Literacy 
  • Persuasion  
Instructor First Name:
Corinne
Instructor Last Name:
Matthews
Section:
H04
CRN (you may add up to five):
35042
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication

Science, Technology, Race

Last Updated: Mon, 01/05/2026
Course prefix:
LMC
Course number:
3306
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

Beginning from the understanding that information and communication technologies are foundational to our social and cultural infrastructure, this course takes a critical approach to the ways that culture - in the form of race and gender - shapes the uses, design, and deployment of computers, the internet, and artificial intelligence.  

Course learning outcomes:

Upon course completion, students will have:

  • Developed an understanding of key theories about race, gender, and culture from cultural theory, social science, philosophy of technology, and science and technology studies
  • Explored issues surrounding race and technoculture in online and offline venues, social media, and their digital environs
  • Increased their awareness of the multiple ways that information technologies impact, extend, or hinder information uses and behaviors based on inferences about identity
Required course materials:

You do not need to purchase any books for this course. All required reading and viewing for this course will be made available on Perusall (through Canvas) or through the Georgia Tech Library resources.

Grading policy:

There is no final paper or exam for this course.  This is a discussion based course, so instead, you will write frequently and weekly:

  • your own notes on every reading (Perusall annotations - 20%)
  • A discussion portfolio, posted to Piazza, comprised of
    • a more formal write up of your notes for every reading as comments (25%) - minimum 10 comments
    • A discussion leader post featuring your (500-1000 word) analysis of one article of your choosing (30%)
  • An autobiography + reflection detailing how you have managed  your social, cultural, interpersonal, and institutional identities with information technologies. (10%)
  • Classroom participation and community ethos (15%)

This course uses Perusall and Piazza to manage course readings, note-taking, and reading discussions.   You must sign up for Piazza using the link provided in the course syllabus; Perusall will be available from the course Canvas page.

Perusall is an annotation layer/software allowing you to read and take notes on each assigned text as a class.  This tool is intended to allow y’all to collaborate on your reading, synthesis, and understanding of the reading selections across the semester. 

Piazza is used to post 1) reading discussions analyses (including original posts), 2) discussion comments for each reading, and questions for me.  

Attendance policy:

This is a discussion seminar, so participation is essential for doing well this course.  I monitor attendance based on your Perusall annotations, Piazza participation in the form of comments, and in-class contributions to discussion.  I use the various analytics from both platforms to assess participation, thus, it is vital that you attend class, share your views on each reading, and participate in discussions either online, in-class, or both. 

If you are repeatedly late to class without justification, expect a lowered grade; it’s disrespectful to your classmates.  If you miss class more than 6 times without justification - and have not completed the minimum participation requirements on Perusall or Piazza - you will fail the course.  If you are concerned about this assessment at any time, contact me to request a ‘snapshot’ of your current grade and discuss ways to improve your participation.

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.

Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

The Learning Outcomes for the Arts, Humanities & Ethics Core IMPACTS area:

Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance, and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts in English or other languages or of works in the visual/performing arts.

The Learning Outcomes for the Social Sciences IMPACTS area:

Students will effectively analyze the complexity of human behavior, and how historical, economics, political, social, or geographic relationships develop, persist, or change.

Instructor First Name:
Andre
Instructor Last Name:
Brock
Section:
B
CRN (you may add up to five):
35320
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication

Communication & Culture

Last Updated: Mon, 01/05/2026
Course prefix:
LMC
Course number:
3206
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

Television shows, movies, music, books, and other forms of mass media provide tremendous insight into the varied experiences of first-generation college students. Through character portrayal and complex storytelling in their scripts, lyrics, and written words, audiences are provided a glimpse into the real lived experiences of first-generation students. This course will cross analyze characters and various forms of popular mass media with current student development theories and intersectionality as it relates to holistic student success.

Course learning outcomes:
  1. To gain an understanding of the experiences of first-generation students.
  2. To increase the visibility of the first-generation identity within popular culture and mass media.
  3. To explore the intersections of race, society, familial status, and lived experiences through various student development and identity theories.
  4. To foster self-exploration and critical thinking skills.
  5. To effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts or of works in the visual/performing arts.

 

Required course materials:

Required Books:

Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis

 

Grading policy:

Grading for the course will be broken down as follows:

Attendance & Participation: 20%

Team Project & Presentation: 30%

Reflection Papers: 20%

Paper: Finding Me: A Memoir: 30%

*All work should be submitted as a digital copy through Canvas.

Final Grade: Your final grade will appear as a letter grade according to the following scale:

90-100%: A

80-89%: B

70-79% : C

60-69%: D

0-59%: F

 

 

Attendance policy:

Attendance & Participation (20%):

Since in-class discussion is an important part of the learning experience in this course, you are expected to attend and actively participate in class on a regular basis. However, in order to accommodate your schedule and life, you are welcome to miss up to three classes during the semester. If necessary, please use these absences wisely. If you foresee the need to miss more than three classes during the semester, please discuss your conflicts with me.

There is in general no need to provide me with documentation related to your absences from class. However, if you miss more than three classes during the semester and wish to have an exception made regarding your attendance and participation grade (e.g., you were ill or faced some other personal emergency), you will need to provide documentation for all of your absences, to show that each was in fact worthy of an exception.

At the end of the semester your Attendance & Participation grade will reflect your average points earned across all classes (allowing for three absences).

 

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.

Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Humanities area.

Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.

This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:

  • How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic and philosophical works.

Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:

  • Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts or of works in the visual/performing arts.

Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:

  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Information Literacy
  • Intercultural Competence
Instructor First Name:
Charmaine
Instructor Last Name:
Troy
Section:
CT
CRN (you may add up to five):
35546
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication

Designing Disease: Modern Media in the Age of Pandemics

Last Updated: Mon, 01/05/2026
Course prefix:
LMC
Course number:
3318
Semester:
Spring
Academic year:
2026
Course description:

Covid, despite modern advances in medical technology, taught us that pandemics are not just about medical or biological phenomena. Preventing the contagion and controlling the outbreak of information gleaned –both accurate and inaccurate–proved almost as challenging as containing and curing the virus. Via the lens of world literature, film, and media, this class will explore ethical questions throughout the history of biology and medicine during pandemics. From the Middle Ages to the contemporary world, we will look at representations of health, disease, and the medical establishment, and the cultural implications of medical innovation. Along with literature, film, and media, students will consult a variety of scientific and cultural artifacts that will add to ethical discussions about pandemics. Over the course of the semester we will reflect on the profound assumptions rooted in the language, images, and media used over time to deal with disease and pandemics. 

And, since we are in Metz, we will put special emphasis on Europe, France, and the Alsace-Lorraine region as we take required Friday outings that enhance our inquiry. For example, we will visit WWI sites to learn about war’s role during the Spanish flu. We will also travel to Colmar to view the Isenheim Altarpiece to discover art’s role in health communication as well as to the Fort de Queuleu concentration camp in Metz to understand Nazi ideology regarding the human body. 

Course learning outcomes:
  • Through course readings and discussions, students will demonstrate knowledge of the origins and types of pandemic literature and media.
  • Students will be able to conduct close textual analyses of selected pandemic writing and research.
  • Through course readings and discussions, students will demonstrate knowledge of the moral and ethical issues involved in the act of writing about pandemics.
  • Write lucid, well-constructed arguments analyzing and interpreting texts and artifacts.
  • Synthesize primary and secondary readings to completed an extended project on the course theme.
  • Students will utilize travel writing as a tool for analysis of cultural and political issues relevant to pandemics in Europe, Metz, Alsace-Lorraine, and France.
  • Understand basic concepts of intercultural sensitivity, worldview structures and mindful learning
  • Situate Metz, France and the Grand Est region and Europe in broad historical, cultural, and geopolitical contexts
  • Develop and sharpen critical thinking skills and apply them to concepts and debates around pandemics, identity, globalization, and notions of globalism and global citizenship
  • Understand and analyze socio-cultural and political developments and current societal debates in France and Europe and be capable of considering these phenomena in cross-cultural, cross-regional and cross-national contexts about disease and pandemics.
Required course materials:

Albert Camus, The Plague,

Bernard Marie-Koltès, Roberto Zucco

Maryse Condé, I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem

All other texts, extracts from texts, and films will be available on the course Canvas site

 

Grading policy:

 

Students are expected to read and prepare for intense class discussion and class work, complete one group project and one individual project, participate in class outings, and accurately respond to reading quizzes.

 

Grade Breakdown and Brief Assignment Description:

  • Case History Group activity. In a small group, you will work with a small group to compile a mini case history of a person found in a literary work we study using real medical evidence and history about a pandemic: 10%
  • Ft. de Queuleu/Colmar photo essay outing assignment: On this outing, you will be asked to compile a thematic series of photographs from the sites to accompany a short essay 30%
  • Small group presentation project on one work of literature and one pandemic (individual element included): with  1-2 other students, you will give a presentation on one work of literature, film, or media and its corresponding pandemic: 30%
  • Participation – see below for description: 20%
  • Reading Quizzes: for each work consulted, you will be given a multiple choice short, factual reading comprehension quiz. There will be about 10 quizzes over the semester and I drop the lowest grade: 10%

 =100%

 

Grading Scale

Your final grade will be assigned as a letter grade according to the following scale:

 

A         90-100% Excellent (4 quality points per credit hour)

B         80-89% Good (3 quality points per credit hour)

C         70-79% Satisfactory (2 quality points per credit hour)

D         60-69% Passing (1 quality point per credit hour)

F         0-59% Failure (0 quality points per credit hour)

 

See http://registrar.gatech.edu/info/grading-system for more information about the grading system at Georgia Tech.

 

Participation and Classroom Conduct  

Good participation entails not only speaking and sharing your thoughts on a regular basis, but also being considerate and respecting the views of others. To earn high points in the participation part of the final grade, students will have demonstrated their awareness of the different functions of classroom comments by:  

1. varying their discussion strategies, 

2. considering what they say before they say it, 

3. taking intellectual risks, and 

4. always respecting the feelings of peers by not interrupting classmates while speaking and acknowledging interesting ideas. 

 

Rubrics and Detailed Assignment Descriptions

 For each assignment, you will receive a detailed assignment description well in advance of the deadline, which will include the grading rubric. I aim to return your assignments graded within one week of the due date. Delays may be longer with long travel weekends.

Attendance policy:

 

You are required to attend all classes and excursions. You can miss a maximum of 2 class days, no questions asked. Excursions count as classes, but they do not count in the allotted two days of absences. The excursion days entail assignments linked the outing that can only be completed on-site.

Each unexcused absence after 2 will result in 1 point deducted from your final grade. You must have approval and justification from the GTE administration in writing for an absence to be excused and not counted toward your 2 absences. 

Coming to class late and leaving early for an unexcused reason will result in an absence. This includes, among other things, leaving early to make a train or plane for independent travel. Coming more than 15 minutes to class for an unexcused reason will result in an absence. Leaving up to 15 minutes early with an unexcused reason will also result in an absence for that day. If you need to leave class early or come late for an excused reason, you  must have approval and justification from the GTE administration in writing.

Cancelled or late trains and flights, travel snafus, travel with friends or family DO NOT count as excused unless you have administrative approval. This means written permission from Paul Voss, the Dean Representative. 

All extensions must be pre-approved before the due date by the instructor and, if deemed necessary by the instructor, justified by the Gatech administration. Missing class does not automatically grant you an extension on an assignment due date. 

Academic honesty/integrity statement:

Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.

Core IMPACTS statement(s) (if applicable):

This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Arts, Humanities & Ethics area.

Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.

This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:

  • How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic, and philosophical works?

 

Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:

  • Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts in English or other languages, or of works in the visual/performing arts.

 

Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:

  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Information Literacy
  • Intercultural Competence
Instructor First Name:
Jennifer
Instructor Last Name:
Orth-Veillon
Section:
RMZ
CRN (you may add up to five):
35481
View PDF
Department (you may add up to three):
Literature, Media, and Communication
Subscribe to Literature, Media, and Communication