Courses

The course centers on four kinds of media (selfies, self-portraits, home movies, and TikTok videos) and how they enable self-representation according to any number of factors: geography, history, race/ethnicity, economic class, and gender and sexuality. By engaging with different disciplines, we will seek to understand the media in question by taking an expansive approach that considers the contents of the works alongside advertising; how historical contexts impinge upon a work or don’t; the development and regulation of technology; how technology enables and prevents the varying circulation of media; how the media is consumed; if and how the media should be preserved; and, finally, how media can enable or obstruct participation in a social movement.

Among examples of media use that we will consider are home movies produced by families and individuals from Indiana and the Chicago area between 1940 and 1980; home movies produced by African-American families during the 1960s and 1970s; home movies produced by Japanese-Americans during World War II; home movies from Spain during the 1960s and 1970s; self-portraits by U.S.-Latino artists; self-portraits from Spain; self-portraits by queer and non-queer subjects in the United States and Spain; selfies made by people in the United States and Spain; TikTok videos by teens in the United States and Spain. In addition to analyzing and looking at works by others, we will also produce our own media in activities and projects.    Along with digital archives located in Texas, Spain, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, IU-Bloomington’s extensive archives on campus will figure prominently into the course. We will visit and work with collections at The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art; the IU Moving Image Archive; and the Kinsey Institute. Finally, we will discuss helpful ways to succeed at IU-Bloomington and beyond by learning about resources on campus and grappling with questions about writing and presenting one’s work.     In addition to students producing their own pictures and short films, students will write two short papers; two short exams; a final project; and several brief homework assignments. 

This course is eligible for honors credit through Hutton Honors College. 

Catalog Information: COLL-S 103  FRESHMAN SEMINAR IN A&H

Instructor:

Jonathan Risner

Email:

jtrisner@indiana.edu

Department:

Spanish & Portuguese

I am an associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and affiliate faculty in Latino Studies and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS). My research focuses on cinema, and I have written about horror cinema and its subgenres (slashers, zombie films) from Latin America with a primary focus on Argentina. I have also written about romantic comedies, thrillers, and cult films from Latin America and Latino comics in the United States. My current research focuses on home movies made in Spain during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975) and until the transition to democracy in the early 1980s. I primarily teach film, literature, and culture courses in Spanish, and I have spent periods of time in Spain, Argentina, and Brazil. When I am not reading or writing, I am with family and/or our cats, Juan Carlos, Leticia, and Agnes. I like soccer, fixing things when possible, and popular music (some rock, some rap, some IDM, some country/folk/bluegrass, some punk). I like a good joke.    

GenEd Information: Approved for the Arts & Humanities requirement of the IU Bloomington General Education program.