Cluster 2


Visuality: Image / Media / Signs

In the Western tradition, vision has long been the most privileged sense; courses in this cluster introduce students to cross-cultural and historically informed perspectives on experiences of the visual in relationship to the entire human sensorium.

How are encounters with visible forms structured or conditioned by processes and structures beyond our immediate visual apprehension, including relations of power, economy and knowledge? We examine a great array of media and forms, including carved inscriptions, adorned bodies, architecture, painting, sculpture, textile art, photography, cinema, advertising, digital imagery and computer-mediated visual communication. 

Particular attention is given to the cultural, political and ideological ramifications of image saturation in advanced industrial or postindustrial societies; how do persons and communities negotiate, interpret and help produce the ever-proliferating oceans of visual signifiers in which we are immersed?

Cluster 2 Elective Courses

  • Film Theory and Criticism (AMST 120b)
  • Television and American Culture (AMST 130b) *
  • Meaning and Material Culture (AMST 128a)
  • Visuality and Culture (ANTH 130b) *
  • Cross-Cultural Art and Aesthetics (ANTH 184b) *
  • Symbol, Meaning and Reality: Explorations in Cultural Semiotics (ANTH 126b) *
  • Anthropological Approaches to Art & Aesthetics (Anthropology 162)
    (at Tufts University: Dr. David Guss)
  • Cyber-Theory (ENG 101b)
  • Introduction to Cultural Studies (ENG 161a)
  • Making it Real: The Tactics of Discourse (ENG 280a)
  • American Avant-Garde Film and Video (FA 102a) *
  • Introduction to the Moving Object (FILM 100a) *
  • From Raphael to Riefenstahl: Real and Imaginary Women in German Culture (GECS 150a)
  • German Cinema: Vamps and Angels (GECS 167a)
  • Advertising and the Media (JOUR 103b) *
  • Arts Journalism (JOUR 114b)
  • Aesthetics: Painting, Photography and Film (PHIL 113b) *
  • Globalization and the Media (SOC 120b) *
  • Sociology of Culture (SOC 221b)
  • Mass Communication Theory (SOC 146a) *
  • Icons of Masculinity (THA 155a)

(* denotes core course)

Cultural Production Faculty with Interests in Visuality

  • Mark Auslander (Anthropology)
  • James Mandrell (Romance and Comparative Literature)
  • Charles McClendon (Fine Arts)
  • Laura Miller (Sociology)
  • Richard Parmentier (Anthropology)
  • Ellen Schattschneider (Anthropology)
  • Nancy Scott (Fine Arts)
  • Faith Smith (English and American Literature; African and Afro-American Studies)

Selected Online Resources