Sure, pop culture is fun. It’s great to watch an Academy Award winner, read a best seller. But stories that sell shape our values and beliefs, change how we act and what we do – often in powerful ways. Given the power of what’s popular, we better understand how that power works. Let’s read some best-selling books, watch a few Academy Award-winning movies, and see what we can figure out.

We’ll use as our arenas for inquiry some of the most significant civil rights movements in our lifetimes as we read and watch popular books and movies. Our primary aim will be to figure out, in fairly concrete ways, how stories shape people’s beliefs about people and the worlds in which we live. Best-selling books likely will be The Birchbark House, March, Ten Little Indians, Motherless Brooklyn, and The Hate You Give, and movies likely will be award-winning movies Hidden Figures and The King’s Speech.

Course Requirements:

This course is a gameful course, which means students can select from a menu of assignments, try different activities, and collect points as they move through the semester. Some options include writing traditional essays, designing and completing multimedia projects, attending and reflecting on relevant campus events, leading and/or recording discussions, and introducing additional materials into our course.

Intended Audience:

No background knowledge is required for this course. Everyone is welcome regardless of major, including people with backgrounds in history, politics, or activism as well as people just taking this course to fill a requirement.

Class Format:

Lecture and discussion.