What does it mean to be postdigital? To consider a ‘postdigital turn’? Use of the ‘post’ is always already fraught and designating ‘turns’ in intellectual thought is tricky business. Nevertheless, this graduate seminar is designed to extend conversations in digital studies in directions that acknowledge the realities of an immersive, globally present digital every day. Does post mean after, on top of, or in medias res? No longer relevant, or urgently so? What invisibilities and privileges are presumed by the post? Does the post operate on envisioned ideas or lived experience? We’ll address these questions as we travel along three intersecting paths through history and theory. First, we’ll cover a digital history that accounts for both technical development and intellectual thought. Second, we’ll identify what ‘post’ has meant as a temporality and politically significant explanation for a given historical moment (postmodern, postfeminist, postracial, posthuman). Third, we’ll debate what the postdigital could and should mean today in light of contemporary digital mediation, considering what avenues it forecloses or opens up. Note: Having completed at least one grad seminar in digital theory is recommended, but not required.

Course Requirements:

Weekly reading and written response; seminar-level participation; discussion leadership; seminar paper

Intended Audience:

Graduate students, with priority given to DSI certificate students and students studying digital cultures across campus

Class Format:

Seminar - meets once weekly