This course examines how identity (who we are) and identification (how we connect to representations) functions in relationship to media that depicts deeply technologized cultures and states of virtuality. In doing so we will consider how identity is mapped onto virtual spaces and enacted within digital media culture. We will pay particular attention to how gender, race, and class are configured in relation to digital identities and representations of identity in cinema. In this course students will study “traditional” media like film and video and also analyze how digital media like websites, animations, and video games work. In Virtuality and Digital Identity we will analyze theories of digital media, virtuality and identity and then examine those theories in relation to a series of case studies organized around contemporary themes of identity, namely, the cyborg and the superhero. Throughout these studies we will develop a more thorough understanding of the twinned contemporary conditions of virtuality & digital identity. In other words, this is a course that looks at both contemporary narrative themes in media that depict so-called “special” and technological characters, as well as how and why audiences identify with such representations.

Course Requirements:

In Digital Media and Identity, student progress, and success is measured in a range of different ways. There are two short individual writing assignments, a midterm exam, and a collaborative research project undertaken by the small groups of course members to identify, group, and describe both representations of cyborgs and superheroes and they ways they have been studied.

Intended Audience:

This course is open to all students who have a strong interest in understanding how we identify with media and how we, as fans and critics, come to understand identities through media like film, television, and the Internet.

Class Format:

This class typically operates like a lively seminar, with a combination of lecture and discussion. As such, class meetings will primarily be synchronous. As a DC (Distance due to COVID) course, all aspects of this course will be fully compatible with remote online learning.