Theme: Social Justice Online
Gen Ed: DSHU or DSSP
Instructor: Aqdas Aftab
Summer Term 1 Online
How have twitter hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo informed social justice
activism in digital and non-digital spheres? How does facebook benefit from and perpetuate
systems of racial and gendered power? How do white beauty standards inform the ways snapchat and instagram filters operate? How does identity impact digital surveillance, discipline, and privacy? These are some of the questions we will discuss in this class. In ENGL294 we will investigate how contemporary social media—broadly construed—works in tandem with social power structures. We will also explore how the internet can be used to propel social justice activism. As we read and analyze theoretical texts, recent magazine articles, and social media texts (such as facebook posts or youtube videos), we will pay particular attention to how media
and technology intersect with race, gender, sexuality, and disability. To immerse ourselves in the
world of social media, our class discussions will be held in a closed facebook group, and our
assignments will employ twitter, instagram, and other forms of social media. By the end of the
class, students will be able to critically examine how we are embodied online, analyze digital
rhetoric in relation to the form of media used, and consider the debates around social media
activism in a new and critical light.
