FFAR 298:
Bridging arts, culture, and society
Our Interdisciplinary Studies courses bridge the disciplines and provide a critical perspective on how artistic practices intersect and engage with culture and society. From hip-hop to queer cinema, from dancing bodies to artificial intelligence and sexuality and gender, get ready for a captivating blend of academic rigor and popular culture.
FFAR 298 - Black Representation in the Arts
This course examines the portrayal and contributions of Black artists across various art forms, including visual arts, literature, music, film, and theater. Historical and contemporary perspectives are explored, analyzing how Black identity, culture, and experiences are represented and interpreted. Aiming to highlight the significance of Black voices in the arts, the course fosters a deeper understanding of their impact on cultural and social landscapes, engaging with themes of race, identity, power, and resistance.
FFAR 298 - The City After Dark
The City after Dark explores how societal binaries, including gender, shape perceptions of nighttime as both dangerous and liberating. Focusing on urban contexts, particularly Montreal, the course investigates the impact of night-time lore on real-world implications. Topics include the influence of status, location, income, and technology on nighttime access. Through film, literature, urban studies, human geography, sexuality studies, communications, and sociology, students will analyze how urban design and culture shape social interactions after dark.
FFAR 298 - Clothing, Sexuality and the Arts
This course explores the intersection of clothing and sexuality through the arts, examining how fashion both shapes and challenges sexual identities. It delves into the historical and cultural significance of dress, its role in identity formation, and its use as a strategy of desire or fetish. Topics include the construction of sex and gender through attire, the impact of the "gaze" in fashion, and the interplay between clothing, sexuality, and race. Additionally, the course addresses dress and masculinity from historical and queer perspectives and considers the emotional and sexual implications of religious and sacred attire.
FFAR 298 - Films About the Diaspora
This course examines the impact of population dispersion on cinema, focusing on immigrant lives globally. Centered on the South Asian diaspora, the course explores various themes: characteristics and types of diasporas in Canada; issues of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and identities; forced migration and rites of return; homeland and nostalgia; exile and displacement; politics of memory; diasporic art and cultural productions; diasporic women’s writing and film; and the future of diasporic imaginings.
FFAR 298 - Hip-Hop Icons: Artist in Focus
This course explores the interdisciplinary nature of hip-hop through the lens of its most influential artists. Each semester, the course focuses on a different hip-hop icon, examining their contributions to music, art, and culture. Emphasizing the connections between hip-hop and various art forms, the course delves into themes of creativity, community, and cultural impact.
FFAR 298 - Histories in Music and Culture
This introductory ethnomusicology course explores the diverse folk music of Canada and its cultural significance, examining themes such as revival, innovation, and globalization. The interdisciplinary approach connects cultural history with music performance, providing insights into the broader societal impacts of folk traditions.
FFAR 298 - Horror and Fantasy Films
This course delves into the eerie and the extraordinary, exploring a diverse selection of films within historical and political contexts, examining the evolution of the genres. Students will analyze the cultural impact and artistic significance of horror and fantasy, uncovering the ways these genres reflect societal fears, desires, and transformations.
FFAR 298 - The Music and Art of David Bowie
This course explores the life and work of David Bowie, using his career as a starting point for broader discussions. The first part covers Bowie’s musical journey chronologically, paralleling the history of pop, rock, and electronic music from the 60s to the 2010s. The second part delves into Bowie’s multidisciplinary approach, examining his impact on aesthetics, theatre, cinema, visual arts, fashion design, literature, philosophy, popular studies, gender studies, and avant-garde movements. The course concludes with reflections on Bowie’s death and enduring legacy, addressing the questions of semiotics, hauntology and fandom agency.
FFAR 298 - Writing and Art
A theoretical and practical introduction to writing about visual art, this course explores creative non-academic approaches, including poetry, descriptive analysis, art criticism, manifestos, experimental writing, and fictional narratives. Topics include ekphrasis, formal analysis, modes of interpretation, evaluative criticism, literary accounts, and personal reflections.
FFAR 298 - Artificial Intelligence and the Arts
This course is structured around three main objectives. Initially, it provides an overview of the history of generative methods in the arts, including performing and media arts such as music and film, tracing their evolution from early algorithms to contemporary advancements. Subsequently, the course examines present-day artistic practices that integrate generative artificial intelligence into their creative processes. Lastly, it addresses the ethical considerations associated with the use of artificial intelligence in the arts, focusing on issues such as plagiarism, ownership, copyright, and questions of authenticity and originality.
FFAR 298 - Art in the Anthropocene
Art in the Anthropocene examines how ecological and environmental issues in late capitalist and techno-feudalist economies inspire and intersect with artistic and architectural production. The course explores various media, site-specific works, activism, performance, and digital art. Utilizing approaches from visual culture analysis, natural sciences, political economy, philosophy, postcolonial theory, Indigenous knowledges, feminism, and media studies, students will critically reflect on how climate change, extractivism, accumulation, migration, sustainability, biodiversity, and animal ethics are addressed in cultural production.
FFAR 298 - The Culture of True Crime
This course explores the compelling nature of true crime stories and their reflection of societal anxieties. From sensational Victorian crime sprees to pulp detective magazines and serial killers, true crime is examined as both storytelling and a social mirror, addressing the slippery divide between fact and fiction, the relationship between media and the criminal justice system, and the ethics of exploiting tragedy. Drawing from cultural studies, journalism, criminology, sociology, communication theory, and philosophy, students will analyze how gender, race, class, and sexuality critically intersect in these narratives.
FFAR 298 - Indigenous Representation in the Arts
This course delves into the rich and diverse portrayals of Indigenous cultures through visual arts, literature, music, film, and theater. Emphasizing the importance of territory and decolonization, it explores how Indigenous artists express their identities, histories, and traditions. Students will take an interdisciplinary approach to engage with themes of sovereignty, resilience, cultural revival and cultural reclamation, analyzing both historical and contemporary works.
FFAR 298 - It’s Bigger than Hip-Hop
This course dives into the powerful intersections of hip-hop with art, society, and culture. It uncovers how hip-hop shapes and is shaped by visual arts, literature, film, fashion, and activism, while tackling themes of race, politics, identity, and resistance. With a fresh and dynamic approach, the course highlights hip-hop's influence beyond music, revealing its vital place in contemporary culture and analyzing its role in movements for social justice and community empowerment.
FASS 298 - Queer Horror
This course explores the parallels between queer experience and the horror genre, rooted in Gothic traditions. The course examines how horror twists or re-imagines the domestic, conventional, and heteronormative. Both Queer Theory and horror media focus on the body, repressed possibilities, and what lies just below the surface. Analyzing works by theorists like Harry Benshoff, Claire Sisco King, and Carmen Maria Machado, the course connects the marginalized, monstrous status society confers on the queer community with the monsters in our entertainment media.
FFAR 298 - Dancing Bodies in the Popular Culture
This course explores dance in contemporary culture, from Charleston to butoh, contact improvisation, and breakdancing. Examining how dance both reflects and shapes popular culture, it analyzes its role in questioning social discourses on gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and identity through an interdisciplinary lens.
FFAR 298 - The Movie Soundtrack
This course explores the powerful auditory dimension of moving pictures. Since the late 1920s, voice, sound effects, and music have added a sophisticated layer to screen images, often unnoticed by viewers. Throughout the term, students will develop critical listening skills to appreciate and understand cinematic and televisual sound design. Emphasizing the emotional impact of sound and music, the course reveals how these elements can transform our viewing experience, heightening tension, enhancing immersion, and enriching storytelling.
FFAR 298 - Documentary and Social Justice
From the beginnings of documentary filmmaking, directors have captured images of marginalized outsiders and minority groups. This course screens and analyzes films that illuminate the challenges faced by those outside the mainstream and examines how their on-screen representations have influenced their struggles for acceptance. Exploring the documentaries reception by audiences, critics, and the depicted groups, the course engages with a range of issues including race, gender, class, disability, sex, sexual orientation, and body image.
