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INTD 101-29 - The Medium Is the Message

Tuesdays & Fridays, 9:55 – 11:35 a.m.

CRN 40474

John Peffer
Associate Professor of Contemporary / Nonwestern Art History

A medium is the technical or material form used to exchange information, ideas, pictures, images, feelings, wealth, values and other immaterial things that people want. A medium can be any substance that is made into an image: it can be your physical self or personal style (when dressing a part or acting a role), it can be the pencil and paper that make a drawing, or typed words that contain a story, or a disk that carries recorded music, or the internet and computer screen conveying news of the day.

Mediums also influence the messages they carry. A human face cannot do the same things as a photograph of a face, or a face placed on Facebook. A song about a mountain is not the same as a painting or a short story about a mountain. Exchanging value will have different outcomes depending on whether one trades goods for other goods, or uses paper money or bitcoin. The production of online news enables the proliferation of deep fakes.

No matter who you are or what you do for a living the mediums you use are affecting your thoughts and behavior whether you are aware of it of not. That is why thinking about what  mediums are and how they do what they do can give a deeper understanding of how art and culture, politics and economy work in society.

In this class we also explore how the mash-up of mediums can be a basis for thoughtful creative practice and responsible citizenship, we learn about synesthesia (hearing color and seeing sound), and about how artists have used the body as a vehicle for experience and expression.

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INTD 101-31 - Popular Culture

Tuesdays & Fridays, 8:00 – 9:40 a.m.

CRN 48628

Johanna Almiron
Adjunct Faculty

Pop goes the culture! From Tik Tok to television, art history to public protest, visual culture and performance are central to our everyday life as a society. Popular culture encompasses all that we see and experience on a quotidian level and how ideas are processed and produced through social and political forces. Since the focus of this section is popular culture, the curriculum includes weekly in-class and at-home viewings, and independent field trips as feasible.

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INTD 101-32 - Adaptation and Culture

Tuesdays & Fridays, 9:55 – 11:35 a.m.

CRN 40476

Peter Campbell
Professor of Theater History and Criticism

Why do we adapt stories? What elements of a story or a culture make certain stories popular for adaptation? In this course we will explore adaptations in fiction, film, television, and theater to closely examine ideas of structure and character and their connections to ideology and culture. We will read, view, discuss, and write about stories and their adaptations across time and space, including ancient Greek myths, contemporary Japanese manga and anime, Elizabethan English theater, postcolonial Caribbean drama, and futuristic novels and filmed series from the United States and Canada.

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INTD 101-33 - Social & Media: Perceptions of Technology in Society

Mondays & Thursdays, 6:05 – 7:45 p.m.

CRN 40482

Brendan Flanagan
Adjunct Faculty

At this point in our society, “social media” is a phrase that has proliferated to the point of being inescapable. This course will examine that phrase, however, looking at the media (i.e. the means of communication) in our digital age and precisely how social (i.e. allowing one to interact with others as part of a society) they allow us to be. Students will also examine technology’s portrayal in contemporary literature and film to better grasp our current societal struggle with technology and its – sometimes uncomfortable – grasp on our lives.

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INTD 101-34 - Coming of Age on Film

Tuesdays & Fridays, 1:45 – 3:25 p.m.

CRN 40092

Neel Scott
Associate Professor of Digital Filmmaking

In this section of First Year Seminar, students will explore the coming of age film, and how movies have depicted the transition to adulthood in a variety of world cultures, including those from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Central and South America. Students will view and engage with these films, and learn how to analyze and discuss their narrative structures, formal elements, and themes.

As students will discover, coming of age films are not only the story of an individual and their development of self and identity, but are also vehicles for addressing broader issues of racial and ethnic identity, gender, sexual orientation, nationalism, historical memory, and community and belonging, among many other things. As part of our study of these films, we will situate them within relevant political, social and cultural contexts as a way of deepening our understanding and appreciation of their stories and the issues they explore, and we will investigate cross-cultural connections that may inform our interpretation of our own traditions, upbringings, identities, and coming of age narratives.

Over the semester, students will explore different modes of writing about and for film, including film history, formal analysis, the film review, and the film screenplay. Students will complete a research paper and a group presentation, and will also have the opportunity to develop and produce a creative project of their own that addresses the course’s theme.

As a part of the Ramapo Exploration Program (REP), undeclared students in this FYS can explore major selection with the instructor, who will help them make informed decisions in their Ramapo undergraduate career.

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INTD 101-35 - 'Constipado' is not 'constipated': A Beginners' Introduction to Spanish for Health Care and Human Services

Mondays & Thursdays, 11:20 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

CRN 40776

Natalia Santamaria-Laorden
Associate Professor of Spanish

Languages allow us to express ourselves: from basic everyday needs to our deepest desires. And, yet, each language acts as a code that frames reality in specific ways, too, restricting our capacity to knowledge and self-expression. In this sense, while scientific language such as the one used in medicine strives to be unequivocal (i.e., organs are clearly differentiated from each other and have equivalent terms in each language), a patient in distress is likely to experience difficulty in expressing their pain and source of suffering. The difficulties only increase when trying to communicate in a different language and culture.

In this course, we will examine how languages function and the difficulties of translating in health care and human services contexts. Specifically, we will focus on the needs of native speakers of Spanish and Spanish-English bilingual speakers. The course will also provide an introduction to Spanish vocabulary and expressions related to health care and an understanding of cultural specificities.

Open to students of all levels of Spanish, true beginner to proficient, the course will also give students an understanding of the benefits to complement their careers with a minor in Spanish or the certificate in Spanish for Health Care and Human Services, awarded two UISFL grants, in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

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