Sensitizing the students to the struggles of minorities and analyzing their depiction in film and television in the context of American cultural studies.

To this day, white, male, and straight is often considered to be "default human" making everything and everyone else (women, people of color, homosexuals, etc.) a deviation from this norm. There is evidence of this limited, yet still very dominant, kind of thinking almost everywhere, and film and television are no exception. Minorities (and I include women under this rubric since they face similar problems as other minorities even though they are, in fact, a slight majority) are still greatly underrepresented (and frequently reduced to certain stereotypical roles) in front of and behind the camera alike. And this fact matters since underrepresentation as well as misrepresentation have a negative impact on people’s role and status in society. Therefore, to somewhat redress this balance as well as draw attention to the many struggles of various subjugated groups, this course focuses on the representation of minorities paying special attention to American films and television series that are about and/or made by minorities.

Works discussed include (but are not limited to) Selma, The Hunger Games, Transamerica, The Good Wife, and Modern Family.

Analyses, presentations, group discussions.

Active class participation, student presentations, reading and writing assignments, term paper

Course materials and selected primary and secondary sources will be posted on OLAT

for the Bachelor Program (612): positive completion of compulsory module 14
for Bachelor Program Lehramt: positive completion of compulsory module 16
for the Teacher Training Program (Lehramtsstudium: 344): VO2: Introduction to American Literary Studies

For the Teacher Training Program (Lehramtsstudium: 344): PS2: American Culture.

For students of the BA Teacher Training Program (046) it is strongly recommended to have passed the VU Introduction to American Cultures.

Due to substantial differences in the allocation of ECTS-Credits in various curricula (teacher training program - BA/MA English and American Studies), the requirements for this course vary. Information will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course.