Prof. James Joseph Dean (Sonoma University)

Course Description

This course examines the relationship between society and the communication technologies referred to as “social media,” such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and more. In this class we will develop conceptual tools, methods of analysis, and a global understanding of social media apps and websites.  In order to do this, we will read social theory from sociology and science and technology studies as well as examine the empirical research in the fields of communication studies, cultural studies, and media studies to understand social media today.  We will think about social media in terms of being part of the creation of a techno- social life.  That is, in general the course develops a perspective that views technology and social life as integrated and overlapping in our everyday lives and our global social institutions and structures.  Specifically, the course advances the perspective that technology as seen through apps and websites creates new sets of social norms for the community of users of that app and/or website.  Students will be introduced to key theories and research in the field of digital phenomena with the aim to have them develop their own critical responses, active engagement in class discussions of readings, and in their writing and presenting of an original research paper on the topics of social media in particular and techno-social existence in global societies in general.

Prof. Pedro Mandagará Ribeiro (Universidade de Brasília)

Course Description

Native people in Brazil and Latin America have a difficult relation to the national states of the region. They are both part and not a part of each nation; they live in a borderland between citizenship and destitution. National limits sometimes separate native communities from their relatives across the border. Several native peoples (like the Mapuche in Chile and Argentina or the Yanomami in Brazil and Venezuela) live in a borderland beyond national limits. Inside nation states, the demarcation of exclusive areas for indigenous peoples to live in is a major political conflict, as has been happening in Brazil, especially under the explicitly anti-indigenous policies of the Bolsonaro government.

In the first week of this course, we will review some theories about nationality and the formation of borders, as well as studying how the Constitutions of some Latin American countries deal with indigenous peoples. Authors read will include Friedrich Engels, Pierre Clastres, Jacques Derrida and Ailton Krenak. In the second week, we will discuss art works and films produced by indigenous peoples in Brazil and Latin America that touch on the questions of nationality and borders, including works by contemporary Brazilian artists Jaider Esbell, Denilson Baniwa and Célia Tupinambá.