The Ohio State University

onCampus

• Help
• Buckeye Link
• Map
• Find People
• Webmail
• Search

  Search Ohio State Go

To thine own self be true

Posted on | June 3, 2009 | 956 views |

Pop culture minor teaches self-awareness and critical thinking

By Julia Harris

In answer to the question “Why would anyone want to minor in Popular Culture Studies?” the champions of the minor might

simply point to the syllabus for summer quarter 2009. In what other program, they may say, would students get credit for studying the history of rock and roll?

Or, if rock’s not your thing, how about Russian cinema, the sociology of sport or the problem of censorship of performance art?

In other words, a minor in Popular Culture Studies is a thoughtful yet eclectic way for students to dip their toes into the ever-swirling waters of cultural meaning. And for the past two years, it has been an emerging field of study here at Ohio State, spearheaded by Associate Professor Jared Gardner.

“We are still in our infancy, but we have an established minor with over a dozen programs contributing courses and a core of committed faculty and students,” said Gardner, who teaches courses in American literature, popular culture and film theory and history.

“Many courses across the university were already being offered or were currently in development,” he said, noting that to date there are roughly 20-30 students enrolled in the minor.

Some of the programs and disciplines that are contributing courses and faculty include comparative studies, music, East Asian languages and literatures, and Greek and Latin. Also contributing to the interdisciplinary minor are the Cartoon Research Library’s Lucy Shelton and Alan Woods from the Theatre Research Institute.

For Linda Mizejewski, professor of women’s studies and specialist in feminist film theory, the beauty of Ohio State’s minor in pop culture is how it trains students to be savvy navigators of the sea of media in which we all now find ourselves.

“Media literacy is a skill that can be valuable in conjunction with lots of majors and degrees,” she said.

“The philosophical rationale is that especially in this era of life, spent almost totally in front of ‘screens’ — iPod, computer, TV, cinema — we need to do critical thinking about what we’re seeing and what’s being offered to us as ‘real’ or ‘natural.’”

In many ways, Mizejewski says, the minor provides students with a user’s manual for today’s fast-paced, communications-based society. With the proliferation of technological gadgets that redefine and drive the way people communicate, many of the major career fields of the future are going to revolve around the creation and recreation of those tools.

“I want those jobs to go to people who have thought about the meanings of this kind of communication as well as the visual and narrative content,” she said.

Gardner agrees that students who pursue this minor tend to have an eye on their future. “Many of our students are interested in pursuing careers in some aspect of the popular culture industries, especially music and promotions.”

Practical considerations aside, Mizejewski also is interested in how pop culture is the staging ground for so many of the ideas that color everyday life — issues of gender, class, sexuality and the like. She points to series like “American Idol” and its most recent flamboyant star, Adam Lambert, as examples of how television shows both challenge and reflect societal norms.

With an average viewership of more than 20 million people for each episode — making it the most popular prime-time show — the impact of “Idol” and other shows is incalculable.

“Pop culture is where all of us first meet our most basic ideas about relationships, family love, romance and work,” Mizejewski said.

The idea of studying popular culture in a serious and academic fashion, while not new, is still somewhat contested in terms of legitimacy. Bowling Green is the only university in this country currently offering a PhD program exclusively devoted to popular culture, Gardner says, even though student interest in the material continues to grow.

Whatever grumblings may still ensue from the ivory tower, Gardner remains enthusiastic about the interdisciplinary minor at Ohio State. “There are certainly real-world applications for the methods and ways of thinking that emerge from our minor, but ultimately our goals for it are not first and foremost vocational,” he said.

“We’re interested in showing the continuities between the ‘stuff’ of university study and the ‘stuff’ of the world beyond our walls.”

Comments