Cultural History Courses in English
- academic year 2011-2012
Spring 2012
Popular Music and Politics, 2 ECTS
Professor Martin Cloonan, Music, University of Glasgow
Visiting Erasmus Exchange teacher in Cultural History
Thu 12 April, class 1, 14-16, E325 (Seminar room of Media Studies, Minerva 3rd floor, Kaivokatu 12)
Fri 13 April, class 2, 10-12, E325
Mon 16 April, class 3, 10-12, E325
Aims The overall aim of this course is to introduce students, and to develop students' critical understanding of, the 'politics' of Popular Music. Within this the course aims in particular to:*Introduce and theorise the notion of politics and its relation to popular music*Critically examine the interaction between social movements and Popular Music*Examine the role popular music can play at times of political turmoil such as 9/11*Develop students' skills (including verbal and written) in the presentation of ideas relating to the politics of Popular Music
Intended Learning Outcomes By the end of the course students should be able to:*Understand and critically evaluate the politics of Popular Music in a range of contexts*Critique a number of key academic and other texts relating to the politics of Popular Music*Engage critically with academic texts which deal with Popular Music*Present verbally and in writing the different politics of Popular Music.
Assessment One essay of up to 2,000 words to be completed following the programme.Classes: 3 x 2 hour seminars
Extra info: List of literature (3 texts compulsory) see attachment
Info: Maarit Leskelä-Kärki (maarit.leskela@utu.fi)
Music and Violence, 2 op (kh)
Bruce Johnson (and Martin Cloonan)
Course starts 10th April 2012 10-12 (Janus)
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 to 12, on April 10th, 12th, 17th, 19th, 24th, 26th, May 3rd (May 1st is a public holiday), May 8th. That is, 8 lectures,paikka: Janus
Music is most often regarded as a positive force in society, but this course focuses on its "dark side". It explores the ways in which music and sound have been deployed in association with violence, ranging from what appears to be an incidental relation-ship, to one in which music is explicitly applied as an instrument of force. It will con-sider the physiological and cognitive foundations of sounding/hearing and their po-tential for organic and psychic violence, through a scientific and historical survey of the links between music and violence, from pre-Biblical times to the contemporary world. How have sound and vision competed as instruments of social control in rela-tionships between the individual, the community and the state? Why has music been the subject of often violent censorship?
The course will consist of 8 x 2 hour lectures, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10.00 to 12.00, beginning on April 10, and finishing on May 8 (since May 1 is a holiday). A more detailed handout will be circulated at the first lecture, but students with enquiries may send them to Prof Bruce Johnson at brujoh@utu.fi
Korvaavuus: kh: A3.4; yh: A1.2
Autumn 2011
Early Centuries of Russian History: The Tenth and Sixteenth Centuries 5 ECTS
Dr. Adrian Jones, La Trobe University, Australia
The subject aims to present a wide-ranging portrait of a mediæval and eаrly-modern society seldom studied: the Grand Principality of Muscovy at the moment when in 1547 it became a Tsardom. Without privileging any particular genre of history, the subject aims to expose students to a variety of historical representations. The readings, step-by-step, add new layers of sources and interpretations. There are still so many things we don’t know, and so many (surprisingly basic) things that historians can’t even agree about. The bizarre and (for much of the time) closed Orthodox-Christian kingdom to Europe’s east and to Islam’s north and west fascinated contemporaries.
The subject aims, where possible, to enable students to recapture that fascination by first-hand study of primary sources. One Russian ruler is the focus of study: known to us as Ivan IV Vasil’evich ‘The Terrible’ or really ‘The Awesome (Groznyi Грозный)’. In this subject, you will enhance your skills in interpreting visual sources (especially buildings and artworks like icons and banners) and written sources (especially Ivan IV’s own strange writings and the impassioned writings of other people about him). Time and again, you will be invited also to interpret first-hand records of people’s actions (especially their rituals and prayers, violence and building).
Course content
Тhe formative еrа in the political, social and intellectual history of the Tsardom of Russia is traced in this subject. There are six investigations, the first on Ninth-&-Tenth-century Scandinavians and Slavs, the remaining five on Fifteenth-&-Sixteenth-century Muscovy. Each weekly investigation focuses on studies of written primary sources (in English translation), as well as on Kremlin rituals, ‘political’ icons, and architecture:
(1) Tenth-century Varangian Rus
(2) The World of the Moscow Kremlin
(3) Slaves of the Tsar?
(4) Elite Women’s Lives
(5) Ivan IV – Holy Tsar?
(6) Ivan IV – UnHoly Tsar?
Lectures discuss the same sources, but place them in their wider Byzantine, Scandinavian, Polish-Lithuanian and Tatar-Mongol historical contexts. The focus is on the interplay of strange dichotomies of autocracy and oligarchy, patriarchy and communalism, xenophobia and Westernism, in the shaping of the Russian national and imperial state and society in the turbulent era of Ivan the Terrible (born 1530, reigning 1547-84), the extraordinary contemporary of Sweden and Finland’s Vasa Kings Erik IV and John III.
Mode(s) of teaching
12 hours of lectures (over 6 weeks) + 12 hours of seminar discussion (over six weeks).
Mode(s) of assessment
One 2,500-word essay on an aspect of any of the six seminar investigations (due on Monday, 3 October 2011) and one 2-hour examination to be held on Thursday, 20 October 2011 (based on Ivan IV and on any one of the other six investigations, excluding the one which was the subject of your essay).
Schedule (Timetable and teaching rooms)
Available for international exchange students. For more information contact the teacher Adrian.Jones@latrobe.edu.au
Constructions of Ethnicity in American Cinema, 3–6 op
Pirkka Kivenheimo, Thu 16.30–20, 13 October – 15 December, lecture hall Pha1, Auditorium, Pharma City, Itäinen Pitkäkatu 4, 1st floor – except NOTE: 8 December lecture hall Janus (Sirkkala-campus, Kaivokatu 12)
Arranged by North American Studies, Media Studies and Cultural History. In English
The United States has been called a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities. As a prominent constructor of American identity and a reflector of that identity both internationally and domestically, Hollywood has always had a major role in influencing the way both American and international audiences perceive various ethnic groups. The course examines the ways in which images of different ethnic groups have been constructed and re-constructed throughout the history of American cinema from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day.
The course work includes an exam or a lecture diary that will give the student 3 op. To earn extra study points the student has an option to write an essay worth 1, 2 or 3 op.
Course has moodle (use utu username and password)
https://moodle.utu.fi/course/view.php?id=4267
First time password (course key) is needed. You can get from the teacher on the first lecture or by email: kirtuohe@utu.fi
For Finnish students: korvaavuus: kh: A2.2.3, A3.2.
Available for international exchange students.
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PREVIOUS COURSES:
Spring period 2011
In April: These courses are open to all exchange students, Welcome!
Shakespearean Adaptations: Exploring questions of nationhood on stage and on screen, 2 ECTS
Dr Victoria Price, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow
Shakespeare's plays have been adapted or rewritten in various, often surprising, ways since the seventeenth century. This course is designed to introduce students to a range of Shakespearean stage adaptations, from feminist to postcolonial, Restoration to postmodern, and stage to screen appropriations. It considers the way in which rewritings of Shakespeare can be seen as a key location for the exploration of culture and its transmission. The course examines the relationship between individual adaptations and the Shakespeare text(s) from which they are adapted, and explores the cultural politics at play within them. It examines the different range of approaches to adapting Shakespeare - for example, some adaptations wander from Shakespeare's genres while others adhere to original models; some replace Shakespeare's language, others parody it, others stick close to it, some do all at once. Accordingly, the course explores questions of intertextuality, cultural politics, canon formation, questions of authorship, and the place of Shakespeare in cultural creation.
Tuesday 5 April 4-6 pm lecture hall I (Tauno Nurmela hall, University Main Building)
1. An Introduction to Shakespearean Adaptations
Wednesday 6 April 10-12 am, seminar room E325 (Media Studies, Minerva, Kaivokatu 12, 3rd floor)
2. Shakespearean Adaptations and questions of nationhood on stage
Wednesday afternoon 6 April 4-6 pm, Janus-auditorium, Kaivokatu 12: Screening of a film (a film adaptation of Macbeth called 'Mickey B')
Thursday 7 April 10-12 am, seminar room E325 (Media Studies, Minerva, Kaivokatu 12, 3rd floor)
3. Shakespearean Adaptations and questions of nationhood on screen
Assessment will be by lecture diaries or essays.
For Finnish students, korvaavuus: kh: A3.2., A5, yh: A3.1, A3.3
(muut oppiaineet sopimuksen mukaan)
Popular Music Studies: What's that all about?, 2 ECTS
Professor Martin Cloonan, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow
This course offers an insight in to the academic study of Popular Music. it begins with An Introduction to Popular Music Studies (PMS) in which the field of study and various approaches are mapped. The second session, Popular Music and Authenticity, examines a key concept within PMS and seeks to examine whether it is possible to distinguish "real" musicians from others. The final session, Elvis - The Lecture, examines the career of possibly the most famous popular musician of all time and its implications for both PMS and notions of authenticity. The course will be of interest to students with a passion for popular music and a desire to see whether academic accounts can provide insight in to this remarkable cultural phenomenon.
Tuesday 5 April 2-4, lecture hall I (Tauno Nurmela, University Main Building)
1. An Introduction to Popular Music Studies
Wednesday 6 April 2 -4 pm lecture hall I (Tauno Nurmela, University Main Building)
2. Popular Music and Authenticity
Thursday 7 April 2-4 pm, lecture hall I (Tauno Nurmela, University Main Building)
3. Elvis - The Lecture
Assessment will be by lecture diaries or essays.
Korvaavuus: kh: A2.2.3, A3.2., A5, yh:A3.1, A3.2
(muut oppiaineet sopimuksen mukaan)
Cultural history of sound, 2 ECTS
Prof. Bruce Johnson
20.4.-18.5., Ke 10-12, lecture halls Salus, Externum, Pha1 (see detailed info)
This course is designed as a general introduction to the cultural history of sound and the methodologies for its study. This is the first time such a course has been offered and no prior specialist knowledge will be expected. Presentation and assessment for the course will be in English. A good level of English comprehension is therefore necessary.
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Female madness on stage, 2 ECTS
Dr. Rafael Vélez Núñez, University Cádiz
Time: Wednesday 9 March 2 pm – 5 pm and Thursday 10 March 11 am – 1 pm
Place: Seminar room E325 (Media Studies, Minerva, Sirkkala 3rd floor)
The mini-course "Female madness on stage" will focus on the age of the Renaissance and the question of how female characters in the drama of the time used music as a mean to express themselves. It discusses Shakespearean heroines comparing them to some male characters like Hamlet and Titus Andronicus. It connects these dramas to other works from the Jacobean period, the Restoration, and finally discusses madness in opera.
Assignment: an essay of four pages based on lectures and reading material (specified by the teacher during the course).
The course is open to all exchange students
Urban Heritage and Lived Environment: a Baltic Sea Region Perspective 5–10 op/ECTS
KL2, beginning 7 March.
Kimi Kärki, Rauno Lahtinen, Silja Laine, Riitta Laitinen, Hannu Salmi and Taina Syrjämaa
HERI0301, Person in charge: Prof. Hannu Salmi, Common course with the European Heritage, Digital Culture and Information society Master’s program
The course analyses relations between cultural heritage and urban environment especially in Turku and the Baltic Sea region. The course concentrates on the presence of the past in an urban space and on its various forms. The themes of the course include the question of cultural heritage and public history, urban way of life as cultural heritage, city as a sensory experience and the connections between urbanity, nationality and consumerism.
The course starts with lectures by six lecturers. After this students will work in teams and make presentations based on local source material. The aim is to combine Finnish and foreign students in teams.
Programme:
Teaching hours: Mondays 12–14 and Tuesdays 10–12
7.3. & 8.3. Hannu Salmi: Introduction - Towards the Study of Urban Public Histories. Lecture hall Mikro (Kiinamyllynkatu 13)
14.3. & 15.3. Riitta Laitinen: Defining the Urban - Turku and its People in Premodern Culture. Lecture hall Externum (Kiinamyllynkatu 10)
21.3. & 22.3. Silja Laine: Nation-building and Consumerism in Finland after the Civil War. Lecture hall Mikro
28.3. & 29.3. Rauno Lahtinen: Building a Sanitary City? Town Planning and Urban Environment in the Early 20th century. Lecture hall Mikro
4.4. & 5.4.: Kimi Kärki: First in Turku: Popular cultural interaction in city space. Lecture hall Mikro
11.4. & 12.4. Taina Syrjämaa: Planning vs. Living. An Historical Approach to the City as a Lived Space". 11.4. Lecture hall Pha1 (i Itäinen Pitkäkatu 4 B), 12.4. Lecture hall X (Luonnontieteiden talo 1)
See also: http://balticstudies.utu.fi/nondegree/courses/#heri0301
(For Finnish students: Korvaavuus kh:A.2.2.5, A3.1., Sh: A4.6, yh: A1.2., A3.3.)
- For exchange students: to enroll in e-mail hannu.salmi@utu.fi
A Cultural History of Sound, 2 ECTS/op (kh)
Professor Bruce Johnson, KL2, on Wednesdays, 10 to 12 from 20 April to 18 May, lecture hall (see below)
This course is designed as a general introduction to the cultural history of sound and the methodologies for its study. This is the first time such a course has been offered and no prior specialist knowledge will be expected. Presentation and assessment for the course will be in English. A good level of English comprehension is therefore necessary.
Wed 20.04.2011 10–12, Salus (Lemminkäisenkatu 1, 3.krs)
Wed 27.04.2011 10–12, Externum (Kiinamyllynkatu 10)
Wed 04.05.2011 10–12, Pha1 (Itäinen Pitkäkatu 4)
Wed 11.05.2011 10–12, Pha1
Wed 18.05.2011 10–12, Pha1
(For Finnish students: Korvaavuus: kh: A2.2.3., A3.2., yh: S2.2)
- For exchange students: to enroll in email bruce.johnson@utu.fi
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Earlier courses
The Cultural History of African-American Music in the United States, 3 op, with essay 4-6 op (kh, NAMS)
Pirkka Kivenheimo, KL1, ma 16-20, alkaen ma 17.1. ls Pha1
exams 28.2. klo 16-18, ls Pha1 and 7.3. klo 16–18 ls Pha1
The course examines the various genres of music created by African-Americans in the United States, including negro spirituals, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, soul, funk, rap and hip hop, and the interaction of these styles with black American identity throughout African-American history, from the African roots and the days of slavery through segregation and the civil rights era to the beginning of the 21st century.
(For Finnish students: Korvaavuus: kh: P4.5, A3.2., A5, yh: A3.1, A3.3.)
- open for all exchange students
Shared traditions of national identities: intellectual histories in the BSR, 3 op (BSRS)
Vesa Vares, Contemporary History, Asko Nivala, Heli Rantala, Juhana Saarelainen, Cultural History.
The course will discuss some elements of intellectual history in the BSR from the late 18th century to the first half of the 20th century, with a special focus on German culture and its influence in Finland.
Timetable:
Mon Feb 14, 10–12, Educarium 2
Thur Feb 17, 10–12, Educarium 2
Mon Feb 21, 10–12, Calonia 4
Thur Feb 24, 10–12, Educarium 2
Mon Feb 28, 10–12, Educarium 2
Thur March 3, 10–12, Educarium 2
Mon March 7, 10–12, Educarium 2
Mon March 14, 10–12, Educarium 2
Mon March 21, 10–12, Calonia 4
See also: http://balticstudies.utu.fi/nondegree/courses/#bsrs9844
(For Finnish students: Korvaavuudet: kh: A3.1, Sh: A4.6, yh: A3.3)
- open for all exchange students
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Previous courses during the autumn
Mini-Course: The Making of the Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity, 2 ECTS, 12 - 13 October, 2010
Lecturer: Marianne Sághy, Associate Professor of the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest
The course focuses on the late antique Rome, the centre of western Christianity. It deals with the cults of martyrs, and discusses their origins in the secret, private sphere of the Roman life and their later publically accepted veneration which spread all over Europe during the Early and High Middle Ages. It will open up views to the traditional (pagan) customs of the Romans, such as the family cult of death, and their Christianization as the formal practices of the Roman Church.
The first lecture deals especially with the establishment of the Roman cult of martyrs and the beginning of hagiography. The second lecture concentrates on the role of the Saints in defining the identity of the Christian community of Rome.
In order to get 2 ECTS
Assignment: Short essay, about 4 pages (1 page - 2200 characters),preferably in English.
Dead line: Essays are to be turned in through moodle assignment drop box latest on Monday 1 November 2010
The course uses moodle to deliver the reading material and turning in assingments.
To join the course in moodle you need a course key, one time password which is "saints".
To register to moodle you first need to give your utu user name and password, and then the key is asked.
https://moodle.utu.fi/course/view.php?id=3509
LECTURES
1. Roman martyr cults and hagiography in late Antiquity
12 Oct, 4-6 pm Auditorium Janus, Sirkkala campus, Kaivokatu 12
2. Martyr saints and the identity of the Christian community in late Ancient Rome
13 Oct, 10-12 am, Pha1, Auditorium in Pharma City, Itäinen Pitkäkatu 4, 1st floor
- The course is open to all Erasmus and other exchange students. Welcome!