COMS 200 | HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION SYLLABUS Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University Instructors: Farah Atoui & Liza Tom Wednesdays and Fridays 4:05 - 5:25PM EST Winter 2021 Land acknowledgment: McGill University is situated on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations. We recognize and respect the Kanien’kehà:ka as the traditional custodians of the lands and waters on which we meet today. Contact Details Instructor: Instructor: Teaching Assistant: Farah Atoui (she/her/hers) Liza Tom (she/her/hers) Ann Brody
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Office hours: Office hours: Office hours: Monday 2-3pm Thursday 10-11am TBC COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is a critical overview of the sociopolitical histories of modern communication technologies that shaped the 19th and 20th centuries. The focus is on the conditions that produced these modern tools of communication as well as on their social and political ramifications. The course examines an array of technologies, media forms and institutions—from railway and telegraph networks, to early film, photography, radio and the museum—through a postcolonial lens, and maintains a comparative approach to communication that reads against the idea of Western modernity and technological progress. By focusing on the relation between culture and power, the course aims to shed light on the role played by these technologies and media in re/producing and expanding (colonial) power relations, structures, and ideologies, as well as on their emancipatory potential for various historical contexts.