Universität Wien

124183 VK BEd 08b.3: VK Cultural Studies and Language Education (2024W)

Face Filters, Skin Care Influencers and Fat Activism - Body Politics in the EFL Classroom

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung
Moodle
Di 17.12. 08:15-09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17

An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 25 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

  • Dienstag 08.10. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 15.10. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 22.10. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 29.10. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 05.11. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 12.11. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 19.11. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 26.11. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 03.12. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 10.12. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 07.01. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 14.01. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 21.01. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17
  • Dienstag 28.01. 08:15 - 09:45 Raum 5 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-17

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

Body politics in the 2020s are a complicated, yet pressing issue. On the one hand, we have seen the rise of body-positive activisms in the 2010s. As a consequence, more diverse representation, a profit-friendly kind of diversity, has become the industry standard across commercial and popular media, as social protest movements - feminism, the #BlackLivesMatter protests - have increasingly been incorporated in mainstream storytelling (see Nike or Always, or Netflix’ programming). On the other hand, with the rise of social media and digital beautification technologies like face filters, beauty pressure has intensified - especially for teenagers: A recent German study found that between 2012 and 2022 eating disorders among 12- to 17-year old girls have dramatically increased by 54%. In Perfect: Feeling Judged on Social Media (2023) Rosalind Gill comes to similar results for the UK: Surveillance and optimization routines abound. In this contradictory situation, mostly companies profit: Growth in the US skincare sector is mainly attributed to kids and teens, aged 8 to 13 due to the rise of so called 'skinfluencers' on TikTok and Instagram (see 'The Sephora Kids', Podcast Today Explained, April 2024). And the billion-dollar profits of Novo Nordisk, the producer of the new weight loss drug Ozempic, 'beat forecasts' again (Forbes 2024).

To provide future teachers with a set of skills to navigate the ubiquitous body image crisis, also in the EFL classroom, this class introduces key notions from the transdisciplinary field of body studies and asks:

- How are our bodies gendered and racialized in different texts and media?
- What is a ‘normal’ body? How is otherness and dis/ability constructed?
- How are ‘beautiful’ bodies used to sell products and promote social movements, while abject bodies, which cannot be translated as desirable and marketable, are still excluded?
- How can students incorporate the critical analysis of media representations of bodies, and their commodification into their teaching practice and actual lesson planning?

Based on our class readings and interactive exercises, students will learn how to identify and scrutinise the role of ‘the body’, and cultural markers of difference like race, gender, class, sexuality, body type, ability/health, and age - and their intersections - in a variety of different media and online contexts, discuss their content and form with technical vocabulary, always keeping in mind questions of cultural production and consumption. They will have learned how to appropriately use a toolbox of genre-specific methods of cultural analysis (e.g. semiotic analysis, mis-en-scène analysis for moving images, conjunctural analysis for socio-cultural contextualization).

Students will develop a repertoire of ideas and teaching activities to address body politics in the EFL classroom.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

(1) Participation: general attendance, continuous contribution to classes on site and via Moodle
(2) Written research proposal (for the short research paper or BEd paper)
(3) Participate in an expert group session
(4) BEd paper/final essay

AI tools like ChatPDF, ChatGPT, Research Rabbit, or EducationCopilot etc. might be used as augmented research and writing strategies. A compulsory AI statement reflecting the use and implementation of tools and their results needs to be included in both the scrapbook and the BEd Thesis/final essay.

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

(1) Participation: 20 points (attendance, preparation, contributions in class & online)
(2) Research Proposal: 10 points
(3) Expert Group Presentation: 20 points
(4) Final Essay/BEd Paper: 50 points

Overall Score of 100 Points.
Pass-Mark: 60 Points.

The overall grading scheme is (1): 100-91, (2): 90-81, (3): 80-71, (4): 70-61, (5): 60-0

All of the course requirements (participation, research proposal, expert group session, the final paper/BEd paper) need to be fulfilled! Not showing up for your expert group session or not handing in the final assignment means dropping out of the course and being assessed with a negative grade!

You can miss two sessions. Term papers and BEd theses will be checked with TurnitIn.

Note: Students with disabilities or mental health issues may be granted special conditions.

Prüfungsstoff

This is an interactive course with continuous assessment. There will be no written exam. Students are expected to actively participate in class, engage with the class readings, and prepare for the sessions in the online forum (working on a wide range of different tasks, giving peer feedback, etc.). They will host a collaborative and interactive expert group session. They will have to produce an individual research proposal, a final term paper/BEd-paper at the end of term showcasing their academic writing skills.

Literatur

Final decision on primary materials and accompanying secondary texts in the first session together with students.

Selection:

“Coded Bias.” Netflix Documentary. 2020.
Coleman, Rebecca. “The Becoming of Bodies. Girls, Media Effects, and Body Image.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 2008, pp. 163–79.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “The Urgency of Intersectionality.” TED Talk. Available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o.
Elias, Ana, et al. “Aesthetic Labour: Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism.” Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 3–49.
Gill, Rosalind. Perfect. Feeling Judged on Social Media. Wiley, 2023. Excerpts.
Kellner, Douglas and Jeff Share. “Critical Media Literacy Is Not an Option.” Learning Inquiry, vol. 1, no. 1, Apr. 2007, pp. 59–69.
Kellner, Douglas and Jeff Share. The Critical Media Literacy Guide. Engaging Media and Transforming Education. Brill Sense, 2019.
Murray, Samantha. The ‘Fat’ Female Body. Palgrave, 2008. Excerpts.
Penny, Laurie. Meat Market. Female Flesh Under Capitalism. Zero Books, 2010.
Petersen, Anne Helen. Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud. The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman. Scribner, 2017. Excerpts.
Russell, Legacy. Glitch Feminism. A Manifesto. Verso, 2020. Excerpts.
Shilling, Chris. The Body and Social Theory. 2nd Edition, Sage, 2012. Excerpts.

Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Studium: BEd 046/407
Code/Modul: BEd 08b.3
Lehrinhalt: 12-4686

Letzte Änderung: Di 01.10.2024 14:06