Digital Media/Cultural ID/Gulf

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course is exploratory, it engages with concepts such as virtual civil societies in the Gulf region and the emerging trends in digital media. How has our life moved to online? What does social media and posting a tweet or picture on Instagram impact our sense of self? How does engagement with various people and entities online impact various levels and forms of identities in the Gulf region? And what role does state policies play in restricting/framing our personal freedom and narratives online? The course will explore these concepts and trends and other major questions and debates around the digital transformation of societies and cultures together from international to regional level focusing on the Gulf. The course is multi-disciplinary and will cover various topics relevant to different, shifting, and contested aspects of cultural identities in the Gulf . This will include an in-depth study of role of media in shaping identities as well as the socio-political link between social media and identity, as well as key concepts such as virtual civil society, cyber feminism, twitter bots, and digital authoritarianism. This will be done through an intensive engagement with a variety learning resources (videos, blogs, social media platforms) and intellectual texts/readings at the intersections of the social sciences, gender studies, politics and economy.