Children's Lit, Geopol, AI

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Children’s stories are vital for cultivating life-long critical thinking skills and building emotional intelligence about the world we inhabit. This course explores the role and function of children’s literature and film in an age of AI and global geopolitical upheaval. Using intersectional approaches and an interdisciplinary lens, we will bring children’s literature and film into conversation with a rich variety of sources such as historical documents, print media, documentaries, and oral histories, in order to examine the complex cultural, political, historical, and economic legacies that shape our modern world. By delving into a diverse body of works, including classic fairytales, “Golden Age” texts, popular series such as Harry Potter, picture books, graphic novels, and literature and film from the Global South, we will also consider the power of storytelling and imagination at a time of rapid technological transformation. Furthermore, we discuss will the ways in which children’s texts enable us to cultivate empathy, joy, and resilience in challenging times.