First Year Seminar: Dark Academia

1 Course Unit

This First-Year seminar explores the phenomenon of the ‘dark academia’ online aesthetic. What are the origins of this way of romanticizing the act of studying and the experience of university? What do its signifiers mean, and why are they used? What cultural and political currents run underneath the surface of that #darkacademia post? This course invites you to interrogate the myth of the academy itself to see what it can tell us about class, race, sexuality, and power in the hallowed halls of higher education. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. 1 Course Unit