ISIS-ORIGINATED GRADUATE COURSES (as of October 2010)
210S. How They Got Game: History and Culture of Interactive Simulations and Video Games. ALP, STS History and cultural impact of interactive simulations and video games. Evolution of computer and video game design from its beginnings to the present: storytelling, strategy, simulation, sports, 3D first-person games. Cultural, business, and technical perspectives. Insights into design, production, marketing, and socio-cultural impacts of interactive entertainment and communication. Students should have a dual processor implant with 1TB of VRAM. Instructor: Lenior. One course. C-L: VISUALST 210S
240S. Technology and New Media: Academic Practice. SS, STS How information technology and new media transform knowledge production in academic practice through hands-on work. Critique of emergent digital culture as it impacts higher education; assessing impact of integrating such tools into scholarly work and pedagogical practice. Modular instruction with guest specialists assisting with information technology tools and media authorship theory. Topics may include: web development, information visualization, time-based media, databases, animations, virtual worlds and others. Theoretical readings; hands-on collaboration; ongoing application to individual student projects. Knowledge of basic web development, personal computer access recommended. Instructor: Szabo. One course. C-L: Art History 240S, Visual Studies 250BS
250S. Critical Studies in New Media. ALP, R, SS, STS New media technologies examined from a transdisciplinary perspective; how they compare with, transform, and remediate previous media practices. Instructor: Lenoir. One course. C-L: Literature 261S, Art History 250S, Visual Studies 250AS, Arts of the Moving Image
260LS. Information Archeology: Studies in the Nature of Information and Artifact in the Digital Environment. SS, STS Interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of artifact and evidence, information and knowledge embedded in structured and unstructured digital data. Critical analysis, research and technology labs focus on societal and technological implications of data warehousing, Internet archives, analog to digital conversion, data recovery, and identity theft and management. Instructor: Staff. One course. C-L: Art History 285S; VISUALST 264S
260S. Digital Spaces and Places. ALP, SS, STS History, theory, criticism, practice of creating digital places and spaces with maps, virtual worlds, and games. Links to "old," analog media. Virtual environment and world-building and historical narrative, museum, mapping, and architectural practices. Project-based seminar course w/ critical readings, historical and contemporary examples, world-building. Class exhibitions, critiques, and ongoing virtual showcase. Projects might include: web and multimedia, GPS and handheld data and media capture, 2D & 3D mapping, screen-based sims and game-engine based development, sensors and biometrics, and multimodal, haptic interfaces. Instructor: Szabo. One course. C-L: VISUALST 262S
270. Body Works: Medicine, Technology, and the Body in Early Twenty-first Century America. ALP, CCI, STS Influence of new medical technologies (organ transplantation, VR surgery, genetic engineering, nano-medicine, medical imaging, DNA computing, neuro-silicon interfaces) on the American imagination from WWII to the current decade. Examines the thesis that these dramatic new ways of configuring bodies have participated in a complete reshaping of the notion of the body in the cultural imaginary and a transformation of our experience of actual human bodies. Instructor: Lenoir. One course. C-L: Literature 262, Philosophy 270, Genome Sciences and Policy
291. Special Topics in Information Science + Information Studies. Topics vary per semester. Information science and studies areas as understood historically, thematically, and in contemporary cultures. Theoretical readings coupled with hands-on work with technology and new media applications. Instructor: Staff. One course.
291S. Special Topics in Information Science + Information Studies. Seminar version of ISIS 291. One course.
298. ISIS Research Independent Study. R Individual research directed study in a field of special interest on a previously approved topic, under the supervision of a faculty member, resulting in an academic and/or artistic product. Consent of both the instructor and director of graduate studies is required. Instructor: Staff. One course.
299. ISIS Independent Study. Individual non-research directed study in a field of special interest on a previously approved topic, under the supervision of a faculty member, resulting in an academic and/or artistic product. Consent of both the instructor and director of undergraduate studies required. Instructor: Staff. One course.
Many other courses are cross-listed in ISIS. In addition, graduate students may have the option to take undergraduate courses for graduate credit, or alongside an independent study. Please consult your advisor and the course professor for details.
To see the full list of courses available as ISIS courses, review the semester by semester Registrar listings here or in ACES.
