Exploring Culture and Gender through Film: An OER Textbook

Book

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/books/02870w86w

Abstract

This book is an Open Educational Resource (OER) designed specifically for the course Exploring Culture and Gender through Film, which I teach every semester at the University of Colorado Boulder. The course began as an introduction to cultural anthropology that used films to illustrate key concepts, but it has evolved over the years to become much more than that. Films can do things that written texts cannot; they can convey knowledge that cannot be conveyed in writing or any other medium. In the course, written texts and films now inform each other. The key concepts in cultural anthropology still provide context for the films, but just as importantly, the films convey a kind of cinematic knowledge that provides context for the key concepts. Together, they offer unique and compelling insights into the human condition.

This book introduces the key concepts, but at the end of each chapter, there are sections that begin to connect them to the films. "Now Showing" briefly describes a film that pairs well with the key concepts in the chapter and includes a list of suggested reading. "Thinking Critically" is a question that encourages the reader to connect the key concepts to the film.

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