COURSE SPOTLIGHT: GLBL 409 I'm a Cyborg but That's OK

Still have space in your schedule and looking for a course that will move you closer to graduation? Why not take GLBL 409: I'm a Cyborg but That's OK? This course takes on important current issues of identity and technology in an increasingly digitised world.

GLBL 409 is combined with MLL 490 This class titled "I'm a Cyborg but That's OK" after Park Chan-Wook's film, will explore the figure of the cyborg to interrogate the ways in which cultural identity is constructed through global media and the role of technology indefining humanness in an increasingly digital world. We will look at the processes of globalization, and the connections between local and global contexts of struggle that inform lived experiences of identity, including race, gender, sexuality, class and ability. Included texts will open up discussions about the role of technology in shaping capitalism, imperialism and violence as well as individual and collective practices of self-representation, resistance, self-determination and solidarity within a global context. This course will be organized in three simultaneous tracks: reading, viewing and production.

From Dr. Lizarazo on her teaching approach for this course: 
My teaching is a collaborative and interactive experience, rooted in feminist pedagogy and enhanced by technology; it exemplifies a commitment to intellectual debate and an openness to exploring different forms of knowledge production both inside and outside the classroom. As we have entered a historical collective experience that has transformed education, and will change higher education in profound ways, we need to use the tools we have to ensure that UMBC’s commitment to civic engagement is maintained through our classes and teaching pedagogy. In particular, I am committed to replicate the community-building experience of in-person classes with tools that I have previously used in my classes. We’ll continue creating E-Portfolios using Google Sites with assignments that mix collaboration, creativity, and technology. Assignments will be shared with the class to practice public writing and imagine knowledge production as a holistic process beyond the university. We will also think beyond writing as the center of knowledge production and use VoiceThread, Adobe Spark Video, among other apps of software, to explore audiovisual genres as ways to communicate and explore theoretical concepts from class discussions and readings.