The Politics Department will offer "Militarization of Everyday Life" as a 3-credit online course during Summer Session I (May 29-June 29).
Take the course from anywhere! It will be completely online.
Instructor/course number: Kelly Dietz / POLT 34003
Format: completely online (no face-to-face meetings)
Credits: 3
Dates: May 29-June 29 (Session I)
Course description:
How might fashion trends, Hollywood films and video games shape our views about the military, war, ourselves, and our "enemies"? Are young people who enlist more ‘militarized’ than those who go to college? How might militarization shape people’s lives differently in terms of gender, race, sexuality, class, and citizenship? What are the implications of increasingly powerful private military corporations? We occasionally hear what war is like for communities caught in the crossfire, but what is life like for communities “hosting” military forces far from the front lines? What is and isn’t new about the increasing military intervention in space and cyberspace?
These are just some of the questions the course examines in order to understand the ways in which things, people and social relations become objects of militarization. The course takes a broad view of militarization as an everyday, ‘peacetime’ process in order to better understand our relationships to state power as individuals, as citizens, and as members of local and global communities. We begin by looking at how American culture and institutions are militarized. We then broaden our scope to explore how these often taken-for-granted processes intersect with the militarization of social, political and economic relations globally. Throughout the course, we explore how and why militarization plays out differently for different people, particularly in terms of gender, class, race, sexuality and citizenship. Through readings, films and your own experiences, we identify the processes that give rise to and sustain militarization—and the ways we are all involved in the militarization of everyday life.
Register now through Homer Connect.
Questions? Contact Kelly Dietz at kdietz@ithaca.edu
