Professor: Christopher Michlig

4 credits

This course will begin by exploring the ubiquitous presence of interviews in our modern, globalized society. Interviews are encountered as media content through television, radio, social media, print media, and more. Interviews often serve as a primary method for information gathering in fields such as law enforcement, hiring, therapy, social research, journalism, and oral history. While the form and function of interviews have a history in the social sciences at both methodological and conceptual levels, in the context of cultural and literary studies, questions about the interview's nature often present it as a complex genre of its own.

During the term we will engage in three key research activities: conducting interviews, taking field notes, and creating cognitive maps. Each of these activities will be given equal emphasis. Conducting interviews will allow us to gather firsthand information and explore the dynamics of interviewer-interviewee interactions. Taking field notes will help us sketch, collage, and capture observational details and contextual insights that may not be evident in the interviews alone. Creating cognitive maps will enable us to visually organize and interpret the relationships between our environment and our perception and experience of it.