Communications and Media - Sophomore

Course # HUSS 2051

Credits 6

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites: None

Course Description

This course is an introduction to philosophy. It aims to strengthen students’ critical thinking skills, help them build a theoretical toolkit to navigate interdisciplinary practices of knowledge production. As an introductory course, it provides students with the basic knowledge of philosophical theories, categories, and topics. We explore major philosophical discussions in the contemporary world ranging from epistemology to aesthetics. The course does not presume to dictate any philosophical doctrine; its purpose is to help students improve their skills of reasoning and develop a taste to reflect on things non-pragmatic.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students are expected to be able to:

• use philosophical categories accurately in discussing philosophical topics;
• untangle (latent) premises upon which (their own or others’) philosophical statements are made;
• identify inconsistencies and potential errors that require attention and investigation;
• take a systematic approach, to ensure that issues are viewed in a “bigger picture” and essentials are not overlooked;
• defend a stance in a debate reasonably (using relevant facts, knowledge of theories, coherent arguments);
• discuss philosophical issues responsibly (amicably and cooperatively).

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # MDIA 2071

Credits 6

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites: None

Course Description

The course examines how communications and media shape, reflect, and transform contemporary Central Asian societies and their global connections. During this course, you will explore how media practices, digital technologies, and communication networks intersect with critical contemporary issues, including decolonisation, environmental anthropocene, collective memory, solidarity movements, resilience narratives, globalisation processes, and the preservation of indigenous knowledge systems.

Through workshops, reading, homework and discussions, you will be invited to investigate both traditional and emerging media forms - from indigenous storytelling traditions to social media platforms - as sites where Central Asian identities, politics, and cultural practices are negotiated and contested. Students will analyse how communication technologies and media representations influence public discourse, social movements, and cultural preservation in the region, whilst considering meta-modernist approaches to understanding these complex, often contradictory processes.

This course culminates in groups developing and presenting proposals for practice-based creative projects that demonstrate critical application of contemporary communication strategies within Central Asian contexts. You will have opportunities to apply diverse methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks to your own creative visions, exploring how media and communication practices can address contemporary challenges whilst honouring local knowledge systems and cultural specificities.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students are expected to be able to:

• demonstrate an up-to-date introduction to modern art and media discourses.
• analyse contemporary contexts and critically evaluate the historical, cultural, environmental, and political factors influencing communications and media practices in Central Asia.
• integrate multiple communication forms and media technologies, including visual, audio, and digital elements, in creative works and be introduced to professional networks in media and communications.
• participate in discourses about global and regional communications and media practices, with particular focus on Central Asian contexts and cross-cultural dialogue.
• participate in discourses about global and regional art and media practices in Central Asia.
• generate original project proposals that engage with contemporary themes and communication methodologies relevant to Central Asian and international contexts, demonstrating critical application of media practices and communication theories.
• Course Assessments and Grading

Course # MDIA 2110

Credits 6

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites: None

Course Description

This course teaches students two parallel sets of skills. On one hand, it teaches students about the history of journalism in a global and Central Asian context, how it has developed, and what news values journalists consider given national and cultural differences across the globe. This course also gives students the chance to put into practice those journalistic skills and produce a number of different types of multimedia articles. This combination will help students understand how journalism can contribute to progress in society. As part of this course students will contribute to UCA’s student-run media, including yellowspace.art.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Explain the historical and contemporary roles played by traditional and new media.
• Publish brief original stories, in different formats and genres.
• Practice the skills necessary to develop the story from idea to finished article.
• Discuss the challenges and opportunities for communication and media professionals in society, especially in the Central Asian context.
• Examine the relationships between audiences, journalists and other intermediaries.

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # ECON 1001

Credits 6

TBA

Course # MDIA 2113

Credits 3

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites: None

Course Description

Creative Writing involves the development of intellectual, imaginative and skills of embodied self-expression. It also involves reading. In this craft-base course, students engage in a series of lectures and workshops, learning a range of creative writing skills in a variety of genres, methods and approaches and, in turn, are encouraged to be experimental and adventurous in their writing. Seminars address different creative writing topics and readings so that students can learn about various approaches from poetry to film dialogue-writing. The workshops are interactive; they aim to increase understanding of the process of creative writing and, most importantly, the process of script development, editing and presentation. All creative work in its original form can be written in a language of the student’s choosing but must be translated into English for assignment submission.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Identify and write in a range of genres including original fiction, non-fiction and poetry using literary techniques.
• Identify and demonstrate - in literature and in their own work - classic language forms and features, and elements of plot development, characters, landscape and setting, and achieve creative writing and reading skills in relation to concepts, topics, craft, technique and voice.
• Understand and demonstrate the creative processes of revision and editing.

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # COMP 2013E

Credits 3

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites: None

Course Description

The course focuses on creating computer animation using Blender. The first 7 weeks of lectures and tutorials will cover geometric modelling, motion animation, shading, texturing, and lighting with the Blender computer animation package.

Students mostly work on their final animation projects in the last 7 weeks, but there is one tutorial session per week, some with blender exercises, and some describing on reflection of the environment in shiny or glossy surfaces, and multiple bounce illumination.

There will be a final animation team project, to demonstrate skills with Blender in a creative setting, due for presentation in class during the last class week of the semester.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Use surface-based geometric modelling tools for computer aided design.
• Build a character with a skin and skeleton, using Blender.
• Create an animation of a scene that changes in time, with lighting and camera motion.

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # HUSS 3126E

Credits 6

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites: None

Course Description

The unprecedented changes brought by technological development often referred to as digitalization is shaping society, culture, and human identity in today’s digital world. Humans are becoming hybrids, communities are emerging online, many people live in virtual reality, and the digital world has altered social norms and created new communication and values. This transformation required anthropologists to use relevant approaches to study the current digital phenomena. Thus, the course invites students to explore how digitalization shapes human subjectivity and social relationships between individuals, groups, organizations, and communities. The course will introduce students to the new theoretical framework for the study of digital phenomena and provide ground for the study of digital culture which is a controversial point of many current debates on digitalization and its impact on society. Thus, the goal is to use anthropological approaches to the study of digital phenomena.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Identify key theoretical frameworks and important debates in digital anthropology
• Apply anthropological approaches to study digital phenomena and their societal impacts as well as to digital technologies and practices
• Analyze the ways that digital experiences can differ across social, cultural, and political contexts
• Reflect on how digital technologies and practices are changing anthropological researchEmploy the methods of digital anthropology to organize, conduct, and analyze research

Course Assessments and Grading

Physical training

Course # HUSS 2081

Credits 0

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites: None

Course description

The purpose of physical education is to strengthen health, develop the physical and mental abilities of students. Physical exercises and sports games is the way to a powerful and functional body, clear mind and strong spirit. The course is both practical and theoretical, it covers basic concepts of anatomy and physiology as well as health and safety requirements.  

Course learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

• perform a range of physical activities
• understand health and safety requirements for a range of physical activities
• describe the role and progress of sport in Central Asia
• chose an appropriate physical activities program for their age and gender
• identify tiredness and its symptoms to control the body during athletic exercises
• describe the technique of running for a long and a short distance and jumping
• accomplish running for a short and a long distance and jumping according to all necessary norms
• describe the rules of a range of sports games
• participate in a range of sports games according to their rules and techniques

Course Assessments and Grading

* The course will be graded with PASS/FAIL.