Cultures of Surveillance Course Description for Spring 2016Like it or not, we live in a Surveillance Society. We are all striving to keep tabs on others in different ways at different times for different purposes while either attempting to or at least believing that we have the ability to limit others from doing the same to us. The balance between the extent to which others can know about us and what we can know about others is a power struggle that is a defining feature of everyday life in the modern world. Using scholarship from the social sciences and humanities, the course will examine 1) the historical and cultural contexts for the emergence and development of surveillance practices, 2) the values, norms, and beliefs that direct the choices to implement and utilize surveillance technologies, and 3) how these choices have been shaped by power relationships based on race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Our readings and class discussions will be organized around a semester-long research project where students will have the opportunity to investigate first-hand a culture of surveillance. Past projects have included studies of surveillance, power, and privacy in the contexts of healthcare, fitness, the military, policing, the workplace, family, dating, social media, college athletics, Greek Life, and student housing on and off campus.