Pokemon: What This Class Is About

POKEMON:LOCAL & GLOBAL CULTURESATH 390Z

Mark Allen Peterson• Chair, Anthropology • Professor, International Studies• 120 Upham Hall• Phone: x5018• e-mail: petersm2@miamioh.edu•Office Hours: MTW 12:30-1:20; and by appointment

Pokémon

Course Objectives

1. Concepts

Learn and use key theoretical concepts in anthropological theory for describing and analyzing global cultural flows.

Course Objectives

2. AnalyzeSynthesize primary and secondary data to make original, coherent arguments about aspects of global cultural flows and Japanese popular culture, accounting for multiple and contradictory data or points of view

Course Objectives

3. Communicate

Develop and exercise the ability to communicate and act respectfully across linguistic and cultural differences.

Course Objectives

4. Situate

Explore and understand your place and influence as consumers and social actors in the changing world

Course Objectives

5. ReflectExamine and critically assess relationships among societies, institutions, and systems in terms of reciprocal – not necessarily symmetrical – interactions, benefits, and costs as expressed in global flows of popular culture.

Course Objectives

6. AssessDescribe the construction of differences and similarities among contemporary groups and regions through media representation and commodity use.

Required Text

Tobin, Joseph, ed. 2004. Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon. Duke University Press.

Additional readings (if any) will be available in the Resources section of the Niihka course management site.

Course Requirements

•Quizzes 20• Blog Posts 25• Class presentation 20• Participation 15• PechaKucha 20

100%

Grading• A = Excellent• B = Good• C = Fair•D = Poor• F = Fail

A note on grading:

In this class, a student who attends regularly, participates in class discussions, turns in all the work on time, and in general does everything asked of them and does it well, can expect a grade in the B range (B-, B or B+).

The grade of A (A-, A, A+) is reserved for those students who, in every assignment, go beyond what they are asked to do.

POKEMON:LOCAL & GLOBAL CULTURES

Culture Flows

Global Structures

Media Ecologies

Localization

Child’s Play

Commodified Cuteness

Relations of Power

Xenophobia

Resistance

Unexpected Audences

Intellectual Property

Fans, Anoraks, Geeks and Otaku

Simulacra

Gender

PechaKucha Night