{"293541":{"#nid":"293541","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Class Notes: Capturing Composition through the Queer Media Lens","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EChannel writing instruction through whatever students are interested in \u2013 that\u0027s the rationale behind Marty Fink\u2019s creation of the first-year English course, Queer New Media: Literature, Film, and Digital Cultures (ENG 1102).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWriting is this really important skill you can actually teach through the lens of whatever affects students,\u201d says Fink, who joined Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.lmc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Literature, Media, and Communication\u003C\/a\u003E in fall 2013.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter teaching English I using the modality of comics and graphic novels in the fall, Fink, who taught gender and sexuality studies at her previous university, felt compelled to build an English class that not only engaged students using new media but also embraced those trying to find themselves \u2013 as well as others like them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI felt I needed to make a space at Tech where students could come and say, \u2018Oh my gosh, I\u2019m in this room full of other students who identify as queer, transgender, or as feminists, and this class can be a space to work through those issues in my life, in my school, and in my social circles \u2013 with others also interested in these issues.\u2019\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFink explained that because certain types of people don\u2019t see themselves reflected in the media, the Queer New Media class is essential because it offers examples of marginalized identities as its central focus.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s this norm out there we\u2019re supposed to aspire to, but what if we don\u2019t fit that norm? I think a lot of students can identify with that,\u201d Fink says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003EExploring the unfamiliar\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESomething outside the norm \u2013 a different approach to writing instruction \u2013 was what Raksha Muthukumar was looking for when she signed up for Fink\u2019s class.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen I came to Tech, I wanted to explore things I\u2019d not been exposed to,\u201d said the first-year industrial engineering student. \u201cI saw the topic as something I\u2019d never sought out before in an English class or even on my own time necessarily. I think it was just the \u2018it\u2019s different\u2019 aspect that attracted me to it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe fact that the class incorporated a video gaming component was also attractive to Muthukumar.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cNot having been previously exposed to the culture of video games, I really liked how Dr. Fink was able to tie that in,\u201d Muthukumar said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe spring 2014 semester included three projects: the first of which required students to build a digital video game based on a course reading. The exercise challenged them to find the central narrative elements of the reading and translate that into a video game, providing them the opportunity to examine the role of gaming in building communities and in telling stories not typically shared within mainstream gaming.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI guess I always underestimated video games as a form of media to convey a point just because people have this impression of videogames as a huge time suck, or being only for a niche part of society, so you can miss how people could see and understand different things through that medium,\u201d said Muthukumar. \u201cEven though, initially, I had not thought of that particular type of media in this way, doing this gaming project really worked for me because it was so much more immersive than an article or brochure, for instance, would have been.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn evaluating her overall experience of the class, Muthukumar says it definitely lived up to her expectations of \u201csomething different from what I\u2019d done in other literature classes\u201d \u2013 and then some.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe says a particularly key learning for her was grasping the importance of exploring the unfamiliar in order to gain a true understanding of and respect for it. She wishes that wisdom for all college students.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cRespecting people of different backgrounds is a really important thing to know; if you\u2019re going to be an engineer, for example, functioning in the world with others, it\u2019s critical to know how to interact respectfully with others, no matter what their background is. Some of what we learn in this class is just so crucial to know,\u201d Muthukumar said. \u201cThat\u2019s the main reason I\u2019d recommend this class. You won\u2019t get the opportunity to learn something like this in another English class; there\u2019s nothing like it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThough it won\u2019t be offered during the summer, the class has been proposed for the fall semester.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EChannel writing instruction through whatever students are interested in \u2013 that\u0027s the rationale behind Marty Fink\u2019s creation of the first-year English course, Queer New Media: Literature, Film, and Digital Cultures (ENG 1102).\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Channel writing instruction through whatever students are interested in \u2013 that\u0027s the rationale behind the first-year English course, Queer New Media: Literature, Film, and Digital Cultures"}],"uid":"27299","created_gmt":"2014-04-28 11:24:59","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:18","author":"Michael Hagearty","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-04-28T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-04-28T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"293501":{"id":"293501","type":"image","title":"Queer New Media (ENG 1102) flyer","body":null,"created":"1449244313","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:51:53","changed":"1475894991","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:51","alt":"Queer New Media (ENG 1102) flyer","file":{"fid":"199305","name":"qnm.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/qnm_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/qnm_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":152776,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/qnm_0.jpg?itok=8N_BLMQL"}}},"media_ids":["293501"],"groups":[{"id":"1182","name":"General"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"89341","name":"class notes"},{"id":"34321","name":"composition"},{"id":"3747","name":"literature"},{"id":"92381","name":"queer new media"},{"id":"167943","name":"School of Literature Media and Communication"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:marty.fink@lmc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMarty Fink\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELiterature, Media and Communication\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}