This course examines the World Wide Web and the Internet as cultural
forms. In particular, it engages with the emerging cultures of the web
and examines them in light of questions of race, class, ethnicity,
gender, sexuality, fandom, generation and language among others. We
will for example, attempt to understand how the Web functions as a
space for the performance of gender or fan identity. To understand
these issues, we will closely examine specific web sites as case
studies in addition to reading scholarly and popular discussions of
cybercultures. By examining the role of the Web in the performance of
cultural identities, we can better understand the relationships
between culture, media and society. In particular, we can understand
how new media such as the internet and the Web are increasingly
shaping the ways in which we imagine ourselves and our worlds.