Penn State Altoona faculty members Karyn McKinney Marvasti and Beth Seymour are the recipients of a seed grant from Penn State's Office for General Education that will help them create the proposed new course "Communicating Culture: Representations of Dominant and Marginalized Groups."
In April 2015, the University Faculty Senate approved a new integrative studies requirement within General Education, followed by the approval of implementation details in March 2016. The aim of the Seed Grant Program is to incentivize faculty to develop integrative studies courses, through either inter-domain or linked courses. In doing so, the University can build the capacity to offer these courses to students.
The awarded proposals include faculty from Penn State campuses across the state. All course ideas embrace the goals of General Education, specifically around the integrative thinking and learning objective and the new integrative studies requirement.
Marvasti and Seymour's proposed 3 credit course will provide an introduction to critical media literacy through consideration of media depictions of various cultures, both in an international context and in the United States. The course will be proposed to focus on any racial, ethnic, religious or cultural group.
The Office for General Education is part of Penn State Undergraduate Education, the academic administrative unit that provides leadership and coordination for University-wide programs and initiatives in support of undergraduate teaching and learning at Penn State.
