Kent State LIS Study-Abroad in Cuba

by RoryLitwin

The School of Library and Information Science, along with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is offering a study-abroad opportunity in CUBA!

If you are interested in exploring new cultures, and particularly learning more about young people (“Generation Z”) and how they consume culture in another country, this class is for you.

This four-week open learning course is scheduled for May 15-June 10, 2017 — online for three weeks, with one week of travel in Cuba (May 29-June 3, 2017).

YOU ARE INVITED to attend an information session for this course on Thursday, Nov. 10, at 6 p.m. in Franklin Hall, room 340, at Kent State University. If you are not in the Kent, Ohio, area you can participate in the session remotely:

JOIN WEBEX MEETING
https://kent.webex.com/kent/j.php?MTID=m35b0dcad68028838320184ad6a08e8c7
Meeting number: 715 199 653

JOIN BY PHONE
1-650-479-3208 Call-in toll number (US/Canada)
Access code: 715 199 653

The session will be recorded and later posted to this site: https://www.kent.edu/ccistudyabroad/cuba. A course overview and travel itinerary are located on that page as well.

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Course description: “The Real World” Cuba: Examining Gen Z Pop Culture Across Borders

Being a teen has clear implications across the globe. This course will examine how adolescence is defined transnationally, as well as young people’s relation to culture. What does “culture” mean to contemporary young adults living in the U.S. compared to those living in other countries? What is produced for this generation in each place? How do young people consume such culture? How do they interact with it? How do they produce, claim, and consume the culture they create for themselves? And subsequently, what can we learn about transnational cultural production, dissemination, and consumption for and by young people? This course will introduce students to Generation Z and the impact of culture on their lives, comparing the US and Cuba in these respects.

The trip to Cuba includes three cities (Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad) and a lot of Cuban culture. We’ll spend three days in Havana, immersed in Cuban pop culture with top Cuban artists from various art, film and music collectives and interact directly with Cuba’s Gen Z. From there we’ll travel to two of Cuba’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites which will show, among other things, “true masterpieces of human creative genius.”

For more information, including course objectives and a travel itinerary, visit https://www.kent.edu/ccistudyabroad/cuba.

Faculty:
This course is co-taught by SLIS Assistant Professor Marianne Martens, Ph.D. (for graduate students) and JMC lecturer Wendy Wardell (for undergraduates).

Marianne Martens, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science (SLIS). Her research and teaching cover the interconnected fields of youth services librarianship and publishing, with a special focus on Digital Youth. She is the author of Publishers, Readers and Digital Engagement: Participatory Forums and Young Adult Publishing (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). Prior to her academic career, Martens worked in children’s publishing in New York. You can read more about her at mariannemartens.org.

Wendy Wardell, an Instructor in JMC’s Advertising sequence, has more than 14 years of B2C experience in the advertising industry. She has worked for local, national and international ad agencies including Ogilvy, Malone Advertising, WB Doner and Liggett-Stashower. She has experience in planning, directing and executing programming designed to drive sales, and she has a proven track record of increasing consumer brand loyalty. She has implemented product launches for ZYRTEC and HUGGIES and has also managed integrated communications plans for global consumer brands including Glade, Ziploc, Windex, BENADRYL and TYLENOL.

All the best,

Flo

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Flo Cunningham
Marketing Communications and Public Relations Specialist
School of Library and Information Science
Kent State University
330-672-0003
fcunning@kent.edu

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I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. — Jorge Luis Borges