research paper

The Elastic Lens: Documentary, Portraiture, and the Avant Garde

Course Description: Photography is often conceived as simply a mode for (re)presenting the “real.” However, in this course, we will approach the phenomenon of photography as a means to question the act of documentation itself. This topic explores the discourses surrounding photography in contexts ranging from ethnography to social documentation, policing, medical imaging, portraiture, and the visual arts. We will ask such questions as: in what ways does photography intersect culture? How might photography reinforce or undermine social and historical dynamics? In this course, students will be given the opportunity to research and analyze the histories that lay dormant beneath the surface of images. In keeping with the goals and requirements of MCWP 50, students will examine a variety of arguments related to the course topic in an effort to understand their contents and structure. Students will be asked to introduce and support their own informed research-based argument about an issue relevant to the course themes. 

Required Texts: 1) MCWP 50 Fall 2020 Reader, for The Elastic Lens  2) A Writer’s Reference, for the Muir College Writing Program, 9th Edition by Diana Hacker and Nancy Summers, and 3) The Craft of Research 4th Ed by Wayne Booth, et al. Hard copy and eTextbook versions are available through the University Bookstore (858) 534-4557. The bookstore is offering to mail your texts to you without delivery fees. Please acquire the texts as soon as possible.