My name is Courtney Kelly, and I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Manhattanville College. Before earning my doctorate at The Ohio State University I taught middle and high school Reading and English in Texas, Massachussetts, and Cali, Colombia. I conducted my dissertation research at a cross-cultural after-school program in Ohio with students who authored a multilingual social issue video filmed at their middle school.
One of my guilty pleasures is teen films and television, but I strive to be a critical consumer of popular culture. My degrees in English, Spanish and Education have provided me with a well-stocked theoretical toolbox to help me meet this goal, and I plan to share these tools with you. Most movies and televisons shows with young characters feature scenes set in schools. What do these representations of a crucial social institution teach us about ourselves and our society? I envision this course as a forum in which students can use their extensive experience with schooling and their encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture to develop critical media literacy.