Pop-up Podcasts!, 5 cr

During the past couple of decades, podcasts have become an extremely popular form of digital media and storytelling. As a new mode of consumption in contemporary aural culture, podcasts are highly versatile when it comes to their subject matter, format, and genre, as they range from true-crime podcasts to fashion and education podcasts, from Serial to Bande à part to anti-racist podcasts such as Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast and LGBTQ+ podcasts such as Making Gay History and Big Gay Fiction Podcast. Some of the popular podcasts have also proved to be highly controversial and polarising, for example, the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. In addition, there are currently even television series such as Truth Be Told and Only Murders in the Building that thematise contemporary podcasting and its societal effects.

The course uses alternative study methods and focuses on individual, independent scientific study: classes mostly take place in the first period, after which students work on their own presentations in the second period. Each student chooses an Anglophone podcast, narrows down a research topic, and gives a conference presentation on Pop-up Podcasts Day. Please note that there will be no classes on the podcasts themselves; instead, classes deal with transferable skills such as writing and commenting on abstracts/proposals, as well as giving conference presentations. In addition, individual work is supervised by the teacher during the course.

The course is directed at students who have an interest in popular culture, digital media, and podcasts; who are interested in research and independent study; who are looking for a pro gradu topic; and who can manage and respect deadlines, because we will organise a Pop-up Podcasts Day with conference presentations at the end of the course.

Thematic areas of interest for conference presentations include, but are not limited to, the following areas of interest: podcasts and new forms of digital storytelling; ethics and true-crime podcasts; podcasts, activism, and social justice; representations of podcasting in other media; podcasting and new auditory culture; podcast intimacy; podcasting and seriality; podcasting, consumption, and mobile media; podcast, audience formation, and fandom.