Christina Blanch is a an adjunct professor of Women Studies at Ball State University. She is also a comic book fan. She had an idea and created a college class around it.
She has put together a course, Gender Through Comic Books, for the Spring Semester at Ball State University. This course will be free of charge and available online. The course will be Massive Open Online Course or aka MOOC (sounds like a Hulk Villain). Check out the course page with the Canvas Network. Below is the course description.
Gender Through Comics: A Super MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) coming Spring 2013 that examines how comic books can be used to explore questions of gender identity, stereotypes, and roles. This highly engaging learning experience is designed for college-age and lifelong learners.
The course, led by Christina Blanch of Ball State University, uses a study of comic books incorporating highly interactive video lectures, online discussions between students, and real-time socially driven interviews. Interviews with the comic industry’s biggest names such as Terry Moore, Brian K Vaughan, Mark Waid, as well as others address questions of gender representations and constructions involving both men and women. (Canvas)
I have already signed up for the course. Gender Studies is not my usual type of course but when you intertwine it with a study of comic books, I am fascinated and in for the ride. I am looking forward to this course.
Gender Through Comic Books is free. Freee is a great price for anything, nerveless a University course. Ball State University’s cost per credit hour is 270 per credit hour for in state Tuition. You can sign up for free here.
I heard about this course in a Tweet from Mark Waid, Eisner Award winning comic book writer. When he tweeted about a free college course about comic books, I had to investigate it further. His tweet had a link to his article with the details.
Here is a video promoting the college course.
