Introduction to my summer course on Global Cultural Flows entitled "Pokemon: Global and Local Cultures."

1. POKEMON:
LOCAL & GLOBAL
CULTURES
ATH 390Z

2. Mark Allen Peterson
• Chair, Anthropology
• Professor, International
Studies
• 120 Upham Hall
• Phone: x5018
• e-mail:
petersm2@miamioh.e
du
• Office Hours: MTW
12:30-1:20; and by
appointment

3. Pokémon

4. Course Objectives
1. Concepts
Learn and use key
theoretical
concepts in
anthropological
theory for describing
and analyzing
global cultural
flows.

5. Course Objectives
2. Analyze
Synthesize primary
and secondary data
to make original,
coherent
arguments about
aspects of global
cultural flows and
Japanese popular
culture, accounting
for multiple and
contradictory data or
points of view

6. Course Objectives
3. Communicate
Develop and
exercise the ability
to communicate
and act
respectfully
across linguistic and
cultural
differences.

7. Course Objectives
4. Situate
Explore and
understand your
place and influence
as consumers and
social actors in the
changing world

8. Course Objectives
5. Reflect
Examine and critically
assess relationships
among societies,
institutions, and systems
in terms of reciprocal –
not necessarily
symmetrical –
interactions, benefits,
and costs as expressed in
global flows of popular
culture.

9. Course Objectives
6. Assess
Describe the
construction of
differences and
similarities among
contemporary groups
and regions through
media
representation and
commodity use.

10. Required Text
Tobin, Joseph, ed.
2004. Pikachu’s Global
Adventure: The Rise and
Fall of Pokémon. Duke
University Press.
Additional readings (if
any) will be available in
the Resources section of
the Niihka course
management site.

11. Course Requirements
• Quizzes 20
• Blog Posts
25
• Class presentation 20
• Participation 15
• PechaKucha 20
100%

12. Grading
• A = Excellent
• B = Good
• C = Fair
• D = Poor
• F = Fail

13. A note on grading:
In this class, a student
who attends regularly,
participates in class
discussions, turns in
all the work on time,
and in general does
everything asked of
them and does it well,
can expect a grade in
the B range (B-, B or
B+).
The grade of A (A-,
A, A+) is reserved for
those students who,
in every assignment,
go beyond what they
are asked to do.

14. POKEMON:
LOCAL & GLOBAL
CULTURES

15. Culture Flows

16. Global Structures

17. Media Ecologies

18. Localization

19. Child’s Play

20. Commodified Cuteness

21. Relations of Power

22. Xenophobia

23. Resistance

24. Unexpected Audences

25. Intellectual Property

26. Fans, Anoraks, Geeks and Otaku

27. Simulacra

28. Gender

29. PechaKucha Night