CS 240B

Intro to Mobility Studies

This course introduces Mobility Studies and its key concepts, theories, and methods. The founding manifesto of Mobility Studies is the “new mobilities paradigm” (2006), which defines mobility as the actual or potential flow of information, ideas, objects, and bodies in historical and contemporary contexts, and always in relation to immobility and rootedness. Topics in this course may include, but are not limited to, settler mobilities, migrant mobilities, tourist mobilities, protest mobilities, student mobilities, homeless mobilities, carceral mobilities, mobile media, automobilities, velomobilities, aeromobilities and verticality, outer space mobilities, oceanic mobilities, shipping and cargomobilities, food mobilities, animal mobilities, disease mobilities, and mobility justice. This course asks us to consider what is “new” about the mobilities paradigm, and how does Mobility Studies intersect with Communication Studies?