IRS 370 Editorial Cartoons in Political & Social Science

The course is a reaction to the increasing importance of editorial cartoons in political and social sciences. The interdisciplinary move of international relations, security studies or European studies opens up room for (yet) unconventional sources of social knowledge such as film, photography, art exhibitions and to a lesser degree also editorial cartoons. Editorial cartoons lie at the intersection of political and social science, arts, international relations, security studies, communication and media, visual studies etc, thus the goal of this course is to bring together knowledge from a range of disciplines and contribute to the interdisciplinary move.

Throughout the course I want to introduce political cartoons as a complex phenomenon that influences public opinion and actions, but also as an important source of knowledge about the world that stems from and reinforces the 'common sense' of a given population. In the course we will theorize the socio-political roles of editorial cartoons, methodological approaches to cartoon analysis. Specific case studies of editorial cartooning will not only be illustrative of cartoon analysis method, but will be positioned within the context of contemporary International Relations theories: especially constructivist theories of identity construction and Security Studies? theory of securitization.

*New course code is effective as of Summer 2015. Old course code for this course was POL 316.