I was looking at the course descriptions for both Culture Studies & Critical Theory 1B03 and 1BB3, but they seemed pretty vague and were kind of unhelpful. I can't figure out what the difference between the two courses is. I'm trying to decide which one (or maybe both) I should choose for next year... it would be great if someone could help me out - I'm trying to figure out what each one is about. Thanks!

I took CSTC 1BB3 last term with Marc Oullette, the most awesome class ever period. It actually expanded our perceptions of our surrounding culture in a totally fun and awesome way, I don't recall ever feeling sleepy in his class

However here's the catch, I don't think/know as of now If Marc is going to get a contract this year. The university hasn't renewed the contract of alot of Sessional Prof's and it looks like he might be on that list as well

I checked the schedule and they don't seem to have a prof yet, so maybe he'll get renewed again? I hope so, sounds like he was a good teacher.
What kinds of things did you study in the class? I want to get more of a sense of what the course is about.

Hmm I don't clearly remember, but as expected there was a good mix of theory and confusing sounding words like hegemonic discourse, counterculture, rationalization and similar theory. But alot of it was about advertisment and consumer culture and how trends are created and how consumers are lured into spending bazillions and how people are sucked into credit card debt. It obviously hence involved viewing alot of videos and photos and occasionally music and then he would with class involvement decipher it for us into a classic WTH really?! :O moment.

1B03 has a slightly different focus; more films and newspaper media than culture as a whole...or it did when I took it many years ago at least.

I took both. 1B03 is more based on the visual representation of things, images and cultural readings etc. It was kind of boring though, imho.

1BB3 I took with Oullette and I must say he was a great prof. Was very real and had great topics in class. Definitely what a pop culture class should be like. I'm really sad to hear that he may not be signed again this year. It'll definitely be a great loss. There is a bit of overlap between the two, but 1BB3 is more about specific pop cultures, subcultures and whatnot.

Thanks so much! This has been much more helpful than the course descriptions! Is there anything more anyone could say about 1B03?

I took 1bb3. Pretty easy - 2 essays, 1 presentation, final exam.

The prof (Marc) was interesting and funny too, but I ended up just stopping going to the class since i had it at 7pm mondays.. waste of time since it was my elective. Anyways, yea, didnt really loose much from not going to class cause alot of the exam was just from the textbook or suggested readings