FFAR 298:
Bridging arts, culture, and society

Special Topics for 2026-2027

These elective courses are open to all Concordia students.

FFAR 298 - Aesthetic Practices of Critical Disability

This course examines disability as an important site of artistic, aesthetic, and political practice. Moving beyond conventional paradigms of access and beauty, the curriculum explores how disabled artists and thinkers continually redefine embodiment, time, and creativity across visual art, performance, and digital media. Drawing on disability studies, critical theory, queer studies, and art history, students will engage with themes such as interdependence, visibility, vulnerability, resistance, and access  as generative forces in contemporary cultural production.

FFAR 298 - Black Representation in the Arts

This course examines the portrayal and contributions of Black artists across various art forms, including visual arts, literature, music, film, and theater. Historical and contemporary perspectives are explored, analyzing how Black identity, culture, and experiences are represented and interpreted. Aiming to highlight the significance of Black voices in the arts, the course fosters a deeper understanding of their impact on cultural and social landscapes, engaging with themes of race, identity, power, and resistance.

FFAR 298 - Films About the Diaspora

This course examines the impact of population dispersion on cinema, focusing on immigrant lives globally. Centered on the South Asian diaspora, the course explores various themes: characteristics and types of diasporas in Canada; issues of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and identities; forced migration and rites of return; homeland and nostalgia; exile and displacement; politics of memory; diasporic art and cultural productions; diasporic women’s writing and film; and the future of diasporic imaginings.

FFAR 298 - Histories in Music and Culture

This introductory ethnomusicology course explores the diverse folk music of Canada and its cultural significance, examining themes such as revival, innovation, and globalization. The interdisciplinary approach connects cultural history with music performance, providing insights into the broader societal impacts of folk traditions.

FFAR 298 - Horror and Fantasy Films 

This course delves into the eerie and the extraordinary, exploring a diverse selection of films within historical and political contexts, examining the evolution of the genres. Students will analyze the cultural impact and artistic significance of horror and fantasy, uncovering the ways these genres reflect societal fears, desires, and transformations.

FFAR 298 - The City After Dark

The City after Dark explores how societal binaries, including gender, shape perceptions of nighttime as both dangerous and liberating. Focusing on urban contexts, particularly Montreal, the course investigates the impact of night-time lore on real-world implications. Topics include the influence of status, location, income, and technology on nighttime access. Through film, literature, urban studies, human geography, sexuality studies, communications, and sociology, students will analyze how urban design and culture shape social interactions after dark.

FFAR 298 - The Geographies of Fashion

This course explores fashion through the lens of geography, examining how clothing, style, and textile practices are shaped by place, movement, labor, and power. From global fashion capitals to local street styles, students trace the material pathways of garments to understand how fashion reflects complex histories of colonialism, migration, and climate change. Drawing on cultural geography, material culture, postcolonial studies, media studies, and art history, the course considers how fashion shapes identity and expresses cultural exchange in a globalized world.

FFAR 298 - The Music and Art of David Bowie

This course explores the life and work of David Bowie, using his career as a starting point for broader discussions. The first part covers Bowie’s musical journey chronologically, paralleling the history of pop, rock, and electronic music from the 60s to the 2010s. The second part delves into Bowie’s multidisciplinary approach, examining his impact on aesthetics, theatre, cinema, visual arts, fashion design, literature, philosophy, popular studies, gender studies, and avant-garde movements. The course concludes with reflections on Bowie’s death and enduring legacy, addressing the questions of semiotics, hauntology and fandom agency.

FFAR 298 - Artificial Intelligence and the Arts

This course is structured around three main objectives. Initially, it provides an overview of the history of generative methods in the arts, including performing and media arts such as music and film, tracing their evolution from early algorithms to contemporary advancements. Subsequently, the course examines present-day artistic practices that integrate generative artificial intelligence into their creative processes. Lastly, it addresses the ethical considerations associated with the use of artificial intelligence in the arts, focusing on issues such as plagiarism, ownership, copyright, and questions of authenticity and originality. 

FFAR 298 - Embodiment in the Performing Arts

This course explores embodiment as a central concept in the performing arts, examining how bodies create meaning through movement, gesture, voice, presence, and sensation. Through an interdisciplinary approach spanning dance, theatre, music, and performance art, studentswill interrogate how corporeal expression is shaped by training, identity, memory, technology, and cultural norms. Key inquiries include the expressive mechanics of the body, ritualized performance, gendered and racialized lived experiences, and the evolving tension between live presence and digital mediation.

FFAR 298 - Indigenous Representation in the Arts

This course delves into the rich and diverse portrayals of Indigenous cultures through visual arts, literature, music, film, and theater. Emphasizing the importance of territory and decolonization, it explores how Indigenous artists express their identities, histories, and traditions. Students will take an interdisciplinary approach to engage with themes of sovereignty, resilience, cultural revival and cultural reclamation, analyzing both historical and contemporary works. 

FFAR 298 - It’s Bigger than Hip-Hop

This course dives into the powerful intersections of hip-hop with art, society, and culture. It uncovers how hip-hop shapes and is shaped by visual arts, literature, film, fashion, and activism, while tackling themes of race, politics, identity, and resistance. With a fresh and dynamic approach, the course highlights hip-hop's influence beyond music, revealing its vital place in contemporary culture and analyzing its role in movements for social justice and community empowerment. 

FFAR 298 - The Meme as Art

This course explores the meme as a key form of contemporary visual and digital culture, examining its aesthetic, political, and communicative dimensions. Students will analyze memes as evolving visual and textual forms that circulate across digital platforms, shaping humor, identity, collective memory, and public discourse. By applying frameworks from media studies, visual culture, internet studies, art theory, and cultural studies, the course considers how memes blur the boundaries between art and vernacular creativity, authorship and remix, irony and critique.

FFAR 298 - The Movie Soundtrack

This course explores the powerful auditory dimension of moving pictures. Since the late 1920s, voice, sound effects, and music have added a sophisticated layer to screen images, often unnoticed by viewers. Throughout the term, students will develop critical listening skills to appreciate and understand cinematic and televisual sound design. Emphasizing the emotional impact of sound and music, the course reveals how these elements can transform our viewing experience, heightening tension, enhancing immersion, and enriching storytelling.  

FFAR 298 - Queer Media and Counterculture

This course examines how queer communities have used alternative media and countercultural forms to connect, express themselves, and resist mainstream representation. From zines, underground magazines, radio, and personal ads to riot grrrl culture, ballroom, Tumblr, and other DIY and digital spaces, students will explore how queer media creates community, circulates desire, and frames alternative cultural conversations. Drawing on queer theory, communications, media studies, and popular culture, the course considers how these forms develop, transform, and shape both queer life and broader contemporary culture.

FFAR 298 - Witchcraft and Art

This course explores the intersections between witchcraft and artistic practice across historical and contemporary contexts. From early modern iconography to feminist performance, occult symbolism, ritual art, and modern eco-activism, students will examine how witchcraft operates as a potent symbol of fear, rebellion, spirituality, and creative power.  Drawing on gender studies, religious studies, and art theory, the coursework navigates themes of magic, marginality, the body, and aesthetic resistance.