Granger, Sumayya KR | Public & Applied Humanities

sracy@arizona.edu

Office

CESL 100

Granger, Sumayya KR

Assistant Professor of Practice

I am a native Tucsonan and I have always enjoyed learning and investigating languages and learning about different cultures. I love teaching, program administration, and exploring the humanities in the world around us. It is always exciting to find new ways to connect with our campus and our local community. I am currently interested in intercultural competence, leadership, and memes.

Currently Teaching

PAH 160D2 – Living the Good Life: Humanities Perspectives on Culture and Community

This interdisciplinary course analyzes myths and cosmologies that reflect various societal approaches to the grand mysteries of life as represented in language, culture, and narratives. Beginning with an overview of myth as a moving force in life, students generate a list of grand mysteries to pursue answers that explore the past, present, and future. Select texts analyzing myth as well as works of fiction and contemporary film and television will round out the course as students work toward analyzing their own cosmology, a chosen mythology, or develop their own unique mythology for the digital age. Particular emphasis will be paid to myths and cosmologies of groups in conflict and an analysis of the clash resulting from competing perspectives.

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PAH 160D3 – Memes: The Art and Craft of Microstorytelling

Most everyone is familiar with memes: Gangnam Style music videos, the Success Baby, Rickrolling, Pepe the Frog, and other images, text, and sounds that serve as storytelling shorthand in today's digital world. Memes are not an entirely digital phenomenon, however. On the contrary, they have a deep history within the context of human ideas and expression. In this course, we will explore the concept of the meme and the practice of meming, beginning with pre-digital examples and extending up through the most current instances. We will consider a variety of theories behind this kind of microstorytelling, as well as its craft, leading to the creation of meme portfolios and predictions about future forms of human expression.

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