ENGL 3246-800: Topics In Popular Culture: The Franchsie Era

Syllabus

General Information

Instructor
Prof. Benjamin J Robertson
Feel free to address me as Ben, Dr. Robertson, or Prof. Robertson. I use he/him/his pronouns.
benjamin.j.robertson@colorado.edu
Office: OB1 S262 (see map link in Canvas)
Office hours: Mondays 9:00 am – 10:00 am | Wednesdays 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Meeting Times/Place
MWF from 10:10 am – 11:00 am in LIBR M300D

Course Overview

Twenty-first-century audiences have witnessed the birth and rebirth of countless tentpole properties
and multimedia franchises. Old favorites such as JAMES BOND, STAR WARS, and STAR TREK have
continued to be popular even as they reboot themselves and challenge their own histories. New
franchises such as the MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE, the TWILIGHT saga, and ASSASSIN’S CREED
demonstrate again and again how Hollywood, major publishers, and video game developers have
come to focus on big budget, sprawling narratives and worlds to the exclusion, and detriment, of
smaller, more personal, and original productions. However, even as cultural production became
increasingly focused on spectacle and seriality, blogs and social media offered fans and amateur critics
opportunity and means to voice their opinions—often directly to the producers themselves—to a
degree never possible during the twentieth century.
This class will study several franchises in the context of several related disciplines, including literary
studies, cinema studies, and media studies and use these materials to ask several questions, including:
 What are the dimensions or contours of franchise as an aesthetic form?
 What does this form help us understand about twenty-first-century cultural production?
 How does franchise challenge conventional/historical scholarly assumptions about form,
textuality, method, and so on?
 What new scholarly assumptions and methods must we develop to adequately address
franchise?

Schedule

Please familiarize yourself with the reading/assignment schedule (on Canvas).

ENGL 3246-800: Topics In Popular Culture: The Franchsie Era
Syllabus

Course Requirements

Ungrading
I am hoping to deal with the question of evaluation in a manner other than the standard: with
assignments that are worth a certain percentage of an overall grade. Of course, you will in the end
receive a grade for the class, but the manner in which we arrive at that grade will be, again
hopefully, different than the standard operation for two reasons. First, this is a seminar where our
interactions and our collective participation in the class conversation are far more important than
any writing task, even if these interactions and this participation are difficcult to track and
therefore grade. Second, I tend to have an unhealthy relationship to evaluation. I love teaching,
but hate assigning grades. I am hoping that a new approach will be helpful to everyone. That said,
if the class does not care for this idea, then we can decide to go another way.
In practice, what I hope to do is meet with each of you individually three times during the term to
discuss how you are doing and how you would evaluate your contributions to the class. I will
keep notes on these meetings and, in the end, we can hopefully arrive at an agreement about the
grade I will have to assign to you in the end.
With that said, here are the tasks I will ask you to complete this term:
Questions
Following from Jesse Reeder’s description of the elements of a successful seminar paper
(available on Canvas), you will in most weeks be required to come to class with a formulated
question about our materials. You will ask the question of the class and turn in the question
(which will “show your work”) at the end of the session. Directions and examples forthcoming.
Arguments
Again followimng from Reeder, you will present, along with several of your peers, arguments
about our materials.Each of these presentations will, as the name of this task suggest, take the
form of an argument and not simply be a description of facts or a recitation of background
information. Directions and an example forthcoming.
Attendance
As there is no grade breakdown, there is no component of such a breakdown dedicated to
attanedance. That said, your regular attendance is required. Your attendance will be part of the
discussion with regard to evaluation and will be a key component of the learning process for
yourself and for the rest of us in the course.

Grading Policies

Late Work
All work must be completed according to the schedule above.
ENGL 3246-800: Topics In Popular Culture: The Franchsie Era
Syllabus

Incompletes
Generally, I don’t give incompletes, but we can discuss the matter if and when it arises.
Grade calculation
Again, there is no calculation in the conventional sense. We will discuss together your progress
and status in the class at regular intervals and/or whenever you have a question about your
standing in the seminar.

Class COVID Policies

If (and hopefully not when) you or someone close to you contracts COVID or has a COVID scare,
please contact me as soon as possible but no sooner than when it is safe/reasonable for you to do
so. We will figure out how best to proceed and to keep you on track for the term.
Most importantly, if you find yourself getting off-track for COVID related matters (or for any other
reason), please get I touch with me. You are always welcome back to class, no matter how much you
have missed. I will always work with you to help you succeed, but I need to know how to help you.
Note that I DO NOT need to know specific information about what you are going through to do so.
Finally, as of this writing, CU does not require you to wear a mask in class or anywhere else on
campus. I will be masked the entire term, and you should determine for yourself what you are
comfortable with as far as masks are concerned.

LLM Policy

Large Language Models (LLMs) and their user-facing clients (such as ChatGPT) have become a
concern for educational institutions over the past year or two. So far as I know, the CU does not have
an official policy regarding these technologies and their place (or lack thereof) in the classroom,
although individual instructors both here and elsewhere have developed such policies. My own
thoughts are as follows. I did not become an educator to be a cop. I have long abandoned plagiarism
detection software such as TurnItIn because of the way it, by its very nature, assumes the worst of
students and because of the fact that it uses writing by uncompensated students as a means to realize
value for its shareholders. Along similar lines, I am not interested in spending my time obsessing over
LLMs. Simply put: it does not do what it claims to do and using it to complete assignments in this or
any other class will not help you learn anything. That said, it’s up to you to learn and if you want to
cheat to do it, that’s on you. If I catch you using ChatGPT or a similar technology to help you
complete assignments for this class, I will report you to the Honors Council, nut, again, I will not go
out of my way to do so. If you interpret this as a free pass for cheating, again, on you.

Other Course Policies

You should bring have all relevant materials available during class sessions.
No cell phone use. That means no calls and no texting. If I catch you doing either, I will ask you to
leave the class and you will be counted absent for the day. Each additional violation will result in the
same penalty.
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Syllabus

Laptop use in class is permitted, but abuse of this privilege (such as unrelated web-browsing) will
result in laptop bans for individuals and for the class.
If you don’t know something, please ask. I am happy to help.

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For more information, see the policy on classroom behavior and the Student Code of Conduct. If you
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follow the steps in the “Accommodation for Disabilities” statement on this syllabus.
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This requirement is a precaution to supplement CU Boulder’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
Exemptions include individuals who cannot medically tolerate a face covering, as well as those who
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someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay home; rather, you should self-monitor for
symptoms and follow the further guidance of the Public Health Office (contacttracing@colorado.edu).
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Accommodation for Disabilities

If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit your accommodation letter
from Disability Services to your faculty member in a timely manner so that your needs can be
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All students enrolled in a University of Colorado Boulder course are responsible for knowing and
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Students found responsible for violating the academic integrity policy will be subject to nonacademic
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information regarding the Honor Code academic integrity policy can be found on the Honor Code
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made aware of incidents of sexual misconduct, dating and domestic violence, stalking, discrimination,
harassment and/or related retaliation, to ensure that individuals impacted receive information about
their rights, support resources, and reporting options. To learn more about reporting and support
ENGL 3246-800: Topics In Popular Culture: The Franchsie Era
Syllabus

options for a variety of concerns, visit Don’t Ignore It.

Religious Holidays
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reasonably and fairly with all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with
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See the campus policy regarding religious observances for full details.