Description: Ready to play? This interdisciplinary course will explore how and why we play with dolls, ending with a creative project in which students will design and construct their own dolls in either virtual or material form. From Raggedy Ann and G.I. Joe to Cartoon Dolls and Mortal Kombat, dolls promote imagination in children but also encode social and behavioral patterns that can remain with us into adulthood. How are these patterns established through active play, performance and narration? How does doll playing reify or subvert racial, gender or class-based stereotypes? What are the spatial or virtual habitations of dolls and how do they govern a player's behavior? How does virtual doll playing promote the construction of alternative identities? We will study this topic through historical research, web-based interaction, film viewing, active and virtual play with dolls, attendance at a local American Girl Club meeting, and a field trip to The Strong Museum (National Museum of Play) in Rochester, NY.

Format: Evaluation will be based on participation in all required activities, active reading, a 5-page performance history paper, and a creative doll making project.

Prerequisites: None.

Scheduled Offerings:

	Winter Study 09	W012-01		TBD	TBD	Holzapfel