PSYCH 099

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

These notes treat contemporary Chinese short-video psychology as an object of intellectual history rather than as self-help. Centered on Douyin creators and the recommendation systems that amplify them, the course follows how psychoanalysis, attachment theory, personality psychology, existentialism, and popular therapeutic language are simplified, remixed, and recirculated through viral formats.

Across the course, familiar psychological concepts are traced back to their original theoretical settings and then compared with their short-video afterlives. The result is a study of how platforms turn ideas about the self into portable narratives about trauma, attachment, personality, meaning, and self-improvement, while also showing what gets flattened, exaggerated, or lost in the process.

MUSIC 144

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

These notes survey musical theatre as its own historical tradition rather than as a side branch of opera or popular song. The course begins with minstrelsy, vaudeville, and operetta, then moves through Tin Pan Alley, Show Boat, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Bernstein, Sondheim, rock musicals, megamusicals, Disney, and Hamilton before turning to the rise of contemporary Mandarin musical theatre.

Along the way, the course treats the musical as a hybrid form where song, dialogue, dance, commerce, and stagecraft constantly reshape one another. The notes also build a comparative framework for understanding how musicals differ from opera and pop music while tracing how Broadway aesthetics travel across media and across cultures.

Spring 2026 on Sibelius Peng

PSYCH 099

MUSIC 144