Starting this academic year Jeroen Timmermans, Jos de Mul and I are teaching a new course called “Homo Mobilis: mobility, media & identity” at the Erasmus University Rotterdam as an international masters. The aim of the course is to acquire a deeper understanding of some of the main theories of mobility, and its place in modern history, and to critically rethink the influence of transportation- and (digital) communication mobilities on human identity. The 15-week course schedule looks like this:
Introductory classes
1. First meeting, introduction, practical matters, course outline, syllabus, etc. Thematic overview of the course.
2. From movement to mobility: the concept of mobility.
3. Mobility systems and the mobilities paradigm.
4. A short history of media.
5. Philosophical overview of time/space by Jos de Mul.
Mobility systems
6. Public transport and the time schedule.
7. Airplanes, airports and non-places.
8. Car mobility.
9. Mobile media and smart mobs.
10. ICTs: spaces of flow.
Thematic & critical classes
11. Guest lecture by Lucas Harms (SCP)
12. ‘Liquid identity’ and ‘The corrosion of character’
13. ‘Identity under siege’ and ‘the saturated self’
14. Overshoot: critical perspectives on mobility.
15. Closing session. Presentation of assignments and discussion.