Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2026 - GA 304 D100

STT-Topics in Global South Asias (4)

Film, Photography, and Everyday Life

Class Number: 3386

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 5 – Apr 10, 2026: Wed, 9:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units. Recommended: GA 101.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

In this interdisciplinary course, students will study topics on the geographies, histories, cultures, knowledges, relationalities, and multiple ways of belonging of people in South Asia and South Asian diasporas. May be repeated for credit only when a different topic is taught.

COURSE DETAILS:

Film, Photography, and Everyday Life
How do we come to know a place through what we see and remember? How might we learn to see human and more-than-human life—and its everyday labors, movements, and relations—otherwise? This course explores world-making through film, photography, and text to reveal the entanglements of empire, coloniality, belonging, labour, and care. From Bollywood and independent cinema to diasporic short films and photo essays, we’ll study how ordinary acts—cooking, working, caring, waiting, and remembering—shape the way people make and imagine homes, belonging, and futures across borders. Through screenings, readings, and hands-on visual projects, students will foreground everyday acts of creativity, survival, and relationality. No prior experience in film or area studies required.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • Critically reflect on how power and place are rendered visible through representations of everyday life, labor, care, and migration.
  • Explain geographical and cultural processes that shape everyday life in South Asia and its diasporas within the intertwined contexts of empire and coloniality.
  • Create a visual project that critically and creatively represents an aspect of South Asian lifeways, articulating the methodological and ethical choices involved in “seeing life otherwise.”

Grading

  • Participation and Attendance 20%
  • Discussion Facilitation 20%
  • Visual Analysis Essay 20%
  • Lifeways Visual Project 40%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

All readings and course materials will be available on Canvas.


REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.