This course examines the creation of popular cultures and their practices at different historical periods and across cultures. It explores the practice of graffiti and hip hop in the United States, Asia and Latin America; crafts and art as forms of political resistance in Chile and South Africa; clothing as forms of individual expression and cultural resistance such as the zoot suits, punk clothing, and Japanese girls teenager fashion, and the creation of superheroes, their mass appeal, and the appropriation of these characters by ordinary people in Mexico and in the United States. The concept of popular culture will also be examined in relationship to folk art, mass media and global art. In addition issues of race, ethnicity and gender will be examined in association with popular culture.