Ghosting: Intimate Endings

WGS 257-001

Professor Allison Alexy
aalexy@umich.edu
Office hours: Mondays, 3-4pm on zoom. Please sign up for appointments.

Class meetings: Wednesdays, 1-3pm on zoom. You can find the link through the course Canvas page.
This mini-course runs for the second half of the semester, October 26 through December 7.

This mini-course explores the affective, social, and personal experiences of "ghosting" in the contemporary United States. A slang term now in the common lexicon, ghosting describes a sudden and unexpected social disconnection between people, often who had some kind of previously intimate relationship. In popular media, ghosting is often used as evidence of generational differences or problems caused by social media. Approaching these media representations critically, we will examine ghosting and the public discourse about it through an intersectional gendered lens. How do gender, race, and class, among other identifying characteristics, play into people's experiences of ghosting? What, if anything, does ghosting tell us about intimate norms, desirable relationships, and the work of disconnecting?