ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the implications for Cultural Studies teaching and her own classroom practice of policies such as the one adopted by the University of Iowa administration. She also explores the emerging practice within college and university classrooms of securing 'informed consent' from students before screening and discussing particular representations. The author explains the social, political, and economic contexts which make limits on the use of academic materials seem acceptable—even necessary—to university officials on the one hand and to some Women's Studies and media studies instructors on the other. She aims to open up a critical investigation of the meanings and uses of informed consent which are circulating in college and university classrooms. The author focuses on her use of 'unusual and unexpected' materials as a site of struggle and as a source of insight into the complexities of exploring with students the relations between power, knowledge, subjectivity, visual representation, and desire.
