Acknowledgments

UTA CARES Grant Program

Creation of this OER was funded by the UTA CARES Grant Program, which is sponsored by UTA Libraries. Under the auspices of UTA’s Coalition for Alternative Resources in Education for Students (CARES), the grant program supports educators interested in practicing open education through the adoption of OER and, when no suitable open resource is available, through the creation of new OER or the adoption of library-licensed or other free content.  Additionally, the program promotes innovation in teaching and learning through the exploration of open educational practices, such as collaborating with students to produce educational content of value to a wider community. Information about the grant program and funded projects is available online.

Author’s Note

First, I would like to thank the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries. Their generous support through an Open Education Resource (OER) grant has been invaluable. Specifically the OER team, Jessica McClean,  Megan Zara, and Dara Mendez, who helped guide me through the process and showed me the finer points of PressBooks. Second, I’d like to thank Dr. Heather Jacobson who supported this project as chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Third. this project developed from teaching Introduction to Popular Culture for 14 years. I could not have written it without the the input from over a thousand students. Finally, thank you to Jennifer Miller and Owen Arditi for supporting me through another book project.

Author

David Arditi – Professor of Sociology, The University of Texas at Arlington