Decanonizing Contemporary Culture Courses: Teaching Culture with Twitter

Turning to social media as a means to broaden students’ perspectives, this chapter reminds us that our discipline is not impervious to social and technological developments. Maroun posits that embracing a multimodal approach to teaching has in fact the potential to enhance the overall student experience and can also play a crucial role in reaching our collective goals. The chapter guides educators on how to integrate Twitter into content-based culture courses. Surveying some of the major contemporary French culture or “civilization” textbooks used in various higher-education institutions in the U.S., and underscoring the tendency to explain contemporary culture historically, Maroun suggests that educators use Twitter to help students glean deeper culture knowledge from actual culture actors.