Twin Cities campus

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Twin Cities Campus

Studies in Cinema and Media Culture B.A.

Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature
College of Liberal Arts
  • Program Type: Baccalaureate
  • Requirements for this program are current for Fall 2024
  • Required credits to graduate with this degree: 120
  • Required credits within the major: 33 to 40
  • Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Studies in cinema and media culture (SCMC) examines cinema and media by emphasizing its location within the intricate social, historical, and cultural matrix of audiovisual forms and practices. Core courses and electives are offered not only in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature (CSCL), but also in a number of other contributing departments. Through the program's interdisciplinary framework, students explore the sounds and images of cinema and media as they have changed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Print, photography, radio, television, video, and digital media are also considered crucial to understanding our media cultures. Students develop the ability to "read" the production and circulation of meaning in cinema and media, especially within the institutions of mass culture; examine the history of cinema and media cultures; engage the cross-cultural and global dynamics of production and reception; and explore the theoretical models that have shaped thinking about the cinema and media. Although the major includes a production component, its principal focus is on cultural contexts, history, and theory. For the latest information on the SCMC major, visit the CSCL website
Program Delivery
This program is available:
  • via classroom (the majority of instruction is face-to-face)
Admission Requirements
For information about University of Minnesota admission requirements, visit the Office of Admissions website.
General Requirements
All students in baccalaureate degree programs are required to complete general University and college requirements including writing and liberal education courses. For more information about University-wide requirements, see the liberal education requirements. Required courses for the major, minor or certificate in which a student receives a D grade (with or without plus or minus) do not count toward the major, minor or certificate (including transfer courses).
Program Requirements
Students are required to complete 4 semester(s) of any second language. with a grade of C-, or better, or S, or demonstrate proficiency in the language(s) as defined by the department or college.
All CLA BA degrees require 18 upper-division (3xxx-level or higher) credits outside the major designator. These credits must be taken in designators different from the major designator and cannot include courses that are cross-listed with the major designator. The major designator for the Studies in Cinema and Media Culture BA is SCMC. At least 15 upper-division credits in the major must be taken at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. A given course may only count towards one major requirement. Students may earn a BA or a minor in studies in cinema and media culture, but not both. All incoming CLA first-year (freshmen) must complete the First-Year Experience course sequence. All incoming CLA first-year (freshmen) students earning a BA, BS, or BIS degree must complete the second-year career management course CLA 3002. All students must complete a capstone in at least one CLA major. The requirements for double majors completing the capstone in a different CLA major will be clearly stated. Students must also complete all major requirements in both majors to allow the additional capstone to be waived. Student completing an addition degree must complete the capstone in each degree area.
Foundation Courses
Take 2 or more course(s) totaling 8 or more credit(s) from the following:
Introductory Course
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling exactly 4 credit(s) from the following:
· ARTH 1921W - Introduction to Film Study [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 1201W - Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or SCMC 1201V - Honors Course: Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 1201W - Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 1201V - Honors Course: Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 1202W - Media: Word, Image, Sound [AH, TS, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 1202W - Media: Word, Image, Sound [AH, TS, WI] (4.0 cr)
· Formal Analysis Course
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling exactly 4 credit(s) from the following:
· SCMC 3001W - History of Cinema and Media Culture [WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
Core Courses
Take exactly 4 course(s) totaling 12 - 16 credit(s) from the following:
Understanding Context: Cinema and Media Representations, Mediations, and Industries
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling 3 - 4 credit(s) from the following:
· AMST 3252W {Inactive} [HIS, CIV, WI] (3.0 cr)
· AMST 3253W - American Popular Culture and Politics: 1940 to the Present [HIS, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
· CHIC 3223 - Chicana/o and Latina/o Representation in Film [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3231 - Reality TV: History, Culture, and Economics (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5261 - Political Economy of Media Culture (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3614 - History of Media Communication [HIS, TS] (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3745 - Media and Popular Culture [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· AMIN 3402 - American Indians and the Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
or AMIN 5402 - American Indians and the Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· CSCI 4921 - History of Computing [TS, HIS] (3.0 cr)
or HSCI 4321 - History of Computing [TS, HIS] (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3220W - Screen Cultures [AH, TS, WI] (3.0 cr)
or CSCL 3220W - Screen Cultures [AH, TS, WI] (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3221 - On Television [CIV] (3.0 cr)
or CSCL 3221 - On Television [CIV] (3.0 cr)
· CSCL 5303 - Sound Studies (3.0 cr)
or SCMC 5303 - Sound Studies (3.0 cr)
· Making Cinema and Media: Production and Training Courses
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling 3 - 4 credit(s) from the following:
· ARTS 3230 - Sound Art (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3710 - Black and White Darkroom Photography (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3740 - Lighting and the Constructed Image (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3790 - Phone It In: Mobile Imaging and the Connected World (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3202 - Audio Production and Media Literacy (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 4204 - Producing for Television: Theory and Practice (4.0 cr)
· ENGW 4205 - Screenwriting (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3201 - Fundamentals of Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3202 - Intermediate Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· TH 4555 - Audio Technology (3.0 cr)
· ARTS 3750 - Narrative Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
or ARTS 5750 - Advanced Narrative Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3760 - Experimental Film and Video (4.0 cr)
or ARTS 5760 - Experimental Film and Video (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3770 - Animation (4.0 cr)
or ARTS 5770 - Animation (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3780 - Super 8 and 16 MM Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
or ARTS 5780 - Advanced Super 8 and 16 MM Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· Mapping Cinema and Media: National, Transnational, Indigenous, and Minority Cinemas and Media
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling 3 - 4 credit(s) from the following:
· AFRO 3654 - African Cinema [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3356W - Chinese Film [AH, WI] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3456 - Japanese Film [GP] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3556 - Korean Film and Media [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3756 - Southeast Asian Cinema [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· AMIN 3304 - Indigenous Filmmakers [AH] (3.0 cr)
· CSCL 5411 - Avant-Garde Cinema (4.0 cr)
· FREN 3451 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· GER 3604W - Introduction to German Cinema [AH, GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
· SCAN 3617 - Scandinavian Gothic: Horror and the Uncanny in Nordic Literature and Media [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas [GP] (4.0 cr)
· AMIN 3402 - American Indians and the Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
or AMIN 5402 - American Indians and the Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3655 - African-American Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
or ARTH 5655 - African-American Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas [GP] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas [GP] (4.0 cr)
· Analyzing Cinema and Media: Courses in Theory, Method, and Critique
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling 3 - 4 credit(s) from the following:
· COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5211 - Critical Media Studies: Theory and Methods (3.0 cr)
· GWSS 3307 - Feminist Film Studies [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 5001 - Critical Debates in the Study of Cinema and Media Culture (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 5002 - Advanced Film Analysis (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3210 - Cinema and Ideology [AH] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 3210 - Cinema and Ideology [AH] (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3221 - On Television [CIV] (3.0 cr)
or CSCL 3221 - On Television [CIV] (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics [AH, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics [AH, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
Electives
Take 3 or more course(s) totaling 9 or more credit(s) from the following:
· Lower-division Courses
Take 0 - 1 course(s) totaling 0 - 4 credit(s) from the following:
· AMES 1001 - Asian Film and Animation [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 1921W - Introduction to Film Study [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 1704 - Introduction to Moving Images [AH] (4.0 cr)
· GER 1601 {Inactive} [AH] (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 1201W - Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or SCMC 1201V - Honors Course: Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 1201W - Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 1201V - Honors Course: Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· JOUR 1001 - Media in a Changing World [SOCS, TS] (3.0 cr)
or JOUR 1001H - Media in a Changing World [SOCS, TS] (3.0 cr)
· Upper-division Courses
Take 2 or more course(s) totaling 6 or more credit(s) from the following:
Studies in Cinema and Media Culture Electives
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
· SCMC 3001W - History of Cinema and Media Culture [WI] (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3201 - Fundamentals of Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3202 - Intermediate Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 5001 - Critical Debates in the Study of Cinema and Media Culture (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 5002 - Advanced Film Analysis (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3210 - Cinema and Ideology [AH] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 3210 - Cinema and Ideology [AH] (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas [GP] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas [GP] (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics [AH, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics [AH, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3221 - On Television [CIV] (3.0 cr)
or CSCL 3221 - On Television [CIV] (3.0 cr)
· Other Electives
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
· AFRO 3654 - African Cinema [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3356W - Chinese Film [AH, WI] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3456 - Japanese Film [GP] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3556 - Korean Film and Media [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· AMIN 3304 - Indigenous Filmmakers [AH] (3.0 cr)
· AMST 3252W {Inactive} [HIS, CIV, WI] (3.0 cr)
· AMST 3253W - American Popular Culture and Politics: 1940 to the Present [HIS, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3730 - Intermediate Digital Photography (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 5610 {Inactive} (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3231 - Reality TV: History, Culture, and Economics (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4263 - Feminist Media Studies [DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5211 - Critical Media Studies: Theory and Methods (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5261 - Political Economy of Media Culture (3.0 cr)
· CSCL 5411 - Avant-Garde Cinema (4.0 cr)
· ENGW 4205 - Screenwriting (3.0 cr)
· FREN 3451 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· GER 3604W - Introduction to German Cinema [AH, GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
· GWSS 3307 - Feminist Film Studies [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3614 - History of Media Communication [HIS, TS] (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3741 - Diversity and Media [DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3745 - Media and Popular Culture [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· PORT 3800 - Film Studies in Portuguese (3.0 cr)
· SPAN 3800 - Film Studies in Spanish (3.0 cr)
· AAS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production [AH, DSJ, WI] (3.0 cr)
or GWSS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production [AH, DSJ, WI] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3655 - African-American Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
or ARTH 5655 - African-American Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· AMIN 3402 - American Indians and the Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
or AMIN 5402 - American Indians and the Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· ARTS 3750 - Narrative Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
or ARTS 5750 - Advanced Narrative Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3760 - Experimental Film and Video (4.0 cr)
or ARTS 5760 - Experimental Film and Video (4.0 cr)
· CSCI 4921 - History of Computing [TS, HIS] (3.0 cr)
or HSCI 4321 - History of Computing [TS, HIS] (3.0 cr)
· GEOG 3374W - The City in Film [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· JOUR 3786 - Media and Politics (3.0 cr)
or POL 3786 - Media and Politics (3.0 cr)
· Directed Studies, Internships, and Topics
Take 0 - 3 course(s) from the following:
Directed Studies
Take 0 - 2 course(s) from the following:
· CSCL 3993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· CSCL 4993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· CSCL 5993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· SCMC 4993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· SCMC 5993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· Internships
Take 0 - 1 course(s) from the following:
· CSCL 3896 - Internship for Academic Credit (1.0-4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3896 - Internship for Academic Credit (1.0-4.0 cr)
· Topics
Take 0 - 2 course(s) from the following:
· SCMC 3910 - Topics in Studies in Cinema and Media Culture (3.0 cr)
· ENGL 3040 - Studies in Film (3.0 cr)
· FRIT 3850 - Topics in French and Italian Cinema (3.0 cr)
· GER 5630 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· PORT 3800 - Film Studies in Portuguese (3.0 cr)
· SPAN 3800 - Film Studies in Spanish (3.0 cr)
· Other topics courses approved by the Film Studies Coordinator, based on the specific topic
Capstone
The Capstone represents the culmination of a student’s work and development within SCMC and will allow them to pursue individualized interests through an advanced curriculum. When choosing a capstone option students should meet with the SCMC academic advisor or the film studies coordinator to determine the most productive path for their individual goals and interests. Both SCMC 5001 & 5002 focus on advanced theoretical and analytical models that emphasize a close reading of media and cinema.
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling exactly 4 credit(s) from the following:
Students who double major and choose to complete the capstone requirement in their other major are still required to take the Studies in Cinema and Media Culture BA capstone.
SCMC 5001 - Critical Debates in the Study of Cinema and Media Culture (4.0 cr)
or SCMC 5002 - Advanced Film Analysis (4.0 cr)
Upper Division Writing Intensive within the major
Students are required to take one upper division writing intensive course within the major. If that requirement has not been satisfied within the core major requirements, students must choose one course from the following list. Some of these courses may also fulfill other major requirements.
Take 0 - 1 course(s) from the following:
· AMES 3356W - Chinese Film [AH, WI] (3.0 cr)
· AMST 3252W {Inactive} [HIS, CIV, WI] (3.0 cr)
· AMST 3253W - American Popular Culture and Politics: 1940 to the Present [HIS, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages [WI] (3.0 cr)
· GEOG 3374W - The City in Film [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· GER 3604W - Introduction to German Cinema [AH, GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3001W - History of Cinema and Media Culture [WI] (4.0 cr)
· AAS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production [AH, DSJ, WI] (3.0 cr)
or GWSS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production [AH, DSJ, WI] (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics [AH, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics [AH, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
· CSCL 3220W - Screen Cultures [AH, TS, WI] (3.0 cr)
or SCMC 3220W - Screen Cultures [AH, TS, WI] (3.0 cr)
 
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ARTH 1921W - Introduction to Film Study (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall
Fundamentals of film analysis and an introduction to the major theories of the cinema, presented through detailed interpretations of representative films from the international history of the cinema.
SCMC 1201W - Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for CSCL 1201W if they have already taken SCMC 1201W, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
SCMC 1201V - Honors Course: Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for SCMC 1201V if they have already taken CSCL 1201V, CSCL 1201W, SCMC 1201W, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
CSCL 1201W - Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for CSCL 1201W if they have already taken SCMC 1201W, CSCL 1201V, SCMC 1201V, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
CSCL 1201V - Honors Course: Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for CSCL 1201V if they have already taken CSCLW, SCMC 1201W, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
SCMC 1202W - Media: Word, Image, Sound (AH, TS, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 1202W/SCMC 1202W
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical and theoretical study of media and technology from Aristotle to the modern world. The first half of the course emphasizes theoretical readings in dialogue with historical apparatuses (printing press, photography, radio, cinema, television) and various expressive objects (the bible, early film, ethnographic sound recordings). The second half turns to the modern culture industry since World War II, and introduces students to the critical study of mass culture, the concept of ideology, and of the relationship between corporate power and media conglomerates.
CSCL 1202W - Media: Word, Image, Sound (AH, TS, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 1202W/SCMC 1202W
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical and theoretical study of media and technology from Aristotle to the modern world. The first half of the course emphasizes theoretical readings in dialogue with historical apparatuses (printing press, photography, radio, cinema, television) and various expressive objects (the bible, early film, ethnographic sound recordings). The second half turns to the modern culture industry since World War II, and introduces students to the critical study of mass culture, the concept of ideology, and of the relationship between corporate power and media conglomerates.
SCMC 3001W - History of Cinema and Media Culture (WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Genealogy of cinema in relation to other media, notably photography, radio, television/video, and the Internet. Representative films from decisive moments in global development of cinema. Rise/fall of Hollywood studio system, establishment of different national cinemas, cinematic challenges to cultural imperialism, emergence of post-cinematic technologies.
ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
This course will engage with the history of film as an art form through a selection of significant movements, styles, filmmakers, institutions, and, of course, individual films from around the world. While this will not be a comprehensive study, it will address both mainstream, commercial films as well as oppositional, experimental, underground, and otherwise challenging works. Some of the wide-ranging selection of films we will watch and discuss: Germaine Dulac?s La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman) (1922), Gillo Pontecorvo?s The Battle of Algiers (1966), Julie Dash?s Daughters of the Dust (1991), and Alfonso Cuarón?s Roma (2018).
AMST 3253W - American Popular Culture and Politics: 1940 to the Present (HIS, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Historical analysis of how popular arts represent issues of gender, race, consumerism, and citizenship. How popular artists define boundaries of citizenship and public life: inclusions/exclusions in polity and national identity. How popular arts reinforce/alter political ideologies.
CHIC 3223 - Chicana/o and Latina/o Representation in Film (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Introduction to Chicana/o and Latina/o visual representation. Depiction of Latina/o experience, history, and culture in film. Analyzing independent/commercial films as texts that illuminate deeply held beliefs around race, class, ethnicity, gender, and national origin.
COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Historical development and current issues in electronic media technologies and programming. Effects of governmental, industrial, and public organizations on message content. Problem areas of electronic media.
COMM 3231 - Reality TV: History, Culture, and Economics
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Social, visual, cultural, economic, historical, and ethical dimensions of reality television.
COMM 5261 - Political Economy of Media Culture
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Organizational practices of media communicators. Media content as link between communicators and audiences. How viewers use/process media content. prereq: 3211 or instr consent
JOUR 3614 - History of Media Communication (HIS, TS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Glos 3605/Hist 3705/Jour 3614
Typically offered: Every Spring
In the history of humankind, there have been five major changes in how we communicate and we're in the middle of the latest revolution. This class helps you make sense of these uncharted waters by exploring how humanity adopted, and adapted to, past disruptions. From the alphabet to the internet and social media, learn how technological innovations in the media have changed not only how people share information and values but also what people have communicated throughout history. We will learn about these five phases in mediated communication over 5,000 years, and how they relate to major changes in politics, society and culture. And then we'll use history's lessons to peek into the future: When presidents tweet and everyone's foodie photos are on Instagram, how does the world communicate?
JOUR 3745 - Media and Popular Culture (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Popular culture is everywhere. Social media, film, music, video games, television, websites, and news bring popular culture into our daily lives. In this class, we will examine popular culture in modern and historical contexts through various mass communication, sociological, and cultural theories. Is popular culture of the people? or dictated by corporate interests? What social and commercial pressures result in stereotypes, misrepresentation and exclusion in popular culture? Does popular culture mirror or shape social reality? This course will provide you with the tools to become active and thoughtful consumers of media and popular culture.
AMIN 3402 - American Indians and the Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AmIn 3402/AmIn 5402
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Representations of American Indians in film, historically/contemporarily. What such representations assert about Native experience and cultural viability. What they reflect about particular relationships of power.
AMIN 5402 - American Indians and the Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AmIn 3402/AmIn 5402
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Representations of American Indians in film, historically/contemporarily. What such representations assert about Native experience and cultural viability. What they reflect about particular relationships of power.
CSCI 4921 - History of Computing (TS, HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSci 4921/HSci 4321
Typically offered: Fall Even Year
Developments in last 150 years; evolution of hardware and software; growth of computer and semiconductor industries and their relation to other businesses; changing relationships resulting from new data-gathering and analysis techniques; automation; social and ethical issues.
HSCI 4321 - History of Computing (TS, HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSci 4921/HSci 4321
Typically offered: Fall Even, Spring Odd Year
Developments in the last 150 years; evolution of hardware and software; growth of computer and semiconductor industries and their relation to other business areas; changing relationships resulting from new data-gathering and analysis techniques; automation; social and ethical issues.
SCMC 3220W - Screen Cultures (AH, TS, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3220W/SCMC 3220W
Typically offered: Every Spring
Screens increasingly define the ways that we communicate with one another and how we encounter the world. This course will offer a critical, historical approach to the emergence of ?screen cultures? from the beginning of photography and cinema to our own age of ubiquitous touch screen displays. We will pay a great deal of attention to the ways that such technologies drive our patterns of consumption and production as well as how they create and define our social environments.
CSCL 3220W - Screen Cultures (AH, TS, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3220W/SCMC 3220W
Typically offered: Every Spring
Screens increasingly define the ways that we communicate with one another and how we encounter the world. This course will offer a critical, historical approach to the emergence of ?screen cultures? from the beginning of photography and cinema to our own age of ubiquitous touch screen displays. We will pay a great deal of attention to the ways that such technologies drive our patterns of consumption and production as well as how they create and define our social environments.
SCMC 3221 - On Television (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3221/SCMC 3221
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
We will study writings on television and specific TV shows from a variety of angles to understand the rise of American broadcast technologies, how race and class are crafted on TV, representations of gender and the home, postmodernity and late capitalism, the rise and demise and of taste, global television and the public sphere, the production of ?reality? in our present historical moment, and changes in televisual technologies. Throughout the course, we will also consider what constitutes television?the technology, the form, and the content?and learn to read these three facets of it concurrently.
CSCL 3221 - On Television (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3221/SCMC 3221
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
We will study writings on television and specific TV shows from a variety of angles to understand the rise of American broadcast technologies, how race and class are crafted on TV, representations of gender and the home, postmodernity and late capitalism, the rise and demise and of taste, global television and the public sphere, the production of ?reality? in our present historical moment, and changes in televisual technologies. Throughout the course, we will also consider what constitutes television?the technology, the form, and the content?and learn to read these three facets of it concurrently.
CSCL 5303 - Sound Studies
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 5303 / SCMC 5303
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Fall Odd Year
What is sound? Among the various ways of absorbing the world through the senses (looking, reading, watching, touching, tasting), what is unique to the actions of listening and hearing? And over the course of human history, how has sound been variously deployed, framed, and constructed? This course covers a diverse range of topics in the fast-developing interdisciplinary field of Sound Studies from the philosophy of sound to psychoanalytic theories of the voice, the gendered histories of telephones, accounts of radio and decolonization, film sound, sonic expressions of race, the politics of global popular music, mobile media technologies, and cutting-edge approaches to sound art.
SCMC 5303 - Sound Studies
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 5303 / SCMC 5303
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Fall Odd Year
What is sound? Among the various ways of absorbing the world through the senses (looking, reading, watching, touching, tasting), what is unique to the actions of listening and hearing? And over the course of human history, how has sound been variously deployed, framed, and constructed? This course covers a diverse range of topics in the fast-developing interdisciplinary field of Sound Studies from the philosophy of sound to psychoanalytic theories of the voice, the gendered histories of telephones, accounts of radio and decolonization, film sound, sonic expressions of race, the politics of global popular music, mobile media technologies, and cutting-edge approaches to sound art.
ARTS 3230 - Sound Art
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This Sound Art course is designed to cultivate your curiosity about the sonic as a contemporary art modality. It provides an introduction to diverse practices, techniques, and ways of thinking about sound while encouraging you to develop and expand upon your creative work. Students produce creative projects using sound as primary material. History of experimental sound art from early 20th century to present. Critiques, readings, writing, public presentations will be included weekly.
ARTS 3710 - Black and White Darkroom Photography
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Step away from the computer and move into the darkroom. This course is designed to introduce students to intermediate and advanced techniques in black and white photography. The class covers exposure and development, printing, archival considerations, and film formats. Traditional darkroom skills will be emphasized, the history of the camera and photography, and ways conceptual and contemporary artists approach these traditional techniques today. Through lectures, demonstrations, critiques, and readings you will develop an understanding of the history of darkroom photography in a contemporary art context. Throughout the course you will explore how your own voice can find form through a photographic practice. Students should come to class with a working knowledge of the basics of analog camera operation and photographic principles. There will be a review of darkroom, covered in ARTS 1701: Introduction to Photography, especially at the beginning of the term. The core of this class is a series of photographic assignments. Some will have a technical basis. Some will emphasize finding your personal voice and direction as a photographic artist. All work should be approached in the service of creative expression, self-reflection, and exploration. Students will leave the class with advanced darkroom skills, deeper knowledge of photographic history, and how these skills can be used and applied to support their creative work and life. Prerequisite: 1701
ARTS 3740 - Lighting and the Constructed Image
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3740/ArtS 5740
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Take control of your photographs and moving images. This class is about creating photographs vs. simply taking pictures of what you observe. Students will learn to use flash and continuous light sources to shape the content and feeling of your work, to create worlds, characters, and stories. You will have access to the well-equipped lighting studio and a variety of studio and location lighting equipment for check out. Some projects will be specific to still photography, but you will have the option of working with video in others. You will learn principles of lighting that apply to all media. In addition to lighting, the use of props, sets, costumes and digital manipulation will be explored in a series of student projects. You will learn to control and use light creatively in the studio and on location, in table-top setups, portraits and large-scale outdoor productions. The class will look at contemporary and historic artists in all genres who work with the constructed image. There will be a lot of hands-on skills taught in this class, but always in the service of exploring and expressing your personal vision. Prerequisite: ARTS 1701 Introduction to Photography
ARTS 3790 - Phone It In: Mobile Imaging and the Connected World
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course embraces the phone camera as a serious photographic tool. 1.43 trillion photos were taken in 2020, 91% of them on mobile phones. This is a hybrid art class involving both making and sharing of photographs, as well as readings, presentations, discussions, and research presentations. We will explore how mobile imaging technology and connectivity have transformed photography, as well as every other aspect of our lives- emotional, social, political, economic, and health. The role of mobile devices in social justice movements will be discussed, as well as issues of privacy, surveillance, and mental health implications. We will learn about the history, technology, and infrastructure of mobile devices and the internet. Technical and aesthetic aspects of phone photography will be addressed, including advanced camera controls, and in-phone and post image optimization and enhancement software. This online class will take place in synchronous Zoom meetings, as well as small group and individual meetings with the instructor. Content includes lectures, discussions, class visitors, and critiques of student work. You will be assigned a series of photographic projects, culminating in an extended final project reflecting your interests and passions. This is not your grandparents' photo class (although it is open to all generations).
COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Students work as a team to plan, script, and shoot video productions in a hands-on multi-camera television studio. By creating their own productions and reviewing the productions of others, students learn how media aesthetics shape the presentation of themes and messages.
COMM 3202 - Audio Production and Media Literacy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Introductory experience with sound design and production in podcasting, soundscape composition, music, and film. How sound advances media narratives and communicates emotion. The role sound plays in the producer's and audience's construction of worlds. Field recording, Foley work, vocal recording, music, and team production of longform nonfiction narrative podcast.
COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Video as communicative medium integrating visual/aural aesthetics. Creation of broadcast-quality production integrating message creation, audience analysis, argument development, and visual/audio scripting. Utilization of media aesthetics to develop/shape production content. prereq: 3201 or instr consent
COMM 4204 - Producing for Television: Theory and Practice
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Producing media content based on audience, design, and story. Developing a thematic design. Evaluating and choosing a projected audience based on story concept and program bible. Each student completes a television program, including writing a script, preproduction planning, and considering crew and talent needs. Media producer responsibilities. prereq: 3201, 3204
ENGW 4205 - Screenwriting
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: EngW 4205/EngW 5205
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
An introductory workshop to screenwriting basics, including formatting, style, and structure. In-class and take-home exercises will assist the students in learning techniques for developing engaging characters, writing concise description and vivid dialogue, and outlining a usable plot. prereq: EngL 3001W or 3001V or EngW 3102 or 3104 or 3106 or 3110, or jr or sr in SCMC major or minor
SCMC 3201 - Fundamentals of Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Practice of digital filmmaking. Digital techniques, practical tools required to produce films. Optical/digital devices as artistic tools. Historical/theoretical issues of cinema, its relation to other art forms.
SCMC 3202 - Intermediate Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Students complete a film of any length, 24 frames or feature-length. Emphasizes formal analysis of frames, shots, sequences, and relations of unit (frame or shot) to whole. prereq: 3201 or instr consent
TH 4555 - Audio Technology
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Sound as science. Technology to create/manipulate sound. Recording techniques. Effects/signal processing. Microphone/mixing techniques. prereq: 1501 or instr consent
ARTS 3750 - Narrative Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3750/ArtS 5750
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
The class approaches Filmmaking as an art form and is designed to heighten students' awareness of the variety of ways narratives can be constructed and developed through moving images and sound. Students will spend the semester making an original short fictional narrative or documentary film which they shoot and edit. Through development, pre-production, production, and post-production processes, students work with original ideas and material to discover alternative ways of telling their stories. The first section of the class is dedicated to developing their ideas, studying scene design, character development, and various forms of narrative filmmaking that they will use to write a short original screenplay. The second section of the class is dedicated to pre-production and production, including planning for and shooting their screenplay and applying innovative cinematography and audio techniques to tell their stories in image and sound. The last section of the class is devoted to post-production, including editing video and audio and finishing the film. When editing, students will edit various versions of scenes to explore interesting and unplanned changes in tone and flow in their films. Finally, students will finish their films and participate in an end-of-semester public screening. Prerequisite: 1704 or instructor consent
ARTS 5750 - Advanced Narrative Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3750/ArtS 5750
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
The class approaches Filmmaking as an art form and is designed to heighten students' awareness of the variety of ways narratives can be constructed and developed through moving images and sound. Students will spend the semester making an original short fictional narrative or documentary film which they shoot and edit. Through development, pre-production, production, and post-production processes, students work with original ideas and material to discover alternative ways of telling their stories. The first section of the class is dedicated to developing their ideas, studying scene design, character development, and various forms of narrative filmmaking that they will use to write a short original screenplay. The second section of the class is dedicated to pre-production and production, including planning for and shooting their screenplay and applying innovative cinematography and audio techniques to tell their stories in image and sound. The last section of the class is devoted to post-production, including editing video and audio and finishing the film. When editing, students will edit various versions of scenes to explore interesting and unplanned changes in tone and flow in their films. Finally, students will finish their films and participate in an end-of-semester public screening. Prerequisite: 3750 or Graduate Student
ARTS 3760 - Experimental Film and Video
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3760/ArtS 5760
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Experimental moving image practice is increasingly prevalent within contemporary art and cinema. This class is designed to heighten your awareness and experience of the variety of ways feeling and perception can be explored through moving images and sound. We will step beyond traditional narrative structures and conventions of camera use to explore the spiritual, conceptual, and emotional potential of the medium. There will be individual and collaborative group work on elements of film production - character design, location and scene design, writing, improvisational and scripted acting and shooting, camera and sound recording tools and techniques, editing, and post-production. The class will include screenings, readings and discussion of experimental films from the inception of the avant-garde through the most contemporary experimental work being produced today. You will explore the visual and aural experience of moving image and sound through a variety of alternative shooting, recording, editing and interdisciplinary installation and presentation options. Students begin the semester by developing a film concept and planning production. Working individually and collaboratively, you will then shoot the film and complete a preliminary edit. Through critiques and further editing and shooting, you will work, re-work, and start over with your material to discover unplanned changes in tone, flow, experience, and meaning. Students need to provide their own portable drive and 1-2 SD cards for each class, and may choose to purchase their own subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud if they wish to use their own computer. Prerequisite: ARTS 1704
ARTS 5760 - Experimental Film and Video
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3760/ArtS 5760
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Experimental moving image practice is increasingly prevalent within contemporary art and cinema. This class is designed to heighten your awareness and experience of the variety of ways feeling and perception can be explored through moving images and sound. We will step beyond traditional narrative structures and conventions of camera use to explore the spiritual, conceptual, and emotional potential of the medium. There will be individual and collaborative group work on elements of film production - character design, location and scene design, writing, improvisational and scripted acting and shooting, camera and sound recording tools and techniques, editing, and post-production. The class will include screenings, readings and discussion of experimental films from the inception of the avant-garde through the most contemporary experimental work being produced today. You will explore the visual and aural experience of moving image and sound through a variety of alternative shooting, recording, editing and interdisciplinary installation and presentation options. Students begin the semester by developing a film concept and planning production. Working individually and collaboratively, you will then shoot the film and complete a preliminary edit. Through critiques and further editing and shooting, you will work, re-work, and start over with your material to discover unplanned changes in tone, flow, experience, and meaning. Students need to provide their own portable drive and 1-2 SD cards for each class, and may choose to purchase their own subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud if they wish to use their own computer. Prerequisite: ARTS major, ARTS 1704
ARTS 3770 - Animation
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3770/ArtS 5770
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
In this course, students will be introduced to a variety of techniques of digital animation. Through short exercises and longer projects, students gain experience with digital 2D animation in Photoshop and After Effects as well as 3D animation in Maya. Through practice and application, students explore the tools and methods of animation. The course begins with focused exercises and culminates in an independent project. Classes consist of demonstrations, independent work time, historical and contemporary animation screenings, in-progress and final critiques, and self-assessments. This course strives to further the student?s knowledge, skills, and artistic achievement in animation. This is a class for undergraduate (3770) and graduate (5770) students of varied experience and skills, and the outcomes above are evaluated on progress and participation. All students successfully completing the class will have created one, in?depth, short animation and several short animation exercises. They will leave the class with a working knowledge of Photoshop, Maya, and other animation skills and techniques. prereq: ARTS 1704 or Instructor Consent
ARTS 5770 - Animation
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3770/ArtS 5770
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
In this course, students will be introduced to a variety of techniques of digital animation. Through short exercises and longer projects, students gain experience with digital 2D animation in Photoshop and After Effects as well as 3D animation in Maya. Through practice and application, students explore the tools and methods of animation. The course begins with focused exercises and culminates in an independent project. Classes consist of demonstrations, independent work time, historical and contemporary animation screenings, in-progress and final critiques, and self-assessments. This course strives to further the student?s knowledge, skills, and artistic achievement in animation. This is a class for undergraduate (3770) and graduate (5770) students of varied experience and skills, and the outcomes above are evaluated on progress and participation. All students successfully completing the class will have created one, in?depth, short animation and several short animation exercises. They will leave the class with a working knowledge of Photoshop, Maya, and other animation skills and techniques. prereq: ARTS 3770 or Instructor Consent
ARTS 3780 - Super 8 and 16 MM Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 8.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3780/ArtS 5780
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Feel the film whirring through the camera, get your hands wet in the darkroom, and hear the click-click of the projector. Revisit the origins of moving image and how it evolved into your mobile device and contemporary practice. This course will explore the medium of Super 8 filmmaking in the tradition of the experimental and avant ­garde. We will focus on the physicality of the film stock, the basic mechanics of the camera and projector, and how these elements translate into a visual language and aesthetic. Students will learn how to shoot, process, edit, splice, project, and transfer their own super 8 films. This course will balance the technical, conceptual, and historical aspects of small­ gauge or amateur analog filmmaking, and address what it means to work in this medium at the beginning of the 21st century. The course will include presentations, readings, and discussions on contemporary and historical artists in the medium, as well as film screenings and lectures. Classroom visits by artists and field trips will also provide an informed context for the primary course objective. prereq: ARTS 1704 or instructor consent
ARTS 5780 - Advanced Super 8 and 16 MM Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 8.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3780/ArtS 5780
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Feel the film whirring through the camera, get your hands wet in the darkroom, and hear the click-click of the projector. Revisit the origins of moving image and how it evolved into your mobile device and contemporary practice. This course will explore the medium of Super 8 filmmaking in the tradition of the experimental and avant ­garde. We will focus on the physicality of the film stock, the basic mechanics of the camera and projector, and how these elements translate into a visual language and aesthetic. Students will learn how to shoot, process, edit, splice, project, and transfer their own super 8 films. This course will balance the technical, conceptual, and historical aspects of small­ gauge or amateur analog filmmaking, and address what it means to work in this medium at the beginning of the 21st century. The course will include presentations, readings, and discussions on contemporary and historical artists in the medium, as well as film screenings and lectures. Classroom visits by artists and field trips will also provide an informed context for the primary course objective. prereq: Art major
AFRO 3654 - African Cinema (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Summer
This course introduces you to films written and directed by African filmmakers beginning the 2nd part of the 20th Century. Through an exploration of the stylistic and thematic issues raised by each film, it is expected that students will gain a broad understanding of how African filmmakers portray African social and cultural life, including the artistic and political contexts within which they work. In this way, students will gain an historical perspective on the origins of African filmmaking, confront the basic social, cultural and aesthetic questions raised by African filmmakers and critics, and consider how questions raised by African filmmakers and their films fit into the larger context of world cinema. We will contrast postcolonial African films with Hollywood jungle epics, settler/adventure romances in safari paradise, and colonial movies about Africa. Moving beyond strict categories and standards we will also examine the role of documentary films in shaping our understanding of African people's lives and the social construction of reality. We will review the place of documentary film in the current media-scape and discuss its functions and limitations. Most films will be screened in original languages with English subtitles.
AMES 3356W - Chinese Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Survey of Chinese cinema from China (PRC), Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Emphasizes discussion/comparison of global, social, economic, sexual, gender, psychological, and other themes as represented through film.
AMES 3456 - Japanese Film (GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Themes, stylistics, and genres of Japanese cinema through work of classic directors (Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu) and more recent filmmakers (Itami, Morita). Focuses on representations of femininity/masculinity.
AMES 3556 - Korean Film and Media (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AMES 3556 / AMES 5556
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course is an introduction to Korean film from the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) to the present day. We discuss the emergence of the Korean film industry under the conditions of colonial modernity and the various political pressures put on film production in South Korea until the 1990s. We will then turn to the last twenty years, during which South Korean film and television have experienced a boom in popularity in East Asia and globally. Throughout, we will focus on the formal and technical aspects of film, representations of history and historical memory, genre borrowing and genre mixing, and the relationships between art-house and culture industry productions.
AMES 3756 - Southeast Asian Cinema (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course examines the social life and political functions of cinema in Southeast Asia in relation to various contexts in which cinema emerged and circulate. The course is attentive to the impact of historical processes on cinema as well as to how film and media process historical events?colonialism, militarism, religious conflict, ideological wars, economic turmoil. The course is guided by three different problematics: the arrival of cinema as an imported technology that coincided with and was arguably contingent upon the European colonial presence in the region; the ideological conflicts of the Cold War, anti-Communist sentiments; and the emergence of national film industries vis-à-vis independent cinema in the contemporary time. The latter sees cinema as a recuperative means, on the one hand, from political trauma and, on the other hand, from the ongoing human rights crises and the decline of democracy in the region.
AMIN 3304 - Indigenous Filmmakers (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Analysis of film/video made by American Indian writers, directors, producers within contexts of tribally specific cultures/histories, as well as within context of US culture/film history.
CSCL 5411 - Avant-Garde Cinema
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
In 1939, the art critic Clement Greenberg defined avant-garde art in opposition to the ?kitsch? of mass-produced culture. To what extent does this conception of the avant-garde apply to the cinema?an institution and art form that supposedly requires machines and industrial modes of production? This course introduces students to key works of avant-garde and experimental film made by artists working on the margins of commercial film and mainstream art institutions. From the first half of the twentieth century, we will consider influential films made under the banners of Futurism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and Dada, and discuss their complex relation to Hollywood commodities. In the postwar period, we will explore a range of increasingly global experimental film practices, from the queer underground cinema in Latin America to the use of film projection in avant-garde performance. We will examine these practices in light of larger debates about medium specificity as well as the aesthetics and politics of the personal vs. the structural. In the final unit, we will reflect on the way contemporary artists, scholars, and curators have assembled a tradition of avant-garde cinema in the age of new media, and contemplate new directions we want it to take.
GER 3604W - Introduction to German Cinema (AH, GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Fall Even, Spring Odd Year
An introduction to the study of German cinema, with a focus on the relation between German film and German history, literature, culture, and politics.
SCAN 3617 - Scandinavian Gothic: Horror and the Uncanny in Nordic Literature and Media (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Spring Even Year
Scandinavia is popularly thought of as a bastion of social democracy, gender equality, and sleek modern design. Despite this well-earned reputation for political and aesthetic progressivism, there has also been a significant undercurrent of anti-rationalism and supernatural horror in Nordic culture. In Gothic fiction, the unwelcome appearance of primitive, irrational, and malevolent forces often takes the form of supernatural or monstrous figures?ghosts, vampires, witches, and trolls. As conventions established abroad mingled with a home-grown tradition of social realism, the Scandinavian Gothic became a vehicle for representing marginalized voices and revealing the shortcomings of Nordic societies. We will examine Gothic works of literature, film, television, popular music, and visual art. Through this examination, we will build an analytical vocabulary to formally analyze works of Gothic art in all of these media, and will practice that through in-class discussions as well as formal and informal writing.
SCMC 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas (GP)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3211/SCMC 3211
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course explores Global and Transnational Cinemas as alternative traditions to the dominant Hollywood-centered accounts of film history. Students will grapple with the historical, social, and political motivations of cinematic projects that critique traditions of national cinema, or that resist the hegemonic force of neocolonial cultural centers. Italian Neo-realism and the French New Wave will be examined as movements that challenge politics and mass culture. Third Cinema in Latin America and pan-African cinematic movements will be examined through their struggles with both colonialism and the rise of post-colonial dictatorships. Indian and Japanese cinemas of the 50s & 60s will mark out new possibilities of filmmaking and distribution. Finally, counter-hegemonic and experimental movements in U.S.-based film, such as the L.A. Rebellion and Fluxus, will allow students to understand how opposition to Hollywood style could exist within the very centers of cultural power while also reaching out to larger global communities.
AMIN 3402 - American Indians and the Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AmIn 3402/AmIn 5402
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Representations of American Indians in film, historically/contemporarily. What such representations assert about Native experience and cultural viability. What they reflect about particular relationships of power.
AMIN 5402 - American Indians and the Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AmIn 3402/AmIn 5402
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Representations of American Indians in film, historically/contemporarily. What such representations assert about Native experience and cultural viability. What they reflect about particular relationships of power.
ARTH 3655 - African-American Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Afro 3655/ArtH 3655/ArtH 5655
Typically offered: Spring Even Year
African American cinematic achievements from silent films of Oscar Micheaux through contemporary Hollywood and independent films. Class screenings, critical readings.
ARTH 5655 - African-American Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Afro 3655/ArtH 3655/ArtH 5655
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
African American cinematic achievements, from silent films of Oscar Micheaux through contemporary Hollywood and independent films. Class screenings, critical readings.
SCMC 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas (GP)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3211/SCMC 3211
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course explores Global and Transnational Cinemas as alternative traditions to the dominant Hollywood-centered accounts of film history. Students will grapple with the historical, social, and political motivations of cinematic projects that critique traditions of national cinema, or that resist the hegemonic force of neocolonial cultural centers. Italian Neo-realism and the French New Wave will be examined as movements that challenge politics and mass culture. Third Cinema in Latin America and pan-African cinematic movements will be examined through their struggles with both colonialism and the rise of post-colonial dictatorships. Indian and Japanese cinemas of the 50s & 60s will mark out new possibilities of filmmaking and distribution. Finally, counter-hegemonic and experimental movements in U.S.-based film, such as the L.A. Rebellion and Fluxus, will allow students to understand how opposition to Hollywood style could exist within the very centers of cultural power while also reaching out to larger global communities.
CSCL 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas (GP)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3211/SCMC 3211
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course explores Global and Transnational Cinemas as alternative traditions to the dominant Hollywood-centered accounts of film history. Students will grapple with the historical, social, and political motivations of cinematic projects that critique traditions of national cinema, or that resist the hegemonic force of neocolonial cultural centers. Italian Neo-realism and the French New Wave will be examined as movements that challenge politics and mass culture. Third Cinema in Latin America and pan-African cinematic movements will be examined through their struggles with both colonialism and the rise of post-colonial dictatorships. Indian and Japanese cinemas of the 50s & 60s will mark out new possibilities of filmmaking and distribution. Finally, counter-hegemonic and experimental movements in U.S.-based film, such as the L.A. Rebellion and Fluxus, will allow students to understand how opposition to Hollywood style could exist within the very centers of cultural power while also reaching out to larger global communities.
COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Analysis of media images/messages. Principles of literacy. Media content/industries. Media and identity. Media effects. Textbook/packet readings, videos, small groups of peer writing workshops, media analyses.
COMM 5211 - Critical Media Studies: Theory and Methods
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Survey of theories, research methods, and scholars dominating critical media studies since late 1920s. prereq: Graduate students or undergraduates who have completed COMM 3211 (Introduction to Media Studies) or its equivalent
GWSS 3307 - Feminist Film Studies (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Construction of different notions of gender in film, social uses of these portrayals. Lectures on film criticism, film viewings, class discussions.
SCMC 5001 - Critical Debates in the Study of Cinema and Media Culture
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
This course serves as a capstone within the Studies in Cinema and Media Culture program as well as an advanced seminar in cinema and media theory. It covers such topics as contemporary cinema, transnational television, video games, digital networks, and surveillance technologies. It builds on the knowledge of cinema and media studies that students have developed over their undergraduate education. Students are given the resources and encouragement to construct larger reading and viewing lists that will further develop their knowledge of media and cinema. The final grade is based on participation, critical essays, weekly viewing assignments, and an individualized project that can include creative and professional interests.
SCMC 5002 - Advanced Film Analysis
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Application of textual analysis to the reading of a film. Students work collaboratively to discern and interpret all component aural/visual elements of what the film says and how it says it.
SCMC 3210 - Cinema and Ideology (AH)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3210/SCMC 3210
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
The cinema as a social institution with emphasis on the complex relations it maintains with the ideological practices that define both the form and the content of its products. Specific films used to study how mass culture contributes to the process of shaping beliefs and identities of citizens.
CSCL 3210 - Cinema and Ideology (AH)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3210/SCMC 3210
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
The cinema as a social institution with emphasis on the complex relations it maintains with the ideological practices that define both the form and the content of its products. Specific films used to study how mass culture contributes to the process of shaping beliefs and identities of citizens.
SCMC 3221 - On Television (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3221/SCMC 3221
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
We will study writings on television and specific TV shows from a variety of angles to understand the rise of American broadcast technologies, how race and class are crafted on TV, representations of gender and the home, postmodernity and late capitalism, the rise and demise and of taste, global television and the public sphere, the production of ?reality? in our present historical moment, and changes in televisual technologies. Throughout the course, we will also consider what constitutes television?the technology, the form, and the content?and learn to read these three facets of it concurrently.
CSCL 3221 - On Television (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3221/SCMC 3221
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
We will study writings on television and specific TV shows from a variety of angles to understand the rise of American broadcast technologies, how race and class are crafted on TV, representations of gender and the home, postmodernity and late capitalism, the rise and demise and of taste, global television and the public sphere, the production of ?reality? in our present historical moment, and changes in televisual technologies. Throughout the course, we will also consider what constitutes television?the technology, the form, and the content?and learn to read these three facets of it concurrently.
SCMC 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3212W/SCMC 3212W
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course explores the ethics and aesthetics of documentary cinema, arguably the very first genre of film. We will track the way documentary has widened from largely instructional and experimental uses early in its history to become a distinct genre among today?s familiar feature films. We will screen early documentaries, which may include shocking ethnographies (Nanook of the North, The Mad Masters). Over the course of the term, the syllabus makes its way to recent exemplars of the genre (films may include: Amy, American Teen, I Am Not Your Negro, A Jihad for Love, Generation Wealth, Fetish, Blackfish and so on). One of our aims will be to explore students? relations as viewers and documentarians themselves (via smartphones, Instagram, etc.) to this participatory, revelatory, and always controversial, politically fraught film practice. Documentary Cinema includes both full class lectures and discussions as well as small group discussion of films and readings, and may include the opportunity for students to create their own personal documentary. Intellectually, the course balances out a study of the grammar of documentary as an artistic practice with explorations of the ways the genre reflects broader currents of cinematic and cultural history. By the end of the semester, students should have a stronger understanding of the ways documentary cinema opens our senses to the world around us.
CSCL 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3212W/SCMC 3212W
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course explores the ethics and aesthetics of documentary cinema, arguably the very first genre of film. We will track the way documentary has widened from largely instructional and experimental uses early in its history to become a distinct genre among today?s familiar feature films. We will screen early documentaries, which may include shocking ethnographies (Nanook of the North, The Mad Masters). Over the course of the term, the syllabus makes its way to recent exemplars of the genre (films may include: Amy, American Teen, I Am Not Your Negro, A Jihad for Love, Generation Wealth, Fetish, Blackfish and so on). One of our aims will be to explore students? relations as viewers and documentarians themselves (via smartphones, Instagram, etc.) to this participatory, revelatory, and always controversial, politically fraught film practice. Documentary Cinema includes both full class lectures and discussions as well as small group discussion of films and readings, and may include the opportunity for students to create their own personal documentary. Intellectually, the course balances out a study of the grammar of documentary as an artistic practice with explorations of the ways the genre reflects broader currents of cinematic and cultural history. By the end of the semester, students should have a stronger understanding of the ways documentary cinema opens our senses to the world around us.
AMES 1001 - Asian Film and Animation (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Various film styles within Asian film/animation production. Ways of analyzing film. Work of 20th-century directors in Asia.
ARTH 1921W - Introduction to Film Study (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall
Fundamentals of film analysis and an introduction to the major theories of the cinema, presented through detailed interpretations of representative films from the international history of the cinema.
ARTS 1704 - Introduction to Moving Images (AH)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 1704/ArtS 2601
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Do you want to engage with a medium of the everyday? From watching a film to making a video of a friend or family reunion, moving images are all around. This is an introductory, hands-on studio course in digital filmmaking. Through lectures, screenings, demonstrations, hands-on practice, readings, and discussions, this course will cover practical and theoretical elements of digital filmmaking. Students will be introduced to film language, aesthetics, and technical terminology, as well as camera, lighting, sound and editing. Throughout the semester we will view and discuss films and clips from a variety of genres, including narrative, documentary, experimental, and combinations thereof. Students create several short film projects. They also develop skills in critical evaluation through critique sessions that investigate the aesthetic, technical, and cultural interpretation of moving images. As filmmakers you are free to make films in any genre in this class. Students need to provide their own portable drive and 1 - 2 SD cards for each class, and may choose to purchase their own subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud if they wish to use their own computer. This course is the prerequisite for intermediate level Department of Art courses in Moving Images including Narrative Digital Filmmaking, Experimental Film and Video, Animation, Super 8 and 16mm Filmmaking.
SCMC 1201W - Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for CSCL 1201W if they have already taken SCMC 1201W, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
SCMC 1201V - Honors Course: Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for SCMC 1201V if they have already taken CSCL 1201V, CSCL 1201W, SCMC 1201W, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
CSCL 1201W - Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for CSCL 1201W if they have already taken SCMC 1201W, CSCL 1201V, SCMC 1201V, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
CSCL 1201V - Honors Course: Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for CSCL 1201V if they have already taken CSCLW, SCMC 1201W, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
JOUR 1001 - Media in a Changing World (SOCS, TS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Jour 1001/Jour 1001H
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
In an era when almost everybody's a content creator and just about every company is connected with media, what makes mass communication different from other forms of message exchange? We'll examine journalism, advertising, public relations, video gaming, music recording, music and more. We'll think about issues like free speech, "fake news," censorship, social media, demographics, psychographics and graphic content. Hear from mass media professionals who provide real-world, real-time material for discussion and debate. This class covers ground that is shifting by the day and uses current cases to help you apply what you learn and sharpen your own media literacy skills.
JOUR 1001H - Media in a Changing World (SOCS, TS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Jour 1001/Jour 1001H
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
In an era when almost everybody's a content creator and just about every company is connected with media, what makes mass communication different from other forms of message exchange? We?ll examine journalism, advertising, public relations, video gaming, music recording, music and more. We'll think about issues like free speech, fake news, censorship, social media, demographics, psychographics and graphic content. Hear from mass media professionals who provide real-world, real-time material for discussion and debate. This class covers ground that is shifting by the day and uses current cases to help you apply what you learn and sharpen your own media literacy skills.
SCMC 3001W - History of Cinema and Media Culture (WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Genealogy of cinema in relation to other media, notably photography, radio, television/video, and the Internet. Representative films from decisive moments in global development of cinema. Rise/fall of Hollywood studio system, establishment of different national cinemas, cinematic challenges to cultural imperialism, emergence of post-cinematic technologies.
SCMC 3201 - Fundamentals of Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Practice of digital filmmaking. Digital techniques, practical tools required to produce films. Optical/digital devices as artistic tools. Historical/theoretical issues of cinema, its relation to other art forms.
SCMC 3202 - Intermediate Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Students complete a film of any length, 24 frames or feature-length. Emphasizes formal analysis of frames, shots, sequences, and relations of unit (frame or shot) to whole. prereq: 3201 or instr consent
SCMC 5001 - Critical Debates in the Study of Cinema and Media Culture
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
This course serves as a capstone within the Studies in Cinema and Media Culture program as well as an advanced seminar in cinema and media theory. It covers such topics as contemporary cinema, transnational television, video games, digital networks, and surveillance technologies. It builds on the knowledge of cinema and media studies that students have developed over their undergraduate education. Students are given the resources and encouragement to construct larger reading and viewing lists that will further develop their knowledge of media and cinema. The final grade is based on participation, critical essays, weekly viewing assignments, and an individualized project that can include creative and professional interests.
SCMC 5002 - Advanced Film Analysis
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Application of textual analysis to the reading of a film. Students work collaboratively to discern and interpret all component aural/visual elements of what the film says and how it says it.
SCMC 3210 - Cinema and Ideology (AH)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3210/SCMC 3210
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
The cinema as a social institution with emphasis on the complex relations it maintains with the ideological practices that define both the form and the content of its products. Specific films used to study how mass culture contributes to the process of shaping beliefs and identities of citizens.
CSCL 3210 - Cinema and Ideology (AH)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3210/SCMC 3210
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
The cinema as a social institution with emphasis on the complex relations it maintains with the ideological practices that define both the form and the content of its products. Specific films used to study how mass culture contributes to the process of shaping beliefs and identities of citizens.
SCMC 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas (GP)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3211/SCMC 3211
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course explores Global and Transnational Cinemas as alternative traditions to the dominant Hollywood-centered accounts of film history. Students will grapple with the historical, social, and political motivations of cinematic projects that critique traditions of national cinema, or that resist the hegemonic force of neocolonial cultural centers. Italian Neo-realism and the French New Wave will be examined as movements that challenge politics and mass culture. Third Cinema in Latin America and pan-African cinematic movements will be examined through their struggles with both colonialism and the rise of post-colonial dictatorships. Indian and Japanese cinemas of the 50s & 60s will mark out new possibilities of filmmaking and distribution. Finally, counter-hegemonic and experimental movements in U.S.-based film, such as the L.A. Rebellion and Fluxus, will allow students to understand how opposition to Hollywood style could exist within the very centers of cultural power while also reaching out to larger global communities.
CSCL 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas (GP)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3211/SCMC 3211
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course explores Global and Transnational Cinemas as alternative traditions to the dominant Hollywood-centered accounts of film history. Students will grapple with the historical, social, and political motivations of cinematic projects that critique traditions of national cinema, or that resist the hegemonic force of neocolonial cultural centers. Italian Neo-realism and the French New Wave will be examined as movements that challenge politics and mass culture. Third Cinema in Latin America and pan-African cinematic movements will be examined through their struggles with both colonialism and the rise of post-colonial dictatorships. Indian and Japanese cinemas of the 50s & 60s will mark out new possibilities of filmmaking and distribution. Finally, counter-hegemonic and experimental movements in U.S.-based film, such as the L.A. Rebellion and Fluxus, will allow students to understand how opposition to Hollywood style could exist within the very centers of cultural power while also reaching out to larger global communities.
SCMC 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3212W/SCMC 3212W
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course explores the ethics and aesthetics of documentary cinema, arguably the very first genre of film. We will track the way documentary has widened from largely instructional and experimental uses early in its history to become a distinct genre among today?s familiar feature films. We will screen early documentaries, which may include shocking ethnographies (Nanook of the North, The Mad Masters). Over the course of the term, the syllabus makes its way to recent exemplars of the genre (films may include: Amy, American Teen, I Am Not Your Negro, A Jihad for Love, Generation Wealth, Fetish, Blackfish and so on). One of our aims will be to explore students? relations as viewers and documentarians themselves (via smartphones, Instagram, etc.) to this participatory, revelatory, and always controversial, politically fraught film practice. Documentary Cinema includes both full class lectures and discussions as well as small group discussion of films and readings, and may include the opportunity for students to create their own personal documentary. Intellectually, the course balances out a study of the grammar of documentary as an artistic practice with explorations of the ways the genre reflects broader currents of cinematic and cultural history. By the end of the semester, students should have a stronger understanding of the ways documentary cinema opens our senses to the world around us.
CSCL 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3212W/SCMC 3212W
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course explores the ethics and aesthetics of documentary cinema, arguably the very first genre of film. We will track the way documentary has widened from largely instructional and experimental uses early in its history to become a distinct genre among today?s familiar feature films. We will screen early documentaries, which may include shocking ethnographies (Nanook of the North, The Mad Masters). Over the course of the term, the syllabus makes its way to recent exemplars of the genre (films may include: Amy, American Teen, I Am Not Your Negro, A Jihad for Love, Generation Wealth, Fetish, Blackfish and so on). One of our aims will be to explore students? relations as viewers and documentarians themselves (via smartphones, Instagram, etc.) to this participatory, revelatory, and always controversial, politically fraught film practice. Documentary Cinema includes both full class lectures and discussions as well as small group discussion of films and readings, and may include the opportunity for students to create their own personal documentary. Intellectually, the course balances out a study of the grammar of documentary as an artistic practice with explorations of the ways the genre reflects broader currents of cinematic and cultural history. By the end of the semester, students should have a stronger understanding of the ways documentary cinema opens our senses to the world around us.
SCMC 3221 - On Television (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3221/SCMC 3221
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
We will study writings on television and specific TV shows from a variety of angles to understand the rise of American broadcast technologies, how race and class are crafted on TV, representations of gender and the home, postmodernity and late capitalism, the rise and demise and of taste, global television and the public sphere, the production of ?reality? in our present historical moment, and changes in televisual technologies. Throughout the course, we will also consider what constitutes television?the technology, the form, and the content?and learn to read these three facets of it concurrently.
CSCL 3221 - On Television (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3221/SCMC 3221
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
We will study writings on television and specific TV shows from a variety of angles to understand the rise of American broadcast technologies, how race and class are crafted on TV, representations of gender and the home, postmodernity and late capitalism, the rise and demise and of taste, global television and the public sphere, the production of ?reality? in our present historical moment, and changes in televisual technologies. Throughout the course, we will also consider what constitutes television?the technology, the form, and the content?and learn to read these three facets of it concurrently.
AFRO 3654 - African Cinema (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Summer
This course introduces you to films written and directed by African filmmakers beginning the 2nd part of the 20th Century. Through an exploration of the stylistic and thematic issues raised by each film, it is expected that students will gain a broad understanding of how African filmmakers portray African social and cultural life, including the artistic and political contexts within which they work. In this way, students will gain an historical perspective on the origins of African filmmaking, confront the basic social, cultural and aesthetic questions raised by African filmmakers and critics, and consider how questions raised by African filmmakers and their films fit into the larger context of world cinema. We will contrast postcolonial African films with Hollywood jungle epics, settler/adventure romances in safari paradise, and colonial movies about Africa. Moving beyond strict categories and standards we will also examine the role of documentary films in shaping our understanding of African people's lives and the social construction of reality. We will review the place of documentary film in the current media-scape and discuss its functions and limitations. Most films will be screened in original languages with English subtitles.
AMES 3356W - Chinese Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Survey of Chinese cinema from China (PRC), Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Emphasizes discussion/comparison of global, social, economic, sexual, gender, psychological, and other themes as represented through film.
AMES 3456 - Japanese Film (GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Themes, stylistics, and genres of Japanese cinema through work of classic directors (Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu) and more recent filmmakers (Itami, Morita). Focuses on representations of femininity/masculinity.
AMES 3556 - Korean Film and Media (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AMES 3556 / AMES 5556
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course is an introduction to Korean film from the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) to the present day. We discuss the emergence of the Korean film industry under the conditions of colonial modernity and the various political pressures put on film production in South Korea until the 1990s. We will then turn to the last twenty years, during which South Korean film and television have experienced a boom in popularity in East Asia and globally. Throughout, we will focus on the formal and technical aspects of film, representations of history and historical memory, genre borrowing and genre mixing, and the relationships between art-house and culture industry productions.
AMIN 3304 - Indigenous Filmmakers (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Analysis of film/video made by American Indian writers, directors, producers within contexts of tribally specific cultures/histories, as well as within context of US culture/film history.
AMST 3253W - American Popular Culture and Politics: 1940 to the Present (HIS, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Historical analysis of how popular arts represent issues of gender, race, consumerism, and citizenship. How popular artists define boundaries of citizenship and public life: inclusions/exclusions in polity and national identity. How popular arts reinforce/alter political ideologies.
ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
This course will engage with the history of film as an art form through a selection of significant movements, styles, filmmakers, institutions, and, of course, individual films from around the world. While this will not be a comprehensive study, it will address both mainstream, commercial films as well as oppositional, experimental, underground, and otherwise challenging works. Some of the wide-ranging selection of films we will watch and discuss: Germaine Dulac?s La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman) (1922), Gillo Pontecorvo?s The Battle of Algiers (1966), Julie Dash?s Daughters of the Dust (1991), and Alfonso Cuarón?s Roma (2018).
ARTS 3730 - Intermediate Digital Photography
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
In a world of images, what are ways you can use digital photography? This class explores those possibilities. You will consider your own image making in the context of contemporary art, current events, photographic history, and the universe of imagery in which we live. This class builds on 1701 Intro to Photography, approaching photography as a means of expression, investigation, critical inquiry, and interaction. The emphasis is on finding your personal voice and direction as a photographic artist. Students come to this class with a working knowledge of basic camera operation and photographic principles, from technical to aesthetic and conceptual. Students will learn and use advanced digital tools and workflow in the service of their own creative exploration. We will examine the changing role of digital image production and distribution in society. This class is organized around a series of project assignments and exercises. These prompts are opportunities to engage with both your own physical surroundings and the larger world. Smartphone cameras, social media and mass dissemination of images have changed people's everyday lives. These tools have been at the forefront during the pandemic and to highlight long-standing systems of violence. This class engages with these topics. Projects will be completed with manually controlled advanced digital cameras, cell phone cameras, found images (print, negatives and / or digital), and more. Prerequisite: ARTS 1701
COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Students work as a team to plan, script, and shoot video productions in a hands-on multi-camera television studio. By creating their own productions and reviewing the productions of others, students learn how media aesthetics shape the presentation of themes and messages.
COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Video as communicative medium integrating visual/aural aesthetics. Creation of broadcast-quality production integrating message creation, audience analysis, argument development, and visual/audio scripting. Utilization of media aesthetics to develop/shape production content. prereq: 3201 or instr consent
COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Historical development and current issues in electronic media technologies and programming. Effects of governmental, industrial, and public organizations on message content. Problem areas of electronic media.
COMM 3231 - Reality TV: History, Culture, and Economics
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Social, visual, cultural, economic, historical, and ethical dimensions of reality television.
COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Analysis of media images/messages. Principles of literacy. Media content/industries. Media and identity. Media effects. Textbook/packet readings, videos, small groups of peer writing workshops, media analyses.
COMM 4263 - Feminist Media Studies (DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Issues, controversies, and practices of gender and their relationship to U.S. media. Ways in which gender is represented in and comes into play with media texts/institutions. Histories of feminism, theories/methods/political economy, case studies. prereq: 3211 or instr consent
COMM 5211 - Critical Media Studies: Theory and Methods
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Survey of theories, research methods, and scholars dominating critical media studies since late 1920s. prereq: Graduate students or undergraduates who have completed COMM 3211 (Introduction to Media Studies) or its equivalent
COMM 5261 - Political Economy of Media Culture
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Organizational practices of media communicators. Media content as link between communicators and audiences. How viewers use/process media content. prereq: 3211 or instr consent
CSCL 5411 - Avant-Garde Cinema
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
In 1939, the art critic Clement Greenberg defined avant-garde art in opposition to the ?kitsch? of mass-produced culture. To what extent does this conception of the avant-garde apply to the cinema?an institution and art form that supposedly requires machines and industrial modes of production? This course introduces students to key works of avant-garde and experimental film made by artists working on the margins of commercial film and mainstream art institutions. From the first half of the twentieth century, we will consider influential films made under the banners of Futurism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and Dada, and discuss their complex relation to Hollywood commodities. In the postwar period, we will explore a range of increasingly global experimental film practices, from the queer underground cinema in Latin America to the use of film projection in avant-garde performance. We will examine these practices in light of larger debates about medium specificity as well as the aesthetics and politics of the personal vs. the structural. In the final unit, we will reflect on the way contemporary artists, scholars, and curators have assembled a tradition of avant-garde cinema in the age of new media, and contemplate new directions we want it to take.
ENGW 4205 - Screenwriting
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: EngW 4205/EngW 5205
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
An introductory workshop to screenwriting basics, including formatting, style, and structure. In-class and take-home exercises will assist the students in learning techniques for developing engaging characters, writing concise description and vivid dialogue, and outlining a usable plot. prereq: EngL 3001W or 3001V or EngW 3102 or 3104 or 3106 or 3110, or jr or sr in SCMC major or minor
GER 3604W - Introduction to German Cinema (AH, GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Fall Even, Spring Odd Year
An introduction to the study of German cinema, with a focus on the relation between German film and German history, literature, culture, and politics.
GWSS 3307 - Feminist Film Studies (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Construction of different notions of gender in film, social uses of these portrayals. Lectures on film criticism, film viewings, class discussions.
JOUR 3614 - History of Media Communication (HIS, TS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Glos 3605/Hist 3705/Jour 3614
Typically offered: Every Spring
In the history of humankind, there have been five major changes in how we communicate and we're in the middle of the latest revolution. This class helps you make sense of these uncharted waters by exploring how humanity adopted, and adapted to, past disruptions. From the alphabet to the internet and social media, learn how technological innovations in the media have changed not only how people share information and values but also what people have communicated throughout history. We will learn about these five phases in mediated communication over 5,000 years, and how they relate to major changes in politics, society and culture. And then we'll use history's lessons to peek into the future: When presidents tweet and everyone's foodie photos are on Instagram, how does the world communicate?
JOUR 3741 - Diversity and Media (DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
How are our perceptions of crime been influenced by the news? How do social movements use media to share their messages? What can we as audiences do? Social media, news and entertainment media help shape our ideas about identity and differences. Learn how representation and inclusion have been negotiated through media with a particular focus on local case studies. Topics include race, ethnicity, social class, physical ability, and gender. Students will learn how to use media literacy to build a just and equitable society.
JOUR 3745 - Media and Popular Culture (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Popular culture is everywhere. Social media, film, music, video games, television, websites, and news bring popular culture into our daily lives. In this class, we will examine popular culture in modern and historical contexts through various mass communication, sociological, and cultural theories. Is popular culture of the people? or dictated by corporate interests? What social and commercial pressures result in stereotypes, misrepresentation and exclusion in popular culture? Does popular culture mirror or shape social reality? This course will provide you with the tools to become active and thoughtful consumers of media and popular culture.
PORT 3800 - Film Studies in Portuguese
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course offers an introduction to Brazilian film from the 1960s to the present and to postcolonial films from Portugal, Angola, and Mozambique. You will learn about the history of Brazilian film from cinema novo on, with attention to state funding; internationalization; and recurrent themes, such as the sertão or backlands and the favela or shantytown. In the case of Lusophone postcolonial films, you will learn about issues of personal and collective identity, including hybrid, diasporic, and non-heteronormative identities; nation building and post-conflict trauma; memory and healing. The approach is two-fold: cinema as representation of society, history, culture, and the individual subject; and cinema as a complex, multi-layered, and expensive art form. You are expected to critically engage with the form and content of each film as you acquire an understanding of the historical, cultural, (geo)political, and socio-economic forces that have shaped the development of film in the various countries, in addition to the social issues raised by filmmakers. You will also become familiar with philosophical and aesthetic insights from which to critically review a film. The course will be taught in Portuguese and you are expected to use Portuguese orally in class and in all written assignments. Readings will be in Portuguese and occasionally in English. Topics vary and are specified in the class schedule. prereq: 3003 or instr consent or dept consent
SPAN 3800 - Film Studies in Spanish
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Films from Spain or Spanish-speaking world in their historical, (geo)political, and socioeconomic contexts. Films analyzed under interdisciplinary frameworks, noting aspects related to cinematography/rhetoric. prereq: A grade of C- or better in SPAN 3104W or SPAN 3104V or TLDO 3104W or ARGN 3104W or SPAN 3105W or SPAN 3105V or TLDO 3105W or SPAN 3107W or SPAN 3107V or TLDO 3107W
AAS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production (AH, DSJ, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AAS 3409W/GWSS 3409W
Typically offered: Every Fall
Diversity of cultures designated "Asian American." Understanding women's lives in historical, cultural, economic, and racial contexts.
GWSS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production (AH, DSJ, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AAS 3409W/GWSS 3409W
Typically offered: Every Fall
Analysis of media, art, literature, performance, on artistic contributions. History, politics, culture of Asian American women. Interpret cultural production to better understand role of race, gender, nation within American society/citizenship.
ARTH 3655 - African-American Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Afro 3655/ArtH 3655/ArtH 5655
Typically offered: Spring Even Year
African American cinematic achievements from silent films of Oscar Micheaux through contemporary Hollywood and independent films. Class screenings, critical readings.
ARTH 5655 - African-American Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Afro 3655/ArtH 3655/ArtH 5655
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
African American cinematic achievements, from silent films of Oscar Micheaux through contemporary Hollywood and independent films. Class screenings, critical readings.
AMIN 3402 - American Indians and the Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AmIn 3402/AmIn 5402
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Representations of American Indians in film, historically/contemporarily. What such representations assert about Native experience and cultural viability. What they reflect about particular relationships of power.
AMIN 5402 - American Indians and the Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AmIn 3402/AmIn 5402
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Representations of American Indians in film, historically/contemporarily. What such representations assert about Native experience and cultural viability. What they reflect about particular relationships of power.
ARTS 3750 - Narrative Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3750/ArtS 5750
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
The class approaches Filmmaking as an art form and is designed to heighten students' awareness of the variety of ways narratives can be constructed and developed through moving images and sound. Students will spend the semester making an original short fictional narrative or documentary film which they shoot and edit. Through development, pre-production, production, and post-production processes, students work with original ideas and material to discover alternative ways of telling their stories. The first section of the class is dedicated to developing their ideas, studying scene design, character development, and various forms of narrative filmmaking that they will use to write a short original screenplay. The second section of the class is dedicated to pre-production and production, including planning for and shooting their screenplay and applying innovative cinematography and audio techniques to tell their stories in image and sound. The last section of the class is devoted to post-production, including editing video and audio and finishing the film. When editing, students will edit various versions of scenes to explore interesting and unplanned changes in tone and flow in their films. Finally, students will finish their films and participate in an end-of-semester public screening. Prerequisite: 1704 or instructor consent
ARTS 5750 - Advanced Narrative Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3750/ArtS 5750
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
The class approaches Filmmaking as an art form and is designed to heighten students' awareness of the variety of ways narratives can be constructed and developed through moving images and sound. Students will spend the semester making an original short fictional narrative or documentary film which they shoot and edit. Through development, pre-production, production, and post-production processes, students work with original ideas and material to discover alternative ways of telling their stories. The first section of the class is dedicated to developing their ideas, studying scene design, character development, and various forms of narrative filmmaking that they will use to write a short original screenplay. The second section of the class is dedicated to pre-production and production, including planning for and shooting their screenplay and applying innovative cinematography and audio techniques to tell their stories in image and sound. The last section of the class is devoted to post-production, including editing video and audio and finishing the film. When editing, students will edit various versions of scenes to explore interesting and unplanned changes in tone and flow in their films. Finally, students will finish their films and participate in an end-of-semester public screening. Prerequisite: 3750 or Graduate Student
ARTS 3760 - Experimental Film and Video
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3760/ArtS 5760
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Experimental moving image practice is increasingly prevalent within contemporary art and cinema. This class is designed to heighten your awareness and experience of the variety of ways feeling and perception can be explored through moving images and sound. We will step beyond traditional narrative structures and conventions of camera use to explore the spiritual, conceptual, and emotional potential of the medium. There will be individual and collaborative group work on elements of film production - character design, location and scene design, writing, improvisational and scripted acting and shooting, camera and sound recording tools and techniques, editing, and post-production. The class will include screenings, readings and discussion of experimental films from the inception of the avant-garde through the most contemporary experimental work being produced today. You will explore the visual and aural experience of moving image and sound through a variety of alternative shooting, recording, editing and interdisciplinary installation and presentation options. Students begin the semester by developing a film concept and planning production. Working individually and collaboratively, you will then shoot the film and complete a preliminary edit. Through critiques and further editing and shooting, you will work, re-work, and start over with your material to discover unplanned changes in tone, flow, experience, and meaning. Students need to provide their own portable drive and 1-2 SD cards for each class, and may choose to purchase their own subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud if they wish to use their own computer. Prerequisite: ARTS 1704
ARTS 5760 - Experimental Film and Video
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3760/ArtS 5760
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Experimental moving image practice is increasingly prevalent within contemporary art and cinema. This class is designed to heighten your awareness and experience of the variety of ways feeling and perception can be explored through moving images and sound. We will step beyond traditional narrative structures and conventions of camera use to explore the spiritual, conceptual, and emotional potential of the medium. There will be individual and collaborative group work on elements of film production - character design, location and scene design, writing, improvisational and scripted acting and shooting, camera and sound recording tools and techniques, editing, and post-production. The class will include screenings, readings and discussion of experimental films from the inception of the avant-garde through the most contemporary experimental work being produced today. You will explore the visual and aural experience of moving image and sound through a variety of alternative shooting, recording, editing and interdisciplinary installation and presentation options. Students begin the semester by developing a film concept and planning production. Working individually and collaboratively, you will then shoot the film and complete a preliminary edit. Through critiques and further editing and shooting, you will work, re-work, and start over with your material to discover unplanned changes in tone, flow, experience, and meaning. Students need to provide their own portable drive and 1-2 SD cards for each class, and may choose to purchase their own subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud if they wish to use their own computer. Prerequisite: ARTS major, ARTS 1704
CSCI 4921 - History of Computing (TS, HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSci 4921/HSci 4321
Typically offered: Fall Even Year
Developments in last 150 years; evolution of hardware and software; growth of computer and semiconductor industries and their relation to other businesses; changing relationships resulting from new data-gathering and analysis techniques; automation; social and ethical issues.
HSCI 4321 - History of Computing (TS, HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSci 4921/HSci 4321
Typically offered: Fall Even, Spring Odd Year
Developments in the last 150 years; evolution of hardware and software; growth of computer and semiconductor industries and their relation to other business areas; changing relationships resulting from new data-gathering and analysis techniques; automation; social and ethical issues.
GEOG 3374W - The City in Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: Geog 3374W/3374V/5374W
Typically offered: Every Spring
Cinematic portrayal of changes in 20th-century cities worldwide including social and cultural conflict, political and economic processes, changing gender relationships, rural versus urban areas, and population and development issues (especially as they affect women and children).
JOUR 3786 - Media and Politics
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Jour 3786/Pol 3786
Typically offered: Every Fall
Do facts matter anymore? Is press freedom under threat? Are audiences trapped in filter bubbles? Why do people hate the media, and how can the news be improved to better serve citizens? Explore the historical and contemporary dynamics that shape the relationship between professionals in the media, the mass public, and political actors across different parts of government. Study major forms of mass media, including television and newspapers, alongside new forms such as digital and social media. Look at specific reporting rituals and practices, as well as issues involving media ownership, regulation, ethics, and press freedom. We will study politicians? efforts to craft messages, advertise strategically, and target select audiences for political gain. The course will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the United States, and you will be asked to engage with current events and the role of communication technologies in political and civic life.
POL 3786 - Media and Politics
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Jour 3786/Pol 3786
Typically offered: Every Fall
Do facts matter anymore? Is press freedom under threat? Are audiences trapped in filter bubbles? Why do people hate the media, and how can the news be improved to better serve citizens? Explore the historical and contemporary dynamics that shape the relationship between professionals in the media, the mass public, and political actors across different parts of government. Study major forms of mass media, including television and newspapers, alongside new forms such as digital and social media. Look at specific reporting rituals and practices, as well as issues involving media ownership, regulation, ethics, and press freedom. We will study politicians? efforts to craft messages, advertise strategically, and target select audiences for political gain. The course will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the United States, and you will be asked to engage with current events and the role of communication technologies in political and civic life.
CSCL 3993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Guided individual reading or study. Prereq-instr consent, dept consent, college consent.
CSCL 4993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Guided individual study.
CSCL 5993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 9.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 5993/CSDS 5993
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Guided individual reading or study. Prereq-instr consent, dept consent, college consent.
SCMC 3993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Guided individual reading or study.
SCMC 4993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Guided individual reading or study.
SCMC 5993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Guided individual reading or study.
CSCL 3896 - Internship for Academic Credit
Credits: 1.0 -4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
CSCL students who would like to pursue paid or unpaid internships can also earn credit toward their degree. This course includes a series of reflective assignments on the internship experience that help students develop their career goals, aspirations, and plans. CSCL students often find internships at media companies, advertising agencies, film festivals, arts institutions and galleries, publishing houses, non-profits, and community organizations. Typically a student?s work is supervised and evaluated by a site coordinator and the instructor works with a student on readings and assignments. Credits taken are determined by the number of weekly or total hours for onsite internship work, course readings, assignments, and meetings. The following are minimum hours and weekly averages based on a 16 week semester: 1 credit - 45-hour minimum (average 3-4 hours per week) 2 credit - 90-hour minimum (average 5-7 hours per week) 3 credit - 135-hour minimum (average 8-9 hours per week) 4 credit - 180-hour minimum (average 10-12 hours per week) There is also a deferred enrollment section of the course that allows students to take a summer internship followed by fall enrollment for credit. Students interested or registered in this section must contact the instructor at the start of their internship or during registration for more information. Students are also encouraged to apply for CLA Internship and Leadership Scholarships. For more information on this course or internship possibilities, please contact the Film Studies Coordinator (stou0046@umn.edu). Students can also use Goldpass to search for internship possibilities.
SCMC 3896 - Internship for Academic Credit
Credits: 1.0 -4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
An applied learning experience in an agreed-upon, short-term, supervised workplace activity, with defined goals, which may be related to a student's major field or area of interest. The work can be full or part time, paid or unpaid, primarily in off-campus environments. Internships integrate classroom knowledge and theory with practical application and skill development in professional or community settings. The skills and knowledge learned should be transferable to other employment settings and not simply to advance the operations of the employer. Typically the student’s work is supervised and evaluated by a site coordinator or instructor.
SCMC 3910 - Topics in Studies in Cinema and Media Culture
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
ENGL 3040 - Studies in Film
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Course Equivalencies: EngL 3040/EngL 3040H
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Topics regarding film in variety of interpretive contexts, from range/historic development of American, English, Anglophone film.
FRIT 3850 - Topics in French and Italian Cinema
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Summer
Theme, problem, period, filmmaker, or topic of interest in French/Italian cinema. See Class Schedule. Taught in English. prereq: Knowledge of [French or Italian] helpful but not required
PORT 3800 - Film Studies in Portuguese
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course offers an introduction to Brazilian film from the 1960s to the present and to postcolonial films from Portugal, Angola, and Mozambique. You will learn about the history of Brazilian film from cinema novo on, with attention to state funding; internationalization; and recurrent themes, such as the sertão or backlands and the favela or shantytown. In the case of Lusophone postcolonial films, you will learn about issues of personal and collective identity, including hybrid, diasporic, and non-heteronormative identities; nation building and post-conflict trauma; memory and healing. The approach is two-fold: cinema as representation of society, history, culture, and the individual subject; and cinema as a complex, multi-layered, and expensive art form. You are expected to critically engage with the form and content of each film as you acquire an understanding of the historical, cultural, (geo)political, and socio-economic forces that have shaped the development of film in the various countries, in addition to the social issues raised by filmmakers. You will also become familiar with philosophical and aesthetic insights from which to critically review a film. The course will be taught in Portuguese and you are expected to use Portuguese orally in class and in all written assignments. Readings will be in Portuguese and occasionally in English. Topics vary and are specified in the class schedule. prereq: 3003 or instr consent or dept consent
SPAN 3800 - Film Studies in Spanish
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Films from Spain or Spanish-speaking world in their historical, (geo)political, and socioeconomic contexts. Films analyzed under interdisciplinary frameworks, noting aspects related to cinematography/rhetoric. prereq: A grade of C- or better in SPAN 3104W or SPAN 3104V or TLDO 3104W or ARGN 3104W or SPAN 3105W or SPAN 3105V or TLDO 3105W or SPAN 3107W or SPAN 3107V or TLDO 3107W
SCMC 5001 - Critical Debates in the Study of Cinema and Media Culture
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
This course serves as a capstone within the Studies in Cinema and Media Culture program as well as an advanced seminar in cinema and media theory. It covers such topics as contemporary cinema, transnational television, video games, digital networks, and surveillance technologies. It builds on the knowledge of cinema and media studies that students have developed over their undergraduate education. Students are given the resources and encouragement to construct larger reading and viewing lists that will further develop their knowledge of media and cinema. The final grade is based on participation, critical essays, weekly viewing assignments, and an individualized project that can include creative and professional interests.
SCMC 5002 - Advanced Film Analysis
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Application of textual analysis to the reading of a film. Students work collaboratively to discern and interpret all component aural/visual elements of what the film says and how it says it.
AMES 3356W - Chinese Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Survey of Chinese cinema from China (PRC), Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Emphasizes discussion/comparison of global, social, economic, sexual, gender, psychological, and other themes as represented through film.
AMST 3253W - American Popular Culture and Politics: 1940 to the Present (HIS, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Historical analysis of how popular arts represent issues of gender, race, consumerism, and citizenship. How popular artists define boundaries of citizenship and public life: inclusions/exclusions in polity and national identity. How popular arts reinforce/alter political ideologies.
ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
This course will engage with the history of film as an art form through a selection of significant movements, styles, filmmakers, institutions, and, of course, individual films from around the world. While this will not be a comprehensive study, it will address both mainstream, commercial films as well as oppositional, experimental, underground, and otherwise challenging works. Some of the wide-ranging selection of films we will watch and discuss: Germaine Dulac?s La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman) (1922), Gillo Pontecorvo?s The Battle of Algiers (1966), Julie Dash?s Daughters of the Dust (1991), and Alfonso Cuarón?s Roma (2018).
COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Analysis of media images/messages. Principles of literacy. Media content/industries. Media and identity. Media effects. Textbook/packet readings, videos, small groups of peer writing workshops, media analyses.
GEOG 3374W - The City in Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: Geog 3374W/3374V/5374W
Typically offered: Every Spring
Cinematic portrayal of changes in 20th-century cities worldwide including social and cultural conflict, political and economic processes, changing gender relationships, rural versus urban areas, and population and development issues (especially as they affect women and children).
GER 3604W - Introduction to German Cinema (AH, GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Fall Even, Spring Odd Year
An introduction to the study of German cinema, with a focus on the relation between German film and German history, literature, culture, and politics.
SCMC 3001W - History of Cinema and Media Culture (WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Genealogy of cinema in relation to other media, notably photography, radio, television/video, and the Internet. Representative films from decisive moments in global development of cinema. Rise/fall of Hollywood studio system, establishment of different national cinemas, cinematic challenges to cultural imperialism, emergence of post-cinematic technologies.
AAS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production (AH, DSJ, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AAS 3409W/GWSS 3409W
Typically offered: Every Fall
Diversity of cultures designated "Asian American." Understanding women's lives in historical, cultural, economic, and racial contexts.
GWSS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production (AH, DSJ, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AAS 3409W/GWSS 3409W
Typically offered: Every Fall
Analysis of media, art, literature, performance, on artistic contributions. History, politics, culture of Asian American women. Interpret cultural production to better understand role of race, gender, nation within American society/citizenship.
SCMC 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3212W/SCMC 3212W
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course explores the ethics and aesthetics of documentary cinema, arguably the very first genre of film. We will track the way documentary has widened from largely instructional and experimental uses early in its history to become a distinct genre among today?s familiar feature films. We will screen early documentaries, which may include shocking ethnographies (Nanook of the North, The Mad Masters). Over the course of the term, the syllabus makes its way to recent exemplars of the genre (films may include: Amy, American Teen, I Am Not Your Negro, A Jihad for Love, Generation Wealth, Fetish, Blackfish and so on). One of our aims will be to explore students? relations as viewers and documentarians themselves (via smartphones, Instagram, etc.) to this participatory, revelatory, and always controversial, politically fraught film practice. Documentary Cinema includes both full class lectures and discussions as well as small group discussion of films and readings, and may include the opportunity for students to create their own personal documentary. Intellectually, the course balances out a study of the grammar of documentary as an artistic practice with explorations of the ways the genre reflects broader currents of cinematic and cultural history. By the end of the semester, students should have a stronger understanding of the ways documentary cinema opens our senses to the world around us.
CSCL 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3212W/SCMC 3212W
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course explores the ethics and aesthetics of documentary cinema, arguably the very first genre of film. We will track the way documentary has widened from largely instructional and experimental uses early in its history to become a distinct genre among today?s familiar feature films. We will screen early documentaries, which may include shocking ethnographies (Nanook of the North, The Mad Masters). Over the course of the term, the syllabus makes its way to recent exemplars of the genre (films may include: Amy, American Teen, I Am Not Your Negro, A Jihad for Love, Generation Wealth, Fetish, Blackfish and so on). One of our aims will be to explore students? relations as viewers and documentarians themselves (via smartphones, Instagram, etc.) to this participatory, revelatory, and always controversial, politically fraught film practice. Documentary Cinema includes both full class lectures and discussions as well as small group discussion of films and readings, and may include the opportunity for students to create their own personal documentary. Intellectually, the course balances out a study of the grammar of documentary as an artistic practice with explorations of the ways the genre reflects broader currents of cinematic and cultural history. By the end of the semester, students should have a stronger understanding of the ways documentary cinema opens our senses to the world around us.
CSCL 3220W - Screen Cultures (AH, TS, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3220W/SCMC 3220W
Typically offered: Every Spring
Screens increasingly define the ways that we communicate with one another and how we encounter the world. This course will offer a critical, historical approach to the emergence of ?screen cultures? from the beginning of photography and cinema to our own age of ubiquitous touch screen displays. We will pay a great deal of attention to the ways that such technologies drive our patterns of consumption and production as well as how they create and define our social environments.
SCMC 3220W - Screen Cultures (AH, TS, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3220W/SCMC 3220W
Typically offered: Every Spring
Screens increasingly define the ways that we communicate with one another and how we encounter the world. This course will offer a critical, historical approach to the emergence of ?screen cultures? from the beginning of photography and cinema to our own age of ubiquitous touch screen displays. We will pay a great deal of attention to the ways that such technologies drive our patterns of consumption and production as well as how they create and define our social environments.