Program Details : University Catalogs : University of Minnesota

MIMS 8001 - Theories of the Moving Image

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Every Fall

Study of the moving image as the intersection between critical media studies and film studies. Not a historical overview, but rather current discussions in these areas contextualized with relevant readings in classical film and media theory.

MIMS 8003 - Historiography of the Moving Image

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Every Spring

Genealogies of the moving image. "Crisis" of film in debates about "old" and "new" media; Hollywood's role in defining commercial and oppositional forms of moving images; approaches to the writing of history in relation to media historiography.

AFRO 8590 - Contemporary Literary and Cultural Studies

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Each term explores a topic of key intellectual and critical significance in African American and/or African literary and cultural studies.

AMES 5620 - Topics in South Asian Culture

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Topics specified in Class Schedule.

AMES 5920 - Topics in Asian Culture

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Topics specified in Class Schedule.

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.

AMIN 8301 - Critical Indigenous Theory

Credits:	3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Every Fall

This course covers the "critical turn" in American Indian and Native or Indigenous Studies as evident in the emergence of three overlapping threads or intellectual/political genealogies: critiques of Indigeneity (the claims and conditions of nativeness to specific places), Indigenous Feminist (which foregrounds the salience of gender in indigenous critiques of power structures), and Indigenous Queer, sometimes labeled "Two-Spirit" (which foregrounds sexuality). What are the analytical, political and cultural backgrounds and what are their purchases for theory, critique, and practice? For interrogating academic and non-academic (including Indigenous) forms of inquiry and knowledge production and being in the world?

ARTH 5413 - Alternative Media: Video, Performance, Digital Art

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F or Aud
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall

One rather old and rigid concept in the history of art and aesthetics is that artistic media, each with its distinct qualities, are most successful when they remain separate. The best painting, according to this view, is one that explores its own properties of flatness, abstraction, and color. What became known in the first half of the 20th century as the philosophy of ?medium specific purity? was radically challenged in the 1960s when the differences between painting and sculpture were intentionally blurred and when new media (performance, body art, happenings, video art, installations and digital art) were introduced. This course seeks to understand how alternative media were developed not through the invention of new technologies nor in isolation, but through revolutionary modes of thinking about time and space, human and non-human life, machines, archives, cyborgs, and interactivity (some of which date back to the 18th and 19th centuries). Through assigned readings and discussions as well as structured essay assignments, the class provides students with extensive practice in the critical analysis of theoretical texts and ample experience synthesizing diverse intellectual ideas and arguments in written form. More broadly, through a creative ?timeline? assignment, the course seeks to teach students to think inventively about new media and their histories, to learn strategies for looking at, evaluating, and thinking about works of new media art. It also provides instruction in research techniques and resources in contemporary art, as well as on writing in art history.

ARTH 5950 - Topics: Art History

Credits:	3.0 [max 9.0]
Typically offered:	Every Fall, Spring & Summer

Topics specified in Class Schedule.

ARTS 5230 - Advanced Art + Sound

Credits:	4.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered:	Every Fall & Spring

Sound art practice/theory. Emphasizes individual creative projects using sound as primary material. History of experimental sound art from early 20th century to present. Critiques, readings, writing, public presentations. prereq: ARTS major and 3605 or 3230

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 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 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

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

COMM 8110 - Seminar: Communication Research Methods

Credits:	3.0 [max 15.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Evaluation of research methods in speech-communication. prereq: undergrad degree in spch-comm or equiv

COMM 8210 - Seminar: Selected Topics in U.S. Electronic Media

Credits:	3.0 [max 18.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Literature survey; evaluating research on topics; conducting independent research project on a particular topic. prereq: 5210 or instr consent; offered when feasible

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.

CSCL 5910 - Topics in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature

Credits:	3.0 -4.0 [max 32.0]
Typically offered:	Every Fall, Spring & Summer

Topics specified in Class Schedule.

FREN 5350 - Topics in Literature and Culture

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered:	Every Fall & Spring

Problem, period, author, or topic of interest. See Class Schedule. prereq: 3101 or equiv

FREN 8240 - Critical Issues: French and Francophone Cinema

Credits:	3.0 [max 9.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Fall Odd Year

Critical issues relating to French/Francophone cinema.

GER 5410 - Topics in German Literature

Credits:	3.0 [max 9.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Topic may focus on a specific author, group of authors, genre, period, or subject matter. Topics specified in Class Schedule.

GER 5630 - Topics in German Cinema

Credits:	3.0 [max 9.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Spring

Topics chosen may focus on specific directors, genres, film production or reception, and/or other formal, theoretical, historical, or political issues. prereq: 3xxx film course or instr consent

RUSS 5604 - Russia At The Movies: A Survey Of The History Of Russian Cinema (AH)

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies:	Russ 3604/Russ 5604
Typically offered:	Every Spring

This course is designed to provide a chronological overview of major developments, trends, experiments, searches, traditions, and conventions of Russian cinematic art examined in the context of the historical and cultural background of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The history of cinema is intrinsically connected to political, historical, cultural and social developments.For each epoch of development we will first outline the historical and cultural context before investigating the major films and themes of the period. We will elaborate on those films that have made an important contribution to cinematic or cultural history, both in Russia and the world. RUSS 3604/5604 meets the Liberal Education core requirement in Arts and Humanities. Through a close study of film we learn about how this art medium reflects and expresses human experience and engages us through the exploration of the formal and aesthetic dimensions of film, as well as the study of cultural, social, and historical background in which it is deeply steeped.

SCAN 5614 - Blood on Snow: Scandinavian Thrillers in Fiction and Film

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies:	Scan 3614/Scan 5614
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Scandinavian crime novels/films against background of peaceful welfare states. Readings in translation for non-majors. Scandinavian majors/minors read excerpts in specific languages.

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.

TH 8120 - Seminar

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered:	Every Fall & Spring

Selected research topics from various theatre fields and periods. Sample topics: Border Crossings--Theatre History and Representation; The Theatre and Drama of the Third Reich, 1927-1944.

University Catalogs

Moving Image Studies Minor