Undergraduate Program

This course provides a broad overview and introduction to media. We will cover histories of different types of media (internet, radio, audio recordings, television, cable, film, journalism, magazines, advertising, public relations, etc.) as well as various theories and approaches to studying media. No prior knowledge is necessary, but a real interest and willingness to explore a variety of media will come in handy. Occasional outside screenings will be required (but if you cannot attend the scheduled screenings, you may watch the films on your own time through the Multimedia Center reserves.) Students will be evaluated based on assigned writing, classroom discussion leading, participation, short quizzes, midterm exam and final exam.

Location

(TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This course introduces the basic aesthetic and technical elements of video production. Emphasis is on the creative use and understanding of the video medium while learning to use the video camera, video editing processes and the fundamental procedures of planning video projects. Strategies for the use of video as an art-making tool will be explored. Works by artists and directors critically exploring media of film and video will be viewed and discussed. Video techniques will be studied through screenings, group discussions, readings, practice sessions and presentations of original video projects made during the course. Sophomores and Juniors with officially declared FMS and SA majors are given priority registration; followed by sophomores and juniors with officially declared FMS and SA minors. 

Location

(MW 10:25AM - 1:05PM)

This course introduces the basic aesthetic and technical elements of video production. Emphasis is on the creative use and understanding of the video medium while learning to use the video camera, video editing processes and the fundamental procedures of planning video projects. Strategies for the use of video as an art-making tool will be explored. Works by artists and directors critically exploring media of film and video will be viewed and discussed. Video techniques will be studied through screenings, group discussions, readings, practice sessions and presentations of original video projects made during the course. Sophomores and Juniors with officially declared FMS and SA majors are given priority registration; followed by sophomores and juniors with officially declared FMS and SA minors. 

Location

(MW 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

This course merges contemporary art production with technologies and social interventions. Students will combine historical, inter-media approaches with new, evolving trends in social practice. Students will deploy introductory level techniques to create new works at the intersection of art, design, and technology. Not open to Seniors. Studio Art lab fee applied.

Location

(MW 4:50PM - 7:30PM)

This course is designed for students who have completed introductory and intermediate level courses in film and media, and are prepared to engage with more advanced readings in film theory and analysis. Subject areas will include semiotics, psychoanalysis, Marxist theory, feminist theory, queer theory, genre studies, phenomenology, cinematic realism, and theories of the avant-garde. The course will closely examine significant works of global cinema in the narrative, documentary, and experimental traditions.

Location

(W 4:50PM - 7:30PM)

How does one represent the unrepresentable? This is the key question we will explore as we look at films and literature about the Holocaust. We will examine how fictional films, novels, documentaries and memoirs challenge our conceptualizations of representation and documentation, often leading to experiments in both form and content. Of particular interest will be the relationship between affect, aesthetics and ethics in these negotiations of loss, horror and redemption.

Location

(MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Since the advent of cinema, filmmakers have relied on special/visual effects (VFX) to create compelling characters and film worlds, and yet the study of VFX is a relatively new subfield within media studies. This course offers a survey of the history of VFX from the late 1800s to the present and will track important historical and stylistic developments of special effect technologies and practices. While our screenings will focus on international narrative cinema, we will study key debates within media theory as well as practitioner discourse (e.g., written work by VFX industry workers and 
"behind-the-scenes" featurettes) in order to explore how special effects bridges diverse media forms, from narrative film to experimental cinema, animation, advertisement, installation art, video games, digital technologies, and more. 

Location

(MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Topics in the study of film. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. This topics course can be repeated (2 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different.

Location

(TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This course investigates the development of television from experimental broadcasts in the 1920s to the streaming revolution of today. Students will explore TV through three interconnected dimensions: technological innovation, industry evolution, and cultural impact. By analyzing TV programs, technological schematics, trade press discourses, and audience reception, students will develop a richer understanding of how television has mediated everyday life and influenced culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Location

(MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

This course explores how popular media over the past 500 years has influenced views of Native American history and culture. Topics include early printed images, traveling shows, film, advertising, video games, fashion, social media, and artificial intelligence. Participants will learn to spot bias, assess credibility, and engage in informed conversations about American history and cultural heritage.

Location

(R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

What makes a metropolis so fascinating, disorienting, or dreadful? Is it the history, the people, or the never-ending parade of sights and sounds? In this course, we journey through four major urban centers in East Asia—Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, and Taipei—by examining their kaleidoscopic reflections in literature and film. We will come across city narratives composed from a medley of perspectives. While appreciating the stories, we will learn about the complicated histories of each metropolis and acquire skills to critically analyze how a physical place can be transformed into metaphors for modernity, turmoil, sentimentality, (dis)connection, and so on. Taught in English.

Location

(TR 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

Italy is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. This course explores the reasons, experiences and effects of the journeys to Italy of so many travelers throughout time. Students will read articles on current trends, and will then study some of the most famous depictions of journeys to Italy in literature and film. Works include: Wyler's Roman Holiday; Rossellini's Journey to Italy; Mann's Death in Venice and Visconti's adaptation; Forster's A Room with a View and Ivory's adaptation. Readings will be in English and films will be shown with English subtitles.

Location

(TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

What is Jewish-Israeli identity? This course explores Israeli cinema as a powerful cultural arena in which the meanings of Jewishness, Israeliness, and the “New Jew” are continually represented, imagined, performed, and contested. From early films after the Holocaust that sought to forge a unified national identity to contemporary works that question narratives of power, trauma, ethnicity, and occupation, we will approach cinema as both an artistic expression and a site where ideology, memory, and belonging intersect. Through the critical examination of film form, narrative, and ideology, we will examine cinema as technology, industry, and a cultural medium, paying attention to how questions of trauma, nationalism, militarism, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi representations, and Jewish-Arab relations are articulated on screen. Ultimately, the course considers Israeli cinema not just as a reflection of society but as an active force in shaping the imagination of nationhood and identity itself.

Location

(T 4:50PM - 7:30PM)

Varrying topics in screenwriting and scriptwriting. This topics course can be repeated (2 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. 

Location

(T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

The Russian revolution and the establishment of the USSR as a communist state coincided with the advent of cinema, which Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin deemed “the most important of the arts.” Bolstered by a centralized, ideologically driven film industry, Soviet film embodied both avant-garde experimentation and Socialist Realist conformity while defining the boundaries of cinematic language and giving rise to some of the world’s most influential filmmakers like Eisenstein, Vertov, and Tarkovsky. This course is a chronological overview of Soviet cinema from its beginnings to the collapse of the USSR that will explore the ways that filmmaking shaped national and political identity of the Soviet Union. Students will approach films as both works of cinematic art and as cultural/historical artifacts, considering how these two ways of “thinking about film” relate to one another and what they reveal about the conflicting ideologies and anxieties of the Soviet experiment. 

Location

(MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

This course will explore the many ways in which cinema operates as a time machine. Through close analysis of works by Agns Varda, Chantal Akerman, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Jean-Luc Godard we will consider varieties of cinematic temporality in relation to questions of history and memory (collective and subjective). Readings will include: Gilles Deleuze, Kaja Silverman, David Rodowick, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin.

Location

(T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

The FMS Capstone provides a collaborative learning environment in which students have the opportunity to create a sustained project in their senior year. The project will represent a culmination of the student’s creative and academic goals and work within the major. The Capstone includes peer and instructor feedback on works-in-progress, hands-on instruction, workshops with visiting filmmakers and media professionals, and screening and discussion of films relevant to students’ creative work. Student projects may include: a film/video in the categories of narrative, documentary, or experimental; a group of shorter film/video projects in those same categories or shorter-form genres like music video or videographic essay; an article-length research paper.

Location

(W 10:25AM - 1:00PM)

The Russian revolution and the establishment of the USSR as a communist state coincided with the advent of cinema, which Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin deemed “the most important of the arts.” Bolstered by a centralized, ideologically driven film industry, Soviet film embodied both avant-garde experimentation and Socialist Realist conformity while defining the boundaries of cinematic language and giving rise to some of the world’s most influential filmmakers like Eisenstein, Vertov, and Tarkovsky. This course is a chronological overview of Soviet cinema from its beginnings to the collapse of the USSR that will explore the ways that filmmaking shaped national and political identity of the Soviet Union. Students will approach films as both works of cinematic art and as cultural/historical artifacts, considering how these two ways of “thinking about film” relate to one another and what they reveal about the conflicting ideologies and anxieties of the Soviet experiment. 

Location

(MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)