Catalog

Film and Media Studies

  • Director: Robert Sickels
  • Anne Petersen

Affiliated Faculty:

  • Charly Bloomquist, Art
  • Sarah Hurlburt, French
  • Justin Lincoln, Art (on Sabbatical, Spring 2013)
  • Charles McKhann, Anthropology
  • Matthew Reynolds, Art History and Visual Culture Studies (on Sabbatical, Spring 2013)
  • Yukiko Shigeto, Japanese (on Sabbatical, Fall 2012)
  • Lisa Uddin, Art History and Visual Culture Studies

Film and Media Studies (FMS) is an interdisciplinary program that enriches understanding of the complexity of media culture by providing a solid grounding in the theory, history, production, interpretation, and criticism of a wide variety of media texts, thus preparing its students to better understand, analyze, and participate in contemporary society.

Distribution: FMS courses count toward Humanities, with the exception of 260 and 360, which count toward the Fine Arts area.

The Film and Media Studies major: A minimum of 34 credits including FMS 160, 387, and either 491 or 498. The remaining elective credits may be completed from the list of courses below, as well as other elective courses offered by the FMS program. Students may substitute up to eight of the elective credits with program-approved film and media studies transfer credits. Department policy does not allow a P-D-F grade option for courses within the major.

Rhetoric and Film Studies (RFS) and Rhetoric and Media Studies (RMS) courses taken prior to Fall 2012 (except 121, 221 and 222) shall count for the major, including RFS/RMS 160 and 387, which shall count as FMS 160 and 387. Students may not receive credit for taking both the FMS and RFS/RMS versions of the same class (except for 401 and 402).

Senior assessment: All departmental majors will write a substantial thesis during fall semester and will defend that thesis via an oral examination.

The Film and Media Studies minor: A minimum of 20 credits in Film and Media Studies, including 160 or 170. The remaining elective credits may be completed from the list of courses below, as well as other elective courses offered by the FMS program. Students may substitute up to four of the elective credits with program-approved film and media studies transfer credits. Department policy does not allow a P-D-F grade option for courses within the minor. Students may not receive credit for taking both the FMS and RFS/RMS versions of the same class (except for 401 and 402).

The following courses are available for the major or minor:

  • Anthropology 312, Ethnographic Film Studies
  • Art 123, Beginning PhotographyArt 125, Beginning Digital Printing
  • Art 180, Beginning New Genre Art Practices
  • Art 223, Intermediate Photography
  • Art 225, Intermediate Digital Printing
  • Art 280, Intermediate New Genre
  • Art 323, Advanced Photography
  • Art 325, Advanced Digital Printing
  • Art 380, Advanced New Genre
  • Art History and Visual Culture Studies 237/Theatre 357, Theory and Performance
  • Art History and Visual Culture Studies 253, Art and the Moving Image
  • Art History and Visual Culture Studies 351, Los Angeles: Art, Architecture, Cultural Geography
  • Art History and Visual Culture Studies 354, Race, Ethnicity, and the Urban Imaginary
  • Rhetoric Studies 247, ST: Environmental Communication
  • World Literature 325, Imagining Community through Contemporary Japanese Fiction and Film
  • World Literature 338, Undoing the Japanese National Narrative through Literature and Film
  • World Literature 349, China through the Cinematic Eye
  • World Literature 381, ST: French National Cinemas

150-155 Special Topics in Film and Media Studies
1-4

Topics in Film and Media Studies not generally considered in other courses offered by the department. Materials will vary from semester to semester and may cover subjects, developments, and concepts from early times to the present. Lectures, discussions, tests, papers, and/or weekly screenings. May be repeated for credit. Any current offerings follow.

160 Introduction to Film Studies
4, x Sickels

This course introduces the historical and theoretical fundamentals of film studies. Representative films will be drawn from a variety of different eras, genres, and countries. Lectures, discussions, tests, and required weekly film screenings. Open to first-years, sophomores, and Film and Media Studies majors; others by consent only.

170 Introduction to Television Studies
4, x Petersen

This course explores world culture through an analysis of what is arguably its central medium: television. Tracing the medium from its origins in radio to its digital future, we will investigate television as a site of identity formation, controversy, political power, and artistic experimentation. The course will also consider television in terms of industrial production and audience reception, including the rapidly changing practices associated with television viewing in the 21st century. Lectures, discussions, tests, and required weekly screenings.

250-255 Special Topics in Film and Media Studies
1-4

Topics in Film and Media Studies not generally considered in other courses offered by the department. Materials will vary from semester to semester and may cover subjects, developments, and concepts from early times to the present. Lectures, discussions, tests, papers, and/or weekly screenings. May be repeated for credit. Any current offerings follow.

250 ST: Race, Class, and Trauma in Post-Katrina Media
x, 4 Petersen

In this course, we will look to the depiction and interpretation of New Orleans, a city that “lives in the cultural imagination of the world.” More specifically, we will grapple with how artists and journalists have processed the profound physical and psychic trauma enacted by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, investigating how rage, grief, and recovery manifest in form and aesthetics. This course will also discuss how the coverage of Katrina made race and class divisions visible, forcing difficult questions about who gets rescued from disaster and why. Possible texts include: David Egger’s Zeitoun, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Treme, and Trouble the Water. Lecture, discussion, mid-term, and two mid-length papers. Open to first-years, sophomores, and Film and Media Studies majors; others by consent only. May be counted as Race and Ethnic Studies credit. Distribution: humanities or cultural pluralism.

251 ST: Gender/Sexuality/Media
x, 4 Petersen

What are the differences between the silent film comedians and the men of Call of Duty 4? Between Jane Fonda and the teen fashionistas of Pretty Little Liars? This course will attempt to answer those questions, exploring the multiple intersections of gender and sexuality in film, television, and digital culture. Working through texts spanning the last century, we will unpack the historical and contemporary representations of “feminine,” “masculine,” “queer,” and “feminist.” Final projects will interrogate the ways in which our exposure to these texts influences the way that we participate in media culture as artists, bloggers, and participants in social media. Lectures, discussion, final projects, and required weekly screenings. Open to first-years, sophomores, and Film and Media Studies majors; others by consent only. May be elected as Gender Studies 300. Distribution: humanities.

260 Introduction to Filmmaking
4, x Sickels

This course introduces the fundamentals of the visual language and narrative structures of film. Students will collaboratively make their own short films. Extensive lab time required. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 160 or consent of instructor. Priority given to Film and Media Studies majors.

360 Advanced Film Making
x, 4 Sickels

In this intensive workshop course students will produce documentary films and commercials. Extensive lab time required. Priority given to Film and Media Studies majors. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 160, 260, or consent of instructor.

365-370 Special Topics: Studies in Film & Media Studies
1-4

Topics in Film and Media Studies not generally considered in other courses offered by the department. Materials will vary from semester to semester and may cover subjects, developments, and concepts ranging from early times to the present. Lectures, discussions, tests, papers and/or weekly screenings. May be repeated for credit. Any current offerings follow.

365 ST: Hollywood Stardom
x, 4 Petersen

This seminar will explore the historical role and cultural significance of the Hollywood Star. Beginning by situating the emergence of stardom in the early 20th century, we will progress through the “Golden Age” of Hollywood stars and the economics of the “star system,” considering the changing notion of stardom with the spread of television and paparazzi culture. Case studies will include: Fatty Arbuckle, Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Sidney Poitier, Will Smith, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, and many others. Lectures, discussion, mid-term, one large research paper, and required weekly screenings. Intended for Film and Media Studies majors, but open to all students. Distribution area: humanities.

372 “Mean Streets and Raging Bulls”: The Silver Age of Cinema
4; not offered 2012-13

In tracing film history from the demise of the studio, students in this course will study the all too brief era known as the American cinema’s “silver age,” during which maverick film school directors made deeply personal and remarkably influential films. Texts will likely include works by Coppola, DePalma, Friedkin, Altman, Allen, Polanski, Bogdanovich, Kubrick, Malick, and Scorsese. Lectures, discussions, a big research paper, an oral presentation, and weekly film screenings.

373 “The Genius of the System”: The Golden Age of Cinema
4; not offered 2012-13

In tracing film history from its late nineteenth century beginnings to the 1950s, students in this course will study the era known as the American cinema’s “golden age,” during which the Hollywood Studio System dictated virtually all aspects of filmmaking. Texts will likely include works by Ford, Hitchcock, Curtiz, Hawks, Capra, Sturges, and others. Lectures, discussions, papers, and weekly film screenings.

387 Film & Media Studies Theory
4, x Petersen

Using a variety of critical theories, this course focuses on the analysis of film and various other media forms. Students give presentations and write papers utilizing these various perspectives. The goal is for students to become more conversant in the many ways they can assess the significant influence media has in our lives. Open to FMS majors; open to other students with consent of instructor. Fulfills the Rhetoric and Media Studies 387 requirement for previously declared RMS majors.

401, 402 Independent Study
1-4, 1-4 Staff

Studies of film and media issues including directed readings and/or approved projects. The student is expected to submit a written proposal to the instructor prior to registration for the course. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

491 Thesis
4, x Sickels

Research and writing of the senior thesis. Open only to and required of senior majors.

498 Honors Thesis
4, x Sickels

Research and writing of the senior honors thesis. Open only to and required of senior majors. Prerequisite: admission to honors candidacy. Students wishing to be considered for honors must apply to the department within the first six weeks of spring semester of their junior year.