Cinema and Media Studies

The Department of English's interdisciplinary minor in cinema and media studies introduces students to a variety of approaches to analyzing film and related media through the study of directors, genres, film style, screenwriting, film theory, aesthetic theories and relationships between media and society. The discipline offers a range of fascinating courses in film studies, production, history and theory, as well as classes in cognate media such as radio, television, video games and digital media studies more broadly.

The minor is an excellent complement to majors in the visual arts or in video production, but it also allows majors in journalism and in all fields of the humanities (including English majors, who may also minor in cinema and media studies) and social sciences to augment their programs with a minor that develops and demonstrates facility in visual studies — an element that has become vitally important to career tracks in a range of fields.

Courses offered for cinema and media studies

In addition to our foundation course, Film Analysis and Interpretation (English 202), English courses that have been (or will be) offered through the minor include classes on screenwriting, cinematic adaptation, silent cinema, global cinema, American directors, film and history, documentary film and film genres (noir, horror, science fiction, westerns). A wide variety of courses outside English may be counted toward the cinema and media studies minor including:

• Photography
• Videography
• Podcasting
• Film music
• Police in the cinema
• Sex, crime and the media
• Geography and film
• Italian cinema
• History of documentary
• Social media and society
• Latinas/os through the eyes of the media
• Media and politics
• Race, gender and media
• Philosophy and film

All are welcome in to take the cinema and media studies minor. No previous experience in film or media studies is required or expected. Contact your advisor for more information.