Studies in Cinema and Media Culture Minor

Studies in cinema and media culture (SCMC) examines cinema by emphasizing its location within the intricate social, historical, and cultural matrix of audiovisual forms and practices. Through our program's interdisciplinary framework, students explore the sounds and images of cinema as they have changed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Print, photography, radio, television, video, and digital media are also considered crucial to understanding the medium. Students develop the ability to "read" the production and circulation of meaning in cinema, especially within the institutions of mass culture; examine the history of cinema cultures; engage the cross-cultural and global dynamics of cinema production and reception; and explore the theoretical models that have shaped thinking about the cinema and its relations to other media. 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, including Asian languages and literatures; gender, women, and sexuality studies; art; and journalism. Although the major includes a production component, its principal focus is on cultural contexts, history, and theory.