Undergraduate Studies

• Courses
• Majors & Minors
• Advising
• Undergraduate Resources

Home // Undergraduate Studies // Majors & Minors //

Studies in Cinema and Media Culture

Studies in Cinema and Media Culture (SCMC) approaches the study of the cinema by emphasizing its location within an intricate social, historical, and cultural matrix of audio-visual forms and practices. SCMC provides an interdisciplinary framework within which students can explore the sounds and images of cinema as they have changed from the 19th through the early 21st Century. Print, photography, radio, television, video and digital media are considered crucial to understanding the unique hybridity and expanse of the cinematic medium.  Although the major includes a production component, its principal focus is on cultural contexts, history, and theory.

Students will:

1. develop the ability to read the production and circulation of meaning in cinema especially as it arises and circulates within the institutions and practices of mass culture
2. examine the history of cinema cultures
3. engage the cross-cultural and global dynamics of cinema production and reception
4. explore the theoretical models that have shaped thinking about the cinema and its relations to other media

Studies in Cinema and Media Culture is one of three major-field tracks offered through the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature (CSCL)—the other tracks are Cultural Studies, and Comparative Literature. The SCMC major is interdepartmental; core courses and electives are offered not only in CSCL but also in a number of other contributing departments.