Catalogue 2024-2025
Media Studies Program
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Director: Dara N. Greenwood;
Steering Committee: Sole Anatroneb (Italian), Giovanna Borradori (Philosophy), Anne Branckya (French and Francophone Studies), Paulina Bren (International Studies), Robert DeMaria (English), Hiromi Tsuchiya Dollase (Chinese and Japanese), Wenwei Dua (Chinese and Japanese), Thomas Ellmanab (Computer Science), Dara N. Greenwood (Psychology), Maria Hantzopoulos (Education), Sophia Harvey (Film), Thomas E. Hill (Library), Molly Nesbit (Art), Justin Patch (Music), Ronald Patkus (Library), Louis Römer (Anthropology); Shane Slattery-Quintanilla (Film), Eva Woods Peiró (Hispanic Studies);
Participating Faculty: John Andrews (Sociology), Lisa Brawley (Urban Studies and Associate Dean of the Faculty), Colleen Ballerino Cohen (Anthropology), Tracey Holland (Latin American and Latinx Studies), William Hoynes (Sociology), Amitava Kumar (English), Mia Maskb (Film), Anna Mayer (German Studies), Thomas Porcello (Anthropology and Dean of Studies), Elliott Schreiberb (German Studies), Kathleen Susmanb (Biology), David Tavárez (Anthropology).
a On leave 2024/25, first semester
b On leave 2024/25, second semester
ab On leave 2024/25
The Media Studies Program encourages the understanding and critical evaluation of new and old media technologies, the centrality of media in global and local culture, social and emotional life, politics and economics, and the contemporary and historical impact of media on individuals and societies. As defined by the Program, “media” includes all forms of representational media (oral/aural, written, visual), mass media (print, television, radio, film), new media (digital multimedia, the Internet, networked media), their associated technologies, and the social and cultural institutions that enable them and are defined by them.
The Program emphasizes several interrelated approaches to the study of media: multidisciplinary perspectives derived from the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences; the historical study of various forms of communication and the representation of knowledge; theoretical and critical investigation of how media shape our understandings of reality, and the dynamic interrelationship of media industries, cultural texts, communication technologies, policies, and publics; examination of global, as well as non-Western, indigenous, and oppositional media forms and practices; and practical work in media production and the use of media technologies.
Because the Media Studies major incorporates courses originating within the Program as well as a wide range of courses from other Programs and Departments, students wishing to declare in Media Studies should consult with the Program Director as early as possible to design their course of study. Prospective majors will submit a “Planning Form” to identify relevant coursework that will comprise the major, and a brief “Focus Statement” outlining their interests, objectives and a tentative plan for a Senior Project. They will then be paired with an advisor who will provide ongoing consultation on their major plans.
Major
Media Studies: I. Introductory
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MEDS 122 - Queer Italian American Media
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as ITAL 122 and WFQS 122 ) Representations of Italian Americans are ubiquitous in American media, from the mafia patriarch, to the family-obsessed nonna, these archetypal tropes have trained audiences to understand Italian Americanism in terms of exaggerated heteorsexuality. This course looks for characters and narratives that push back against those norms, creating cracks in the foundation for other modes of embodiment. We look at movies and popular TV shows that play with the archetypes, like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, where the hypermachismo of the blue collar greaser takes the form of a proud gay man; or Younger, where the lasagna loving zia is an out lesbian. We study the parallels between the mobster and queer in The Sopranos and Alto, and we read first-hand accounts from queer Italian Americans working in the media about what representation and the lack thereof has meant to them. This short course introduces students to the interconnected fields of media, film, gender and Italian studies.
First six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 123 - Women on the Italian Screen
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as ITAL 123 and WFQS 123 ) This six week course takes a close look at the representation of women in some of the most iconic examples of Italian cinema. From La dolce vita to La vita è bella this course puts gender theory in dialogue with media studies to consider the ways the art form interacts with and reflects changing attitudes towards women and female sexuality. Each week is devoted to a different historical moment as we move from the early divas of silent cinema, to contemporary films like those of the Rohrwacher sisters whose directing and acting work interrogates the categories of both Italian and woman. No knowledge of Italian is necessary to take this course.
Second six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods accompanied by film screenings.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 160 - Approaches to Media Studies Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
This course explores concepts and issues in the study of media, attentive to but not limited by the question of the “new” posed by new media technologies. Our survey of key critical approaches to media is anchored in specific case studies drawn from a diverse archive of media artifacts, industries, and technologies: from phonograph to photography, cinema to networked hypermedia, from typewriter to digital code. We examine the historical and material specificity of different media technologies and the forms of social life they enable, engage critical debates about media, culture and power, and consider problems of reading posed by specific media objects and processes, new and old. We take the multi-valence of “media”—a term designating text and apparatus of textual transmission, content and conduit—as a central problem of knowledge for the class. Our goal throughout is to develop the research tools, modes of reading, and forms of critical practice that help us aptly to describe and thereby begin to understand the increasingly mediated world in which we live. Paulina Bren (a), Katie Model (a); John Andrews (b), Giovanna Borradori (b).
Course Format: CLS
Media Studies: II. Intermediate
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MEDS 204 - Media Psychology
1 unit(s)
(Same as PSYC 204 ) This course is designed to introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of “media psychology,” which applies social scientific theory and methodology to the study media use, content, and impact. We first review theoretical contributions from both Communication Studies and Social Psychology before moving into a range of “hot topics” in the field (e.g., violent media, persuasion and advertising, news, politics, representations of social groups, social media). Along the way, we consider: psychological processes relevant to media use and impact, individual differences that motivate selective exposure and reception, the positive and negative effect that media may have on our attitudes and behaviors, and the complexities of developing and executing media effects research.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 is required. MEDS 160 is recommended but not required.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 205 - Homer’s Odyssey: From Oral Composition to Digital Editions
1 unit(s)
(Same as GRST 205 ) In this course we consider the long history of Homer’s epic poem from its beginning as an oral composition in Archaic Greece to its current manifestations in digital editions. Along the way we look at papyrii, medieval manuscripts, early print editions, examples of fine printing and contemporary versions. As we consider the history of the poem we also study the poem itself and explore the ways that its meaning has also been transformed through time. Among the issues we consider are orality and oral cultures, the advent of writing, the development of the text and the influence of technology. We examine materials in Greek, Latin, and English though no knowledge of the ancient languages is required. The Archives and Special Collections Library, with its rich collection of primary sources, will serve as our laboratory.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 215 - Global Indigenous Film Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 215 and ANTH 215 ) This intensive acquaints students with some of the documentary, experimental, and narrative films/videos of indigenous filmmakers from North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Screenings include films by Rachel Perkins, Tracey Moffatt, Sherman Alexie, Victor Masayesva, Alanis Obamsawin, and Zacharias Kunuk. Discussions of films engage the notion of visual sovereignty, and the use of film/video to document indigenous lives and concerns, and to reframe stories told about them and to tell new stories. Colleen Cohen.
First six-week course.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Course Format: INT -
MEDS 217 - Studies in Popular Music
1 unit(s)
A topics course focusing on the study of popular music.
Recommended: One unit in either Music, Sociology, or Anthropology.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 220 - Medieval and Renaissance Culture
1 unit(s)
(Same as MRST 220 )
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 222 - Digital Art I Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 222 ) This studio-based course serves as a comprehensive introduction to video in the expanded field. Through a series of projects, students are introduced to camera operation, sound recording, lighting, video and sound editing, and projection mapping. Student work takes the form of experimental videos, multi-media installations, public projections, and sound installations. Through class discussions, visiting artist lectures, screenings of historical and contemporary works, and visits to galleries/museums in NYC, students refine their critical vocabulary and gain a broad understanding of key issues in the field. These include the relationship between images and sounds, digital images and physical objects, projected images and architectural space. Through these activities, our aim is the formulation of each student’s unique artistic language. No prior familiarity with video or digital media is required.
John Hulsey.
Prerequisite(s): ART 102 -ART 103 or a 100-level Media Studies course and permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 224 - Japanese Popular Culture and Literature
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 224 and JAPA 224 ) This course examines Japanese popular culture as seen through popular fiction. Works by such writers as Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, Murakami Ryu, Yamada Eimi, etc. who emerged in the late 1980s to the early 1990s, are discussed. Literary works are compared with various popular media such as film, music, manga, and animation to see how popular youth culture is constructed and reflects young people’s views on social conditions. Theoretical readings are assigned. This course emphasizes discussion and requires research presentations.
Prerequisite(s): One course in Japanese language, literature, culture or Asian Studies, or permission of the instructor.
This course is conducted in English.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 225 - Italian Food: Fact and Fiction Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ITAL 225 ) How can we define “Italian” cuisine in a country characterized by myriad local culinary traditions? How did eating habits, food knowledge, local pride and storytelling intersect to shape a globally circulating image of Italy as a “food nation”? The course investigates the development of Italian culinary traditions in relation to local, regional, and national identities; the long-standing cultural association of Italy with food, both within the national boundaries and without, particularly in the US; and the representation of food across various media (fiction, cookbooks, documentary and fiction film, television and web series, advertising) since the 19th century, focusing particularly on key moments of change in the history of the modern nation, such as: the national unification process, the Fascist regime and World War II, the post-war economic miracle, the women’s movement in the 1970s, and immigration in the 21st century.
We look at the ways in which representations of food in a variety of media construct or challenge specific images of Italy and Italians and consider the problematic notions of authenticity and typicality so frequently applied to certain dishes, ingredients, or culinary habits. We explore the lasting importance of cities in Italian food history, and the nostalgia for the countryside that urban life projected onto food marketing in the late 20th century. The changing roles of women in relation to food preparation and consumption, as well as to the transmission of knowledge, are central to the course inquiry. The iconic status of Italy as “Slow food nation” on one hand, and the often lamented “foodification” of the country on the other also constitute topics of discussion. Simona Bondavalli.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 231 - Minorities in the Media
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 231 ) This course examines the dynamics of race, class, gender and sexuality as they are represented in American society. Throughout the semester, we analyze media (i.e., films, television programs, YouTube videos, advertisements), and mediated discourse, to assess the way categories of “minority” and “majority” identity have been constructed in mainstream society and popular culture. In addition to examining images of those persons collective known as “minorities,” (BIPOC, LGBTQIA), we consider the representation of those defined as “majority” Americans. This course utilizes Black British Cultural Studies, African American Studies, Critical Race Theory and Sociology. The course also engages scholarship from the field of whiteness studies. Issues and topics may include the concept of “model minorities” (i.e., Henry Louis Gates, Jennifer Lopez, Rahm Emmanuel, Ellen DeGeneres, the Williams Sisters, Barack Obama); global branding; the BLM movement; police brutality (i.e., Rodney King, Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, George Floyd); the Proposition 209 conflict; the WNBA; gay marriage; Islamophobia; and the representation of the Middle East. Readings, weekly screenings, and papers required.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 244 - Creative Development Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 244 ) This course explores various approaches to the conception and development of works of screen art, with special attention to the short form. We consider the often unheralded role that research plays in the artistic process, as well as the types of critical and imaginative thinking across disciplines that can support us in the early stages of any creative project. While different forms of writing remain important to the work of creative development, in this course we also employ non-textual traditions and techniques that have long been crucial to filmmakers and more broadly to artists of all kinds, including inspiration boards, mood reels, video “sketches,” and various improvisational and collaborative exercises that can aid in the genesis of original artistic ideas. Students learn through practice, study, and reflection how these creative methodologies provide the foundation for later stages of development and pre-production. This course foregrounds collective practices and paragogy (peer-learning) as essential components of creative development: beyond project-level collaboration, we explore how our membership to various creative and scholarly communities brings with it a whole range of responsibilities, opportunities, and challenges. In so doing we are revisiting and reimagining what the concepts of the auteur and the caméra-stylo might mean to us in this particular cultural moment, when mobile devices and social media have transformed our relationship to the moving image. Shane Slattery-Quintanilla.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 160 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor; first-years are not eligible to take this course. Apply using this form: https://forms.gle/MyRi56VGBns9gM2D7
One 3-hour period and additional lab time required.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 245 - Producing Audio Narratives
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 245 ) This practice-based course places contemporary podcast forms within the larger context of sonic artistry across cinema, radio, and other media. As we produce our own original short audio narratives, we draw from a wide range of disciplines, techniques, and methodologies, including oral history, deep listening, non-extractive journalism and documentary practices, radio drama, voice acting and live performance, audio essay and collage, as well as abstract sound art and design. Students use professional equipment and software to produce their audio assignments, and they work collectively to create a showcase event and/or platform for their nal projects.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 or FILM 241 or MEDS 250 and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite(s): FILM 246 - Wild Sound .
Required for students enrolled in FILM 246 - Wild Sound .
One 3-hour period and additional lab time required.
Not offered in 2024/25.
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MEDS 248 - The Book in America
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 248 ) This course examines the history and influence of books and printing in American society from earliest times to the present. We touch on a range of topics, including the place of books in the colonial era and the new republic, the spread of printing technologies in the 19th century, the emergence of large publishing houses and rising rates of literacy, the role of libraries, bookstores, and book clubs, modernist publishing, the rise of the paperback, the work of private presses, artist’s books, and the effect of recent technologies on reading. Along the way we consider questions relating to the production, dissemination, and reception of texts. The Archives & Special Collections Library serves as a laboratory for the course. Guest speakers and one or more field trips enhance our study of key topics.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 249 - The Book: A Global History
1 unit(s)
This course offers an historical view of books and printing from a global perspective. We begin with thematic discussions of early systems of writing, the ancient book, the medieval book, paper, bookbindings, printing, and illustration processes. We then examine the history of the book in particular places, starting with countries in Europe, and moving to other parts of the world, including Russia, the Far East, the Middle East, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand, Latin America, and the United States. The course investigates not only the design and production of books around the world, but also their connection to society. The Archives & Special Collections Library with its rich holdings serves as a laboratory for the course. Guest speakers and one or more field trips enhance our study of key topics.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 250 - Exploratory Media Practices Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course instructs students in a varied set of practical media skills in order to interrogate and possibly transform the uses to which they are habitually put. It grounds a creative reflection on the relation between theory and practice through the critical use of production technologies. Each semester is devoted to a topic or a question to be explored through three distinct kinds of media “making.” These techniques include graphic design, literary journalism, sound recording, book production, the digital still image and its sequencing, the moving image and post-production techniques, computer graphics, games and physical computing, user interface design. Students compose a formally sophisticated, rhetorically inventive “essay” in three medium specific idioms. They also are asked to determine how the three exercises go together, how they work as interlocking parts of a transmedia narrative or ensemble.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 160 or permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 251 - Language and Power Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ANTH 251 ) How can the study of language and its use enhance our understanding of power and political action? This course explores how language is essential for the distribution and exercise of power through the discussion of readings that focus on language, mass media, and the public sphere. Readings on political campaigns examine the impact of poetics, framing, metaphor on social movements, political influence, and public opinion. Readings on the speech of politicians, activists, and pundits examine the use of language for the performance of (in)civility, as well as the covert mobilization of class, racial, gender, and ethnic stereotypes for political gain. Finally, readings on public relations campaigns, populist discourse, and democracy promotion campaigns in post-colonial settings explore the role of language in affirming or contesting liberal and secular ideals of democracy. Students apply methodological and theoretical tools of linguistic anthropology to analyze the poetic features and the political effects of real-world examples of satire, scandal, and political oratory. Louis Romer.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 256 - American Television History Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 256 ) This course surveys the history of television in the United States from the 1940s to the present. It examines the social and industrial significance of television and its impact on issues such as class, race, gender, consumerism, and national identity. We investigate changes in televisual aesthetics and narrative paradigms and the ways that television responded to significant cultural, political and technological changes in American society. Throughout the semester we draw upon a range of critical frameworks including media industry studies, genre theory, and celebrity studies as we address topics such as the attempts to develop alternate models of broadcasting, networks’ efforts to bolster television’s cultural status, media convergence, and the formal characteristics of different television genres. Screenings include I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Orange is the New Black. Katie Model.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 for students registering for FILM 256. MEDS 160 for students registering for MEDS 256.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 260 - Media Theory Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course aims to ramify our understanding of “mediality”—that is, the visible and invisible, audible and silent contexts in which physical messages stake their ghostly meanings. The claims of media theory extend beyond models of communication: media do not simply transport preexisting ideas, nor do they merely shape ideas in transit. Attending to the complex network of functions that make up media ecologies (modes of inscription, transmission, storage, circulation, and retrieval) demonstrates the role media play not only in the molding of ideas and opinions, but also in the constitution of subjectivities, social spheres, and non-human circuits of exchange (images, information, capital). Texts and topics vary from year to year, but readings are drawn from a broad spectrum of classical and contemporary sources. Giovanna Borradori.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 160 or permission of the instructor.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 264 - The Metropolitan Avant-Gardes
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 264 and URBS 264 ) Radical prototypes of self-organization were forged by the new groups of artists, writers, filmmakers and architects that emerged in the early twentieth century as they sought to define the future. The course studies the avant-gardes’ different and often competing efforts to meet the changing conditions that industrialization was bringing to culture, societies and economies between 1889 and 1929, when works of art, design, and film entered the city, the press, the everyday lives and the wars that beset them all.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 or ART 106 , or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods and one weekly film screening.
Not offered in 2024/25.
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MEDS 265 - Modern Art and the Mass Media: the New Public Sphere Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 265 and URBS 265 . When the public sphere was reset during the twentieth century by a new order of mass media, the place of art and artists in the new order needed to be claimed. The course studies the negotiations between modern art and the mass media (advertising, cinema, TV), in theory and in practice, during the years between the Great Depression and the liberation movements of the late 1960s–the foundation stones of our own contemporary culture. As a consequence, the physical spaces of culture would be reimagined and designed. Molly Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 or ART 106 .
Two 75-minute periods and one film screening.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 268 - After 1968: Sustainable Aesthetics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 268 or URBS 268 . This course studies the emancipation of the visual arts after 1968, here and abroad, together with the political and philosophical discussions that guided them. Theory and practice would form new combinations. The traditional fine arts as well as the new media, performance, film, architecture and installation art are treated as part of the wider global evolution creating new theaters of action, critique, community and hope. Molly Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): ART 105 or ART 106 .
Two 75-minute periods and one film screening.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 271 - Hello, Dear Enemy: Mounting an Exhibition on Children’s Experiences of War and Displacement Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 271 , INTL 271 , LALS 271 and WFQS 271 ) At a time when the world is witnessing the largest displacement of people since WWII, due in significant measure to armed conflict, this course examines select case studies (both past and present) of armed conflict and their consequences for children. Journalists, photographers, and writers of children’s literature have done much to raise awareness about children and armed conflict, and to treat them in such a way that audiences develop understanding, empathy, and solidarity with children affected by armed conflict. A principal aim of the course is to study the topics of armed conflict and displacement through photography, photojournalism, and children’s literature, and then to mount exhibitions both on campus and a traveling exhibition in the Vassar Collaboratory. Our work is enriched by the study of human rights and humanitarian laws and policies concerning children affected by armed conflict, as well as by interaction with visiting artists, educators, and children’s rights experts from the United Nations and other international organizations. The course focuses on the impact of armed conflict on girls, and includes such topics as displacement, education, child soldiers, child labor, birth registration, and sexual violence. Tracey Holland.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 272 - Critical Approaches to Media and Popular Culture
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 272 ) From television and cinema to hip hop stars and YouTube stars to billboard ads and pop up ads, popular media is a ubiquitous facet of social and cultural life. It is also one that often seems so natural or trivial as not to warrant serious sociological analysis. The goal of this course is to introduce students to classic perspectives on popular culture and media, and to evaluate their relevance in both historical and contemporary contexts. We attend not only to the content of pop culture but also to the political economy of mass media and its relationship to other social institutions of the family, education, health care, and government. In doing so, we consider a broad range of genres including sitcoms, reality television, disaster films, professional sports, video games, podcasts, karaoke, mash-ups, and selfies as well as and the role of various axes of social difference such as race, class, gender, and sexuality. Through writing, discussion, podcasts, and presentations, students practice developing and supporting arguments regarding the role of popular culture in our lives.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 283 - From Grid to Network: Digital Surveillance in West Germany and Beyond Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as GERM 283 ) It is common knowledge today that innocuous apps collect your data and share it with third parties. But how did we get here? With the rise of network technology, surveillance has
changed, becoming synonymous with big data collection and increasingly detached from the act of seeing. Focusing initially on West Germany, where one of the first mass-data surveillance programs was implemented, this course examines our contemporary surveillance apparatus and explores how mass-data surveillance originated in practices that predate the digital age. How is the grid a means for surveillance and visual representation alike? And how can we think of visual representations when all our images are stored in binary data? Our corpus has a strong focus on visual culture and our discussions is informed by media artists and theorists, such as Hito Steyerl, Harun Farocki, and Lev Manovich. Activities and assignments may also include conversations with outside experts, including media studies scholars and artists, as well as hands-on digital workshops with programmers. Anna Mayer.
Readings and discussions are in English.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 287 - Images of Displacement in the Middle East Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 287 and ANTH 287 ) Images of refugees in the Middle East fill our media feeds and demand our attention. But how have filmmakers from the region visualized displacement in slower, more quotidian forms? How do “everyday” images of displacement appear, and what kinds of political and ethical questions do they evoke? This intensive course is a collective experiment in visual inquiry that examines displacement in the Middle East from an ethnographic perspective. It introduces students to diverse examples of ethnographic and narrative film from North Africa and the Levant since the 1970s, including works by Merzak Allouache, Omar Amiralay, Mustafa Abu Ali, Soudade Kaadan, Leila Kilani, Mai Masri, and Tewfik Saleh, among others. Through screenings, readings, and discussions, students learn about the shifting conditions of Arab filmmakers’ production, the ethics of spectatorship, and visual politics. They also gain in-depth empirical knowledge of issues taken up in these films, from the afterlives of land reform in Syria to economic struggles in Palestinian refugee camps, to undocumented Maghrebi workers’ border crossings. Guided by these examples of politically-engaged cinema in the Middle East, our goal is to develop a more expansive visual framework for analyzing displacement as an everyday material condition and historical process. There are no prerequisites for this intensive, but majors in Africana studies, anthropology, media studies, film studies, and MDS are especially encouraged to enroll. China Sajadian.
First six-week course.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Course Format: INT -
MEDS 288 - God Goes to Comic Con: Religion and Fantasy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as RELI 288 ) In this course students explore the role of religion in popular fantasy genres—novels, comics, movies, television, video games—and vice versa. How has the idea of “fantasy” participated in the life of religion historically and globally? How do today’s fantasy worlds intersect with more traditional religious cosmologies, and how do they enter popular culture? Where does mythology end and fantasy begin? How do popular fantasy texts become sacred and develop canonicity? At what point does a fandom essentially become a religious community? To answer these questions we analyze contemporary fantasy series such as Star Wars, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Black Panther, Game of Thrones, the Amar Chitra Katha comic books, and the films of Hayao Miyazaki. We also read early foundational works of religious literature in translation (e.g., the Rāmāyaṇa, the Hebrew Bible) through the lens of fantasy. We ask, moreover, what happens when we physically step into the world of fantasy—as happens regularly at Disney World, Comic Con, Renaissance Faires, and in LARPing and video games. Finally we explore the dystopian side of fantasy: Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower invites us to ask whether fantasy could open the door for religion to serve as a broadly constructive social force—or whether that very idea is merely a fantasy. Nell Hawley.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Permission of the director required.
Course Format: INT -
MEDS 293 - Special Topics in Biology Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
A variety of current and timely topics in Biology is considered by these intensive mentored experiences. Each of these involves closely mentored work in small groups of students around a key topic in biology. A variety of formats is used, including field experiences, field trips, different types of media and different approaches. Topics and instructors vary each semester. Kathleen Sussman.
b) Getting the Word Out. (0.5 or 1 unit, ungraded) (Same as BIOL 293 ) This intensive focuses on communicating about biology research and concepts for different non-science audiences using blogs, podcasts and other current media. We work as a media team developing a series of articles relevant to human impacts, including climate change, on biological organisms and systems. We visit a large media organization and conduct video interviews as well as more traditional literature- based research. Kathleen Susman.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 4-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
MEDS 298 - Independent Study Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Permission of the director required.
Course Format: OTH
Media Studies: III. Advanced
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MEDS 303 - Senior Project Preparation Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 unit(s)
The Senior Project is a full-length Thesis or a (Multi) Media Project. During the Fall semester, students write a Project Proposal and Bibliography, and complete a Chapter or a comprehensive Project Statement. In the Spring, students finalize the Senior Project under the supervision of Project Advisor. All students present their Projects in a Public Symposium at the end of the semester. The Projects become part of a permanent Media Studies Archive. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the Director is needed if taking MEDS 303 in Spring.
Yearlong course 303-MEDS 304 .
Individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: INT -
MEDS 304 - Senior Project Completion Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 unit(s)
The Senior Project is a full-length Thesis or a (Multi) Media Project. During the Fall semester, students write a Project Proposal and Bibliography, and complete a Chapter or a comprehensive Project Statement. In the Spring, students finalize the Senior Project under the supervision of Project Advisor. All students present their Projects in a Public Symposium at the end of the semester. The Projects become part of a permanent Media Studies Archive. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the Director is needed if taking MEDS 304 in the Fall.
Yearlong course MEDS 303 -304.
Individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: INT -
MEDS 305 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
The Senior Project is a full-length Thesis or a (Multi) Media Project allowed in only the most exceptional of circumstances. During the semester or summer prior, students write a Project Proposal and bibliography, and complete a chapter or a comprehensive Project Statement under the supervision of the Project Adviser. The students finalize the Senior Project with the continued supervision of the Project Adviser to completion, which will then become part of a permanent Media Studies Archive. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of MEDS 310 and permission of the instructor.
Individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Format: INT -
MEDS 310 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
A course on methods and tactics for all senior Media Studies majors, providing a capstone experience for the cohort. This course is taught in the fall semester each year. The capstone seminar for Media Studies aims to consolidate our majors’ core coursework in theory and praxis with an eye to giving them useful tools for the critical making of their senior projects. Through readings and structured dialogue, we revisit frameworks introduced throughout our Media Studies courses such as “old and new” media, media specificity and postmedia, scale, reproducibility, the interface, virtuality, embodiment, surveillance capitalism, and the possibilities for decolonizing media. Dara Greenwood.
Prerequisite(s): MEDS 250 or MEDS 260 .
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 322 - Digital Art II Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 322 ) This advanced studio course expands on the work in ART 222 /MEDS 222 . It provides the conceptual and practical foundation for students to develop ambitious work across a range of media, including videos, installations, digital and hybrid objects, multi-media performances, participatory and collaborative projects, site- and context-specific works, and other as-yet undefined forms. Class discussions, screenings, artist talks, and visits to galleries/museums in NYC provide a theoretical framework for students’ work. Particular attention is paid to the methods, materials, sites, and issues of contemporary artistic practice. Review of camera operation, video editing, photo editing, and other digital imaging technologies are included. The course serves as a springboard for students to develop their own artistic sensibilities, languages, and interests while exploring pivotal theoretical frameworks that have shaped the course of experimental and avant-garde media practice in the 20th and 21st centuries. John Hulsey.
Prerequisite(s): ART 222 or permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 350 - Seminar in Linguistic Anthropology Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
A set of offerings that prepares students for advanced, self-directed research in linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics. Topics range from language and culture, language and colonialism, language and gender, or linguistic documentation and revitalization to religious and ritual linguistic practices, language and political order, historical linguistics, language and media, or an intensive focus on the languages spoken in a specific region.
May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed.
Topic for 2024/25b: Race, Language, and Digital Media. (Same as AFRS 350 and ANTH 350 ) Much recent critical work on digital media and society has scrutinized how organizational, cultural, and ideological blindspots of tech companies in and around Silicon Valley have led to technologies that entrench existing racial biases, strengthen the dominance of English over other languages, and magnify both state and corporate power at the expense of democracy and civil liberties. This course explores the communities of engineers, content creators, entrepreneurs, hackers, digital nomads, and activists who inhabit seemingly peripheral locales that challenge our prevailing views of the digital media technology industry. These far-flung locales include Pacific or Caribbean island tax havens that, despite their smallness, play an outsize role in the global technology industry, and also cities such as Hyderabad, India, and Medellín, Colombia, which host thriving communities of tech developers and hackers. This course introduces concepts such as raciolinguistics, decoloniality, and racial capitalism to examine the role of digital technology industries in perpetuating or contesting racism and linguistic imperialism. Meanwhile, reading and discussing ethnographic research on technology in the so-called global peripheries unsettle prevailing US-and-Eurocentric notions of technology and digital media. This course concludes with a research capstone that surveys a community of tech workers or content creators interested in addressing the inequities produced through digital media technologies. Louis Römer.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 352 - The City in Fragments
1 unit(s)
(Same as URBS 352 ) In this seminar, we use the concept of the fragment to explore the contemporary city, and vice versa. We draw on the work of Walter Benjamin, for whom the fragment was both a central symptom of urban modernity and a potentially radical mode of inquiry. We also use the figure of the fragment to explore and to experiment with the situationist urbanism of Guy Debord, to address the failure of modernist dreams for the city, and to reframe the question of the “global” in contemporary discussions of global urbanization. Finally, we use the fragment to destabilize notions of experience and evidence—so central to positivist understandings of the city—as we make regular visits to discover, as it were, non-monumental New York. Readings include works by Walter Benjamin, Stefano Boeri, Christine Boyer, Guy Debord, Rosalyb Deytsche, Paul Gilroy, Rem Koolhaas, Henri Lefebvre, Thomas Lacquer, Saskia Sassen, Mark Wigley, and others.
Not offered in 2024/25.
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MEDS 353 - Decolonizing Digital Culture
1 unit(s)
(Same as HISP 353 and LALS 353 ) Digital media are ubiquitous. Through them we communicate, inform ourselves, organize our lives, watch one another, self-soothe and invent ourselves. Digital media are both central to struggles for social justice and at the same time, in the hands of corporate and state agents, weapons against these struggles. This course explores how the history, physical infrastructure, political economy and symbolic and affective meanings in media-scapes across Latin America, the Caribbean, Mexico and Spain are crucial for understanding digital culture and its impact on us. Topics studied include Indigenous digital culture; digital literacy; fake news; social media and social movements; gendered, racialized and classed identities in online communities; (dis)embodiment; the networked self; and border surveillance technologies. We analyze a range of media texts including novels, films, theoretical essays, manifestos, archives and multi-media born-digital content. Taught in Spanish.
Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 and one course above 216.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 362 - Chinese Drama and Theatre
1 unit(s)
(Same as CHIN 362 and DRAM 362 ) A study of Chinese culture and society through well-known dramatic genres - zaju, chuanqi, kunqu, Beijing Opera, regional operas, modern and contemporary Spoken Drama; a close reading of selected plays in English translation (or in Chinese upon students’ request). Scheduled films of performances convey Chinese theatrical conventions and aesthetics. Research projects are chosen by students or assigned by the instructor. Based upon students’ research presentations, discussions center on a variety of major themes and genres from East-West perspectives. Students are encouraged to use Chinese language in their research projects at their appropriate proficiency levels.
Prerequisite(s): One 200-level course in language, literature, culture, drama, Media Studies or Asian Studies; or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2024/25.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 364 - Seminar in Twentieth Century and Contemporary Art Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as
Topic for 2024/25a: The World Picture. (Same as ART 364 and URBS 364 ) What defines a world? Increasingly the work of art is asked to take on this question, which for centuries had belonged to philosophy. This year the seminar takes its cues from the documenta exhibitions of 1997 and 2002: they did much to set the stage for art practices no longer defined by markets, borders or states. An expanding criticism followed suit: it takes shape in call and response, resistance politics, returns to raw historical material and fieldwork. Twenty years later, our world picture is multiple, unframed, perpetually growing and moving. Art has been transvalued. The seminar develops a series of case studies to explore these details and their implications for the future: the visions of Edouard Glissant, Chris Marker and Okwui Enwezor lead the way. Molly Nesbit.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 371 - Fake News: Truth and Media in the Post-Fact Society Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as SOCI 371 ) The post-fact society, according to journalist Farhad Manjoo, is one in which people increasingly live in “divergent, parallel realities.” It is in the context of the post-fact society that President Donald Trump and his followers are able to decry any news that challenges his actions or worldview as “fake” and to offer up ideologically bolstering “alternative facts” in its place. While sensationalized, exaggerated, or false news is not new (think yellow journalism or tabloids like The National Inquirer), the advent of cable news, the 24-hour news cycle, and the Internet have led to the proliferation of multiple realities of fact, troubling public trust in news media and polarizing Americans politically. Drawing on media studies, the sociology of knowledge, and post-structuralist theory, this course examines the cultures of the new post-fact society including: fake news and alternative facts; news taste-makers such as Rachel Maddow and Tucker Carlson; algorithmic control of online media; conspiracy theories; and political satire. We consider questions such as: How does news media create and reinforce various political ideologies? Why do people look to news media to confirm or deny preexisting beliefs? Is journalism ever fully objective? If in fact there are multiple Truths, how do we as a society develop public trust and social solidarity? John Andrews.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 382 - The Chinese Internet: Expression and Censorship in the Digital World Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 382 and CHIN 382 ) This class is a seminar covering the development of the internet and social media platforms in China, censorship, and the changing relationship between the state, citizens, and internet companies. In particular, it examines early online forums, social media platforms such as Weibo, app-based social networking apps WeChat and Douyin, and the online counterparts of traditional news media. A variety of disciplinary approaches to understanding phenomena in these spheres are employed, including qualitative and quantitative linguistic analysis methods, sociological examinations, as well as ethnographic studies. By the end of the course, students have a broad understanding of the major questions, debates and disciplinary approaches to understanding censorship and expression in the Chinese internet. Liz Carter.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
MEDS 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 or 1 unit(s)
Permission of the Director required.
Course Format: OTH
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