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Acquaint yourself with the study of film and media by taking a First-Year Seminar, which are open only to first-year students.

 

ASIA   57 – 001   First-Year Seminar: Dis-Orienting the Orient

Examines how the East is constructed as the Orient in different historical periods: 19th-century European colonialism, 1950s to 1960s Hollywood films, contemporary Japanese animation, and the current global war on terrorism.

Instructor Location Time

Staff     TBA TBA

 

COMM   89 – 001   First-Year Seminar: Special Topics

Instructor           Location                   Time

William Brown  Murphey – Rm 0118  MoWe 9:05AM – 10:20AM

 

ENGL   53 – 001   First-Year Seminar: Slavery and Freedom in African American Literature and Film

The seminar’s purpose is to explore the African American slave narrative tradition from its 19th-century origins in autobiography to its present manifestations in prize-winning fiction and film.

Instructor           Location                   Time

William Andrews Greenlaw – Rm 0317 MoWeFr 1:15PM – 2:05PM

 

ENGL   57 – 001   First-Year Seminar: Future Perfect: Science Fictions and Social Form

This class will investigate the forms and cultural functions of science fiction using films, books, and computer-based fictional spaces (Internet, video games, etc).

Instructor           Location                   Time

Staff Bingham – Rm 0309 MoWeFr 1:25PM – 2:15PM

 

ENGL   86 – 001   First-Year Seminar: The Cities of Modernism

This course is a cross-cultural and intermedial exploration of the imagery of the Great City in high modernist works of literature, art, and film.

Instructor           Location                   Time

Staff Greenlaw – Rm 0317 MoWeFr 8:00AM – 8:50AM

 

General Course List

AAAD 202 – 001   African Film and Performance

This course examines the misrepresentation of Africa and Africans in western colonial films and how African filmmaking and performing have responded to the colonialist narrative.

Instructor               Location                   Time

Samba Camara Stone Center – Rm 0209 MoWe 10:10AM – 11:25AM

 

AAAD 250 – 001   The African American in Motion Pictures: 1900 to the Present

This course will analyze the role of the African American in motion pictures, explore the development of stereotypical portrayals, and investigate the efforts of African American actors and actresses to overcome these portrayals.

Instructor              Location               Time

Charlene Regester Woollen Gym – Rm 0303 Tu 3:30PM – 6:20PM

 

ARAB 337 – 001   Borders and Walls in the Arab World

Can art, film, and literature undo cultural, social, and political divisions created by borders and walls in the Arab world? Students may not receive credit for both ARAB 337 and ARAB 338.

 Instructor Location Time

Staff     TBA TBA

 

ARAB 453 – 001   Film, Nation, and Identity in the Arab World

Introduction to history of Arab cinema from 1920s to present. Covers film industries in various regions of the Arab world and transnational Arab film. All materials and discussion in English.

 Instructor                   Location                   Time

Nadia Yaqub Hanes Art Center – Rm 0215 TuTh 12:30PM – 1:45PM

 

ARTH 159 – 001   The Film Experience: Introduction to the Visual Study of Film

A critical and historical introduction to film from a visual arts perspective. The course surveys the history of film from its inception to the present, drawing upon both foreign and American traditions.

Instructor                   Location                   Time

Staff Hanes Art Center – Rm 0117 MoWeFr 3:35PM – 4:25PM

 

ARTS 116-001 Introduction to Web Media 

 

Basic computer skills required. This course investigates the emergence of Web, interactive, and mobile technologies as artistic tools, communication technologies, and cultural phenomena. Students will design and produce interactive Web sites. The course covers principles of Web-based programming and design via HTML and CSS.

Instructor                   Location                     Time

Sabine Gruffat    Hanes Art Center – Rm 112  MoWe 2:30-5:15

 

ASIA 151 – 001   Literature and Society in Southeast Asia

This course is an introduction to the societies of Southeast Asia through literature. Background materials and films will supplement the comparative study of traditional works, novels, short stories, and poems.

 Instructor                   Location                   Time

Lorraine Aragon Hanes Art Center – Rm 0215 TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM

 

ASIA 231 – 001  Bollywood Cinema

This course explores the development of the Indian cinema, with particular emphasis on the Hindi-Urdu films produced in Mumbai (Bollywood).

Instructor         Location                 Time

Afroz Taj Davie – Rm 0112 TuTh 3:30PM – 4:45PM

Staff Phillips – Rm 0212 Fr 11:15AM – 12:05PM

Staff Phillips – Rm 0212 Fr 1:25PM – 2:15PM

Staff Phillips – Rm 0212 Fr 2:30PM – 3:20PM

 

ASIA 258 – 001   Iranian Prison Literature

This course explores literature written in prisons, particularly under the Islamic Republic. Students will read documents to understand human rights (and violations thereof) from a historical perspective. Since literature, film, philosophy, and theory offer invaluable perspectives, we will examine their contributions in the reflection on human rights in Iran’s prisons.

 Instructor Location Time

Staff     TBA TBA

 

ASIA 331 – 001   Cracking India: Partition and Its Legacy in South Asia

What happened when the British carved Pakistan out of the Muslim-dominated corners of India? Readings and films focus on the causes and consequences of this event, the Partition of India.

Instructor           Location                   Time

Pamela Lothspeich New West – Rm 0219 TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM

 

CHIN 244 – 001   Introduction to Modern Chinese Culture through Cinema

This course uses select feature and documentary films, supplemented by texts of critical and creative literature, to introduce students to a broad overview of modern China since the mid-19th century, focusing on the major events that have shaped a turbulent course of decline, revolution, and resurgence.

Instructor                   Location               Time

Gang Yue Hanes Art Center – Rm 0215 Tu 3:30PM – 6:00PM

 

CHIN 346 – 001   History as Fiction or Fiction as History? Early Chinese History in Film and Literature

Through analysis of the role movies play in the formation of popular perceptions of the past, this course provides an introduction to the history of the Qin and Han dynasties.

Instructor Location Time

Staff     TBA TBA

 

CMPL 144 – 001 Film and Media Culture

As an academic version of a “film club,” this wide-ranging course will consider both mainstream and independent cinema in the US during the 1990s. We will engage a variety of genres, including the crime film, teen/coming-of-age film, biopic, historical epic, western, horror, war film, action/adventure, science fiction, melodrama, and romance. Among the topics we will address are the explosion of “indie” cinema, the advent of digital technology and computer-generated imagery, the portrayal of race, characteristic attitudes of Generation X, postmodern pastiche and parody, debates about screen violence, and issues of gender and sexuality. Films likely to be shown are: Goodfellas (Scorsese), Jackie Brown(Tarantino), The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme), Malcolm X (Spike Lee), Unforgiven (Eastwood), Rushmore (Wes Anderson), Election (Payne), The Virgin Suicides (Sophia Coppola), Before Sunset (Linklater), The Big Lebowski (Coen brothers), Safe (Todd Haynes), Dead Man (Jarmusch), Schindler’s List (Spielberg), Boogie Nights (P.T. Anderson), The Thin Red Line (Malick), Being John Malkovich (Jonze), and Boys Don’t Cry (Kimberly Peirce). Students must also enroll in a recitation. See sections below.

 Instructor               Location                 Time

Rick Warner Chapman Hall – Rm 0201 TuTh 3:30PM – 4:45PM

 

CMPL 144 – 601 

 Instructor           Location                 Time

Staff Bingham – Rm 0301 Fr 11:15AM – 12:05PM

CMPL 144 – 602 

Instructor           Location                 Time

Staff Dey Hall – Rm 0313 Fr 12:20PM – 1:10PM

CMPL 144 – 603 

Instructor           Location               Time

Staff Bingham – Rm 0301 Fr 9:05AM – 9:55AM

CMPL 144 – 604 

Instructor           Location               Time

Staff Bingham – Rm 0301 Fr 1:25PM – 2:15PM

CMPL 144 – 605

 Instructor           Location                 Time

Staff Bingham – Rm 0301 Fr 10:10AM – 11:00AM

Staff Bingham – Rm 0301 Fr 2:30PM – 3:20PM

 

CMPL 240 – 001   Introduction to Film Theory

What is the specific nature of cinema? What makes it a unique form of expression? What is film’s relationship to the physical world? How do sounds, images, bodies, and narratives onscreen impact us – politically, emotionally, physically, mentally? How does film compare and contrast with the other, older arts such as literature, music, or painting? How does film fit within the current digital media landscape? Have film and television merged in our culture of streaming? How does film itself work as an instrument of thought? These are just a few of the questions we will explore. We will read a wide variety of theoretical approaches, including realism, psychoanalysis, feminism, affect theory, phenomenology, and critical race theory. We will consider questions of authorship, performance, genre, fiction versus documentary, the aesthetics of mood, metacinema, and more. Films we will likely examine include: My Life to Live (Godard, 1962), Notorious(Hitchcock, 1946), Magnolia (PT Anderson, 1999), The Player (Altman, 1992), Encounters at the End of the World(Herzog, 2007), Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen bros., 2013), Bush Mama (Gerima, 1979), A Separation (Farhadi, 2011), Personal Shopper (Assayas, 2017), Creepy (K. Kurosawa, 2016), La Jetée (Marker, 1960), Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016), Lady Bird (Gerwig, 2017), Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong, 2006), Two Days, One Night (Dardenne bros., 2014), Atlanta (Glover, 2016-, TV), Twin Peaks: The Return (Lynch 2017, TV).

Instructor           Location                 Time

Rick Warner Peabody – Rm 0216 TuTh 1:30PM – 2:45PM

 

COMM 130 – 001   Introduction to Media Production

Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Prerequisite for all production courses. Introduces students to basic tools, techniques, and conventions of production in audio, video, and film.

Instructor             Location                 Time

Staff Swain Hall – Rm 001A Tu 12:30PM – 2:20PM

Staff Swain Hall – Rm 101A Th 12:30PM – 2:30PM

Staff Swain Hall – Rm 101A Fr 9:05AM – 10:55AM

Staff Swain Hall – Rm 101A Fr 11:15AM – 1:05PM

 

COMM 140 – 001   Introduction to Media History, Theory, and Criticism

An introduction to the critical analysis of film, television, advertising, video, and new media texts, contexts, and audiences.

 Instructor               Location                 Time

Alice Marwick Chapman Hall – Rm 0201 MoWe 9:05AM – 9:55AM

 

COMM 140 – 601   Introduction to Media History, Theory, and Criticism

An introduction to the critical analysis of film, television, advertising, video, and new media texts, contexts, and audiences.

Instructor                   Location                  Time

Staff Hanes Art Center – Rm 0117 Mo 10:10AM – 11:00AM

Staff Hanes Art Center – Rm 0117 We 10:10AM – 11:00AM

Staff Woollen Gym – Rm 0302 Fr 10:10AM – 11:00AM

Staff Bingham – Rm 0309 Mo 11:15AM – 12:05PM

Staff Bingham – Rm 0309 We 11:15AM – 12:05PM

Staff Carolina Hall – Rm 0204 Fr 8:00AM – 8:50AM

 

COMM 230 – 001   Audio/Video/Film Production and Writing

Prerequisites, COMM 130 and 140; Grade of C or better in COMM 130; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites. The material, processes, and procedures of audio, video, and film production; emphasis on the control of those elements of convention that define form in the appropriate medium. Lecture and laboratory hours.

Instructor             Location                   Time

Edward Rankus Swain Hall – Rm 101A MoWe 12:20PM – 2:15PM

 

COMM 230 – 002   Audio/Video/Film Production and Writing

Prerequisites, COMM 130 and 140; Grade of C or better in COMM 130; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites. The material, processes, and procedures of audio, video, and film production; emphasis on the control of those elements of convention that define form in the appropriate medium. Lecture and laboratory hours.

Instructor             Location                   Time

Kristin Hondros  Swain Hall – Rm 200A  TuTh 2:35PM – 4:25PM

 

COMM 330 – 001   Introduction to Writing for Film and Television

An introduction to screenwriting for film and television.

Instructor               Location                   Time

Stephen Neigher Stone Center – Rm 0201 TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM

Stephen Neigher Murphey – Rm 0117 TuTh 2:00PM – 3:15PM

 

COMM 331 – 001 Writing the Short Film

Students practice and learn the craft of narrative, short film writing by conceptualizing, outlining, writing, and rewriting three short film scripts. They include one three-minute silent, one five-minute script with dialogue, and one 15-minute script with dialogue.

Instructor               Location                   Time

Dana Coen Stone Center – Rm 0200 TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM

 

COMM 335 – 001   Film Story Analysis

A variety of feature films (both domestic and foreign) are screened in class and analyzed from a storytelling perspective. Emphasis is on the range of possibilities the screenwriter and film director face in the process of managing the audience’s emotional involvement in a story.

Instructor           Location               Time

Dana Coen Dey Hall – Rm 0306 Th 5:35PM – 8:35PM

 

COMM 450 – 001   Media and Popular Culture

Prerequisite, COMM 140. Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Examination of communication processes and cultural significance of film, television, and other electronic media.

 Instructor           Location                   Time

Neal Thomas Bingham – Rm 0217 TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM

Staff   Davie – Rm 0101 MoWeFr 8:00AM – 8:50AM

Staff   Dey Hall – Rm 0209 TuTh 8:00AM – 9:15AM

 

COMM 534 – 001   Aesthetic and Technical Considerations in Making Short Videos

Prerequisite, COMM 230. The course examines the aesthetic and technical elements at work and play in cinematic storytelling. The student is required to complete three projects and will gain hands-on experience in narrative filmmaking.

Instructor             Location                   Time

William Brown Swain Hall – Rm 200A  MoWe 12:20PM – 2:15PM

 

COMM 635 – 001 Documentary Production

Prerequisite, COMM 230. A workshop in the production of video and/or film nonfiction or documentary projects. The course will focus on narrative, representational, and aesthetic strategies of documentary production.

Instructor             Location                   Time

Julia Haslett Swain Hall – Rm 106A TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM

 

COMM 644 – 001   Documentary Production: First Person Filmmaking

Prerequisite, COMM 230. Permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite. Students create documentaries emphasizing the filmmaker’s personal perspective and experience: essay, diary, and autobiographical films, and pieces in which the filmmaker performs a role for expressive or political ends. Significant class time is devoted to work-shopping student films.

Instructor             Location                  Time

Julia Haslett Swain Hall – Rm 106A TuTh 12:30PM – 1:45PM

 

COMM 654 – 001   Motion Graphics, Special Effects, and Compositing

Prerequisite, COMM 130 or 150; Grade of C or better in COMM 130; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite. In this course students learn a wide range of video post production techniques working mostly with the application After Effects.

Instructor             Location                  Time

Edward Rankus  Swain Hall – Rm 200A MoWe 9:05AM – 11:00AM

 

DRAM 245 – 001   Acting for the Camera

Prerequisite, DRAM 135 or 150; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite. The process of acting and its relationship to the technical and artistic demands of television/film production. Problems of continuity and out-of-sequence filming. Concentration and thinking on camera.

Instructor                       Location                   Time

Ray Dooley Center Dramatic Art – Rm 0104 TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM

 

EDUC 527 – 001   Screen Education: Representations of Education in Popular Culture

Explore and analyze how education has been represented in popular culture. “Education” refers to teachers, students, principals, other educators, and the everyday processes of schooling, and “popular culture” refers to school films (fictional films), school documentaries, television shows, music videos and song lyrics, animation, and other media forms.

Instructor           Location                   Time

James Trier Peabody – Rm 0306 TuTh 12:30PM – 1:45PM

 

ENGL 127 – 001   Writing about Literature

Course emphasizes literature, critical thinking, and the writing process. Students learn how thinking, reading, and writing relate to one another by studying poetry, fiction, drama, art, music, and film.

Instructor           Location                 Time

Hilary Lithgow Greenlaw – Rm 0304 MoWe 4:40PM – 5:55PM

 

ENGL 142 – 001   Film Analysis

This course offers an introduction to the technical, formal, and narrative elements of the cinema

Instructor           Location                  Time

Bradley Hammer Greenlaw – Rm 0301 MoWeFr 10:10AM – 11:00AM

Gregory Flaxman Gardner – Rm 0008 MoWe 1:25PM – 2:15PM

Staff       Murphey – Rm 0204 Fr 1:25PM – 2:15PM

Staff       Greenlaw – Rm 0301 Fr 2:30PM – 3:20PM

Staff       Greenlaw – Rm 0318 Fr 10:10AM – 11:00AM

Staff       Bingham – Rm 0309 Fr 11:15AM – 12:05PM

Staff Greenlaw – Rm 0304 MoWeFr 12:20PM – 1:10PM

Staff Greenlaw – Rm 0302 TuTh 1:25PM – 2:40PM

 

ENGL 288 – 001   Literary Modernism

In this course students will read early 20th-century poetry, fiction, films, and criticism, and consider the ways these works constituted, defined, and challenged the phenomenon known as literary modernism.

Instructor           Location                    Time

David Ross Greenlaw – Rm 0305 MoWeFr 11:15AM – 12:05PM

 

ENGL 340 – 001 Studies in Jane Austen

This course focuses on both the novels of Jane Austen and their fate since publication in the early 19th century. They have inspired countless imitations, over 150 sequels and continuations, and more than 30 full-length films. We will trace the transmission and transformation of the original texts across time and cultures.

Instructor           Location                 Time

James Thompson Greenlaw – Rm 0302 TuTh 8:00AM – 9:15AM

 

ENGL 380 – 001   Film History

Histories of Moviegoing

From the debut of Auguste and Louis Lumière’s cinematograph in 1895 to the premier of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s virtual reality installation piece Carne y arena in 2017, cinema has had an enduring place in global culture. But until recently, film and media scholars have focused on the production and analysis of moving images, ignoring the experienceof the cinema. In this class, we will explore the history of moviegoing and movie culture in a global context. In our journey, we will ask questions such as these: How did moviegoing emerge as a mass phenomenon, and what is its future? Why did the star system develop in the commercial cinema, and what does it have to teach us about our contemporary experience of mediated identities? Which social groups were the most enthusiastic patrons of movie theaters, and how can we use cinema to understand changes in global culture? How was cinema received in different national contexts, in large cities and rural areas, and in different cultures? How have new moving image technologies affected our engagement with the cinema?

In answering these questions, we will interpret primary source materials, consider questions of methodology and evidence, and revisit classic debates about how film history is written. We will also develop and conduct original research projects on the historical experience of the cinema, including historical approaches to contemporary phenomena. In this course, you will learn how to research and write histories of film and media using an array of methodologies and primary source materials. Assignments include several “student-sourced” research projects, which will give you first-hand experience with using primary digital documents as evidence, and, in the second half of the semester, a research project of your choice, which we will develop in class.

Instructor           Location                   Time

Martin Johnson   Bingham – Rm 0317 TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM

 

ENGL 580 – 001   Film–Contemporary Issues

Independent Cinema and the American South

From Gone With the Wind (1939) to Forrest Gump (1994), Hollywood representations of the American South paint the region with the broadest of brushes, relying on stereotypes and mythologies of the region and its people. In this class, we will explore films made outside of Hollywood that seek to represent the diversity and complexity of the South. Although our focus will be on contemporary films, we will contextualize recent developments by considering the long history of educational, amateur, independent, avant garde, and documentary film production in the South (George Stoney, Madeline Anderson, Michael Roemer, Jan Millsapps, Elizabeth Barret, Kevin Jerome Everson). We will be particularly interested in films that explore intersectional identities in the contemporary South. Films to be screened or discussed include Mudbound (Rees, 2017); Beasts of the Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012); Mississippi Masala (Nair, 1991); Mystery Train (Jarmusch, 1989); Goodbye Solo (Bahrani, 2008); George Washington (Green, 2000); The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Jones, 2005); Daughters of the Dust (Dash, 1991); Bright Leaves (McElwee, 2003); Ruby in Paradise (Nuñez, 1993); Southern Comfort (Davis, 2001); Family Name (Alston, 1997); Daughter From Danang (Dolgin & Franco, 2002) and Loggerheads (Kirman, 2005). Assignments include three short response papers, a final research paper, and a class presentation. Graduate students welcome.

Instructor           Location                   Time

Martin Johnson   Bingham – Rm 0301 TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM

 

 

FREN 388 – 001   History of French Cinema I: 1895-1950

Recommended preparation, CMPL143. Study of French cinema from 1895 through 1950, including early French film, silent cinema, surrealism, poetic realism, and postwar cinema. Concepts and vocabulary for film criticism.

Instructor           Location                 Time

Hassan Melehy Dey Hall – Rm 0209 TuTh 3:30PM – 4:45PM

 

GSLL 283 – 001   Hungarian Cinema since World War II

An introduction to Hungarian society and culture since the end of World War II through a selection of film classics. Films with English subtitles. Readings and discussions in English. Previously offered as HUNG 280.

Instructor           Location                   Time

Staff Dey Hall – Rm 0404 TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM

 

ITAL 333 – 001   Italian Film and Culture

Analysis of films from World War II to the present. Lectures and discussion in English. Films in Italian with English subtitles. Readings in Italian for majors, in translation for nonmajors.

Instructor Location                 Time

Staff     TBA TuTh 2:00PM – 3:15PM

Staff     TBA Tu 3:30PM – 4:45PM

 

JAPN 277 – 001   Empire of Sex: Eroticism, Mass Culture, and Geopolitics in Japan, 1945-Present

Tokyo, Japan, became the center of global pornographic culture after the United States occupation ended in 1952. This course will use film, animation, and historical texts to try to understand how and why this happened. Moreover, we will identify how this phenomenon impacted the lives of Japanese men and women.

Instructor           Location               Time

Mark Driscoll New West – Rm 0219 Tu 6:30PM – 9:00PM

 

JAPN 417 – 001   Japanese Culture through Film and Literature

Prerequisite, JAPN 306. This course helps students to improve their Japanese language skills while developing an understanding of Japanese culture through films and literature. Exercises include reading novels in Japanese, close observation of Japanese films, analysis of cultural context, writing summaries, and frequent discussion.

Instructor Location Time

Staff     TBA TBA

 

PORT 388 – 001   Portuguese, Brazilian, and African Identity in Film

Study of the literary and cultural film production of the Portuguese-speaking world on three continents. Films in Portuguese with English subtitles.

Instructor           Location                   Time

Kristine Taylor Dey Hall – Rm 0306 TuTh 11:15AM – 12:30PM