University of Chicago
5801 South Ellis Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
773-702-1234
URL: http://www.uchicago.edu/
History
The history of film in Chicago dates back to the 1893 Columbian Exhibition, when on the grounds of the Midway Plaisance -- within sight of the newly established University of Chicago -- visitors saw their first moving images. Motion pictures have been an intellectual and cultural concern at the University ever since -- from the Chicago School sociologists and psychologists who studies the effects of movie-going on children, to the decades of students who have made DOC Films the oldest and most amibitious student-run film society in the country. Recently, film and visual media have assumed even more prominence at the University through the groundbreaking scholarship of faculty in cinema and visual culture and the establishment of the Committee on Cinema and Media Studies.
Program of Study
The concentration in Cinema and Media Studies provides a framework within which College students can approach film and related media from a variety of historical, critical, and theoretical perspectives. Focusing on the study of the moving image (and its sound accompaniments), the program enables students to analyze how meanings are created through representational devices specific to the medium and its institutions. At the same time, the goal is to situate the cinema (and related media) in broader cultural, social, and aesthetic contexts, such as visual culture and the history of the senses; modernity, modernism, and the avant-garde; narrative theory, poetics, and rhetoric; commercial entertainment forms and leisure and consumer culture; sexuality and gender; constructions of ethnic, racial, and national identities; transnational media production and circulation, globalization, and global media publics.
Application to the Program: Students wishing to enter the program should consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the spring quarter of their freshman year. Participation in the program must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies before registration.
Program Requirements
The concentration requires twelve courses and a B.A. research paper. Course work is divided into a major field specifically concerned with cinema and a minor field focusing on a separate but related area or topic.
Major Field: Of the eight required courses in the major field, students must take two introductory courses, one in methods of film analysis (Cinema and Media Studies 101) and one in modes of film practice (Cinema and Media Studies 102); if possible, these introductory courses should be taken in sequence and by the end of the third year. In the autumn quarter of the fourth year, students are expected to participate in a senior colloquium that helps them conceptualize their B.A. paper and address more advanced questions of methodology and theory. The remaining five courses must be chosen according to the following distribution. Students must choose:
1.two courses in film history (at least one course in a cinema tradition other than mainstream American);
2.two courses dealing with genre (for example, horror film, musical, or experimental film) or individual directors, actors, or stars (one course in this category may be replaced with a course in film/video making); and
3.one course in film theory, media theory, or theories of audiovisual representation.
Minor Field: In addition, students must take a cluster of four courses in a separate area that can be brought to bear on the study of cinema in significant ways. Such clusters could be imagined, for instance, as focusing on other media and art forms (for example, photography, video, the visual arts, architecture, literature, theater, opera, or dance); cross-disciplinary topics or sets of problems (for example, the urban environment, violence and pornography, censorship, copyright and industry regulation, concepts of the public sphere, or globalization); or subfields within area studies (for example, East Asian, South Asian, African-American, or Jewish studies) and traditional disciplines, such as history, anthropology/ethnography, philosophy, psychology, linguistics, sociology, or political economy. Students develop these clusters in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and are expected to write a brief essay explaining the rationale for and coherence of their minor field by February 1 of the third year.
B.A. Research Paper: A B.A. research paper is required of all students in the program. During the spring quarter of their third year, students meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies to discuss the focus of their B.A. project, a process to be concluded by May 15; they begin reading and research during the summer. During the autumn quarter of the fourth year, they should have selected a project adviser and be prepared to present an outline of their project to the senior colloquium; writing and revising take place during the winter quarter. The final version is due by the fourth week of the quarter in which the student plans to graduate. The B.A. project typically consists of a substantial essay that ENGLages a research topic in the history, theory, and criticism of film and/or other media. In exceptional cases, students may apply to the Director of Undergraduate Studies to substitute a creative project for the essay, provided they have taken at least one course in the respective area of production (e.g., film/video making or screenwriting). Any creative project should include a research component that the student is expected to describe in an accompanying report. Students may choose to register for the B.A. project as a course equivalent to one free-elective credit.
Grading: Students concentrating in Cinema and Media Studies must receive letter grades in all courses required for the concentration. Nonconcentrators may take Cinema and Media Studies courses on a P/N basis, provided that they receive prior consent from the faculty member for the course so graded.
Special Honors: Students who have done outstanding work in the program and have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or higher may be nominated for special honors. These honors are reserved for the student whose B.A. project shows exceptional intellectual and/or creative merit in the judgment of the first and the second readers, the Director of Undergraduate Studies, and the Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division.
Advising: By the beginning of the third year, each student is expected to get his or her program of study approved by both the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the College adviser. For the construction of their minor field, students are encouraged to take courses and consult with members of the resource faculty. Consult the following lists for the names of core and resource faculty members.
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