Film Studies Program
What You Will Learn
Our Mission
The Film Studies Program examines how film reflects and affects the social, intellectual, cultural, ethical, economic, aesthetic, and political aspects of our world; encourages students to move toward critical thinking about how film influences values and ideologies as well as our views on gender, race, class, sexuality, religion, and nationality; and demonstrates that film is a medium which both reflects and produces social conflicts, desires, and power relations.
Global Citizenship
Through immersing in the minor’s interdisciplinary curriculum, you will gain a better understanding of the relationship between modern cultural forms, such as cinema and films, produced in the United States and those from national movements across the world. You will also take at least one course focusing on foreign film. As such, the program allows you to develop your understanding of how modern cultural forms function as a distinctive mode of transmitting and critiquing cultural values and practices, key components to global citizenship.
Responsible Leadership
Through the study of cinema and films, you are exposed to crossmediality of film and other arts (theatre, photography, and video) while also benefiting from the paradigms and methods developed first in other disciplines (e.g., industry research, media studies, cultural studies, visual anthropology, urban sociology, comparative poetics). With its emphasis on interdisciplinarity, the Film Studies program offers a crucial path to your understanding of transcultural visuality embodied by film language and technology and prepares you as not only a global citizen but also a responsible 21st century leader.
Productive Careers
You will gain invaluable problem-solving skills for successful lives and careers—skills that include critical thinking in the context of conflicting values, in-depth analysis, as well as timeless oral as well as written communication skills. You may consider careers in both non- and for-profit arenas and entrance into graduate studies.
Meaningful Lives
The study of modern cultural forms, such as cinema and films, helps inform you about the cultural, political, economic, and business institutions of the United States and other countries.
The Film Studies Program provides opportunities for you to experience open dialogue, using films as catalysts for change—foundational to a liberal arts education.