This course teaches the basic concepts, vocabulary, and critical skills involved in interpreting film. Through readings and lectures, students will become more informed and sophisticated observers of the cinema, key examples of which will be screened weekly. While the focus will be on the form and style of narrative film, documentary and avant-garde practices will be introduced. The class will also touch upon some of the major theoretical approaches in the field.

Some of the best feature-length films of the past century have commanded our attention and imagination because of their compelling artistry and the imaginative ways they tell stories visually and verbally. This course closely studies narrative films from around the world, from the silent era to the present, and in the process it introduces students to the basic elements of film form, style, and narration.

This course introduces students to the critical study of media, focusing on electronic media, digital technologies, and network cultures. We will analyze the aesthetics, politics, protocols, history, and theory of media, paying attention to the ways they create and erase borders; affect how we form and articulate identities; invade privacy while providing a platform for exploration; foster hate speech and progressive movements alike; and participate in capitalist economies and the acceleration of climate change.

This course offers the student a study and practice of theater as a collaborative art. Course includes the analysis of the dramatic text in terms of the actor; the director; the scenic, costume, lighting, and sound designers; and technicians. Close analytical readings of play texts and critical/theoretical essays will be supplemented by attending theater productions both on and off campus and by staging students' own theatrical projects.

This course will focus on basic techniques in realistic acting. Students will be introduced to the seminal work of Stanislavski and engage through concentration, relaxation, objective/action, and beats/scene analysis. Each student will apply these concepts to different texts.

An examination of the gothic -- a world of fear, haunting, claustrophobia, paranoia, and monstrosity -- in U.S. literature and visual culture. Topics include race, slavery, and the gothic; gender, sexuality, and the gothic; regional gothic; the uncanny; cinematic and pictorial gothic; pandemic gothic. Authors, artists, and filmmakers may include Dunbar, Elmer, Faulkner, Gilman, Hitchcock, Jackson, Kubrick, LaValle, Lovecraft, McCullers, Morrison, O'Connor, Parks, Peele, Poe, Polanski, Romero, and Wood.

A study of some of Shakespeare's plays emphasizing the poetic and dramatic aspects of his art, with attention to the historical context and close, careful reading of the language. Eight or nine plays.

This course traces the history of television in the United States from its invention to the present, including how U.S.-based television has circulated globally. In addition to looking at how the medium was developed and regulated as a technology, we will analyze the aesthetic and thematic content of television across the medium's history and within particular genres (sitcom, drama, reality, etc.), exploring how television has represented aspects of U.S. society including race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic class.

While women have written plays since the seventeenth century, the twentieth- and twenty-first century has witnessed a boom in women playwrights. This course will familiarize students with some of the major female playwrights of our era, such as Wendy Wasserstein, Caryl Churchill, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Nzotke Shange, as well as newer playwrights (Amy Hertzog, Katori Hall, and Young Jean-Lee).

Audio storytelling is an art form that enables you to communicate effectively with an audience. In this course, you will learn how to produce audio stories with a strong narrative and compelling characters. Students will practice pitching story ideas, scripting and reporting, develop interviewing skills, field recording techniques and learn the fundamentals of multi-track audio production software during in-class tech labs. In addition, students will perform listening exercises, readings, and have the opportunity to participate in seminar discussions and feedback sessions.