This hands-on course will explore creative video editing practice and modes through the production of several short projects, revisions, group screenings and feedback sessions. While this is primarily a production course, we will learn about the history of the craft, read iconic texts, and view selected films to help inform our process and understanding of editing.

This course provides a foundation in the principles, techniques, and equipment involved in video production. Students will make several short videos over the course of the term as well as one final piece. We will develop our own voices while learning the vocabulary of moving images and gaining production and post-production skills. In addition to technical training, classes will include critiques, screenings, readings, and discussion.

This course examines contemporary Asian American film and visual culture through the lens of cultural recovery, self-invention, and experimentation. Focusing primarily on film and photography, we will explore issues of race and visuality, Hollywood orientalism, memory and postmemory, and racial impersonation and parody. Students will engage with a variety of theoretical and critical approaches. Artists may include Nikki S. Lee, Margaret Cho, Tseng Kwong Chi, Jin-me Yoon, Justin Lin, Binh Dahn, Richard Fung, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, and Alice Wu.

Sex and sexuality are frequently at the forefront of innovation in media and technology, from the beginnings of photography, film, and video to the rise of the internet, artificial intelligence, and big data. Combining critical frames from Media Studies and Sexuality Studies, this seminar investigates what happens when media and sexuality intersect. We will ask how media and technology bolster new forms of sexual expression, communication, and embodiment. And, at the same time, we will examine how emerging technologies enable new modes of social regulation and surveillance.

This course studies the films of Pedro Almodóvar, European cinema's favorite bad boy turned acclaimed auteur. On the one hand, students learn to situate films within the context of contemporary Spanish history (the transition to democracy, the advent of globalization, etc.) in order to consider the local contours of postmodern aesthetics. On the other hand, the films provide a springboard to reflect on larger theoretical and ethical debates related to gender, sexuality, consumer culture, authenticity, and authorship.

The purpose of this course is to prepare students for the challenges that accompany auditioning for film and theater. During the semester students will be asked to work on a series of monologues (4-6) that range from classical to contemporary in style. Time will also be spent on cold readings, taped auditions, resume and headshot workshops, and singing auditions. This is an advanced level course and is intended for students interested in pursuing audition both at Mount Holyoke College and outside of academic institutions.

This first year seminar is a critical thinking boot camp. Students will learn to charitably interpret, logically reconstruct, and critically evaluate arguments. The arguments come from classic and contemporary readings in philosophy about God, free will, and morality. We will focus on questions such as: Does God exist? Is it rational to believe in God? What should I do if I want to do the right thing? When is it ok to criticize other cultures? How much do I owe to others? Do we have free will? Can we ever be held responsible for anything?

This course explores the major trends and changes in development theory and their bearings on development policy and practice, critically discussing concepts of development and the emergence and evolution of paradigms in development thinking. We will explore what and who drives (under)development, where (location and scales), and what can be done. The course integrates hands-on experiential learning through case studies and guest lectures to enable students to analyze what theoretical foundations informed past and current development thinking and their prospects and limits.

This collaborative research experience focuses on cities and their dynamism. It affords students the opportunity to combine aspects of both a typical course and of an independent study to examine numerous facets of urban life, such as, the impacts of urban planning and design, lived experiences in cities, and the possibilities for just and regenerative urban futures.

Water is not simply a natural biophysical element that flows neutrally through landscapes. In this course, we will focus on the political, ecological, and historical dimensions of human water use in a changing climate. Throughout the course, we will examine ways in which water crises are produced and play out at various scales, ranging from the macro (global) to the micro (household) and human body. We will begin by strengthening our foundational understanding of water resources and laws that affect distribution, quality, use, and sustainability.