Media Studies Courses & Courses that will fulfill requirements for the IMS Major for Fall 2011

Claremont McKenna

LIT 131 CM: Film History I (1925-1965)

This course surveys the history of cinema as art and mass medium, from the introduction of sound to the rise of the “New Hollywood.” Topics such as cinematic response to World War II, the decline of the studio system, and “new waves” of European filmmaking are studied in social, cultural and aesthetic perspectives. Offered every other year. Instructor: J. Morrison [Media History]

LIT 133 CM: Film and Literature

This course examines correspondences and affinities between literature and film in aesthetic, cultural and social contexts. Throughout we will look not only at specific case studies of literary adaptation or cross-reference, but consider the larger questions of culture and value implied in these transactions. Writers and filmmakers to be considered include Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Carson McCullers, Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, and Robert Altman. Instructor: J. Morrison [Theory/Film Theory]

Harvey Mudd

LIT 103 HM: Third Cinema

Emerging in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s, the notion of Third Cinema takes its inspiration from the Cuban revolution and from Brazil’s Cinema Novo. Third Cinema is the art of political film making and represents an alternative cinematic practice to that offered by mainstream film industries. This course explores the esthetics of film making from a revolutionary consciousness in three regions: Africa, Asia and Latin America. Instructor: I. Balseiro [Theory/Film Theory]

MS 170 HM: Digital Cinema

Digital Cinema is an intermediate/advanced video course, exploring the creative potential of digital video techniques, such as compositing, animation, and motion graphics. Students develop digital projects and participate in critiques. Lectures, discussions, and screenings enhance students' exposure to art and cinema. Prerequisite: Introduction to Video Production or equivalent. By written permission of instructor. Instructor: R. Mayeri [Intermediate/Advanced Production]

MS 182 HM: Intro to Video Art

Students learn how to make their own videos, using professional video cameras and editing systems. Weekly, hands-on workshops will cover the entire production process—storyboarding, shooting, lighting, recording sound and editing in Final Cut Pro. Students will complete several group exercises and individual projects, and participate in critiques of professional media and each other's work. Video is explored as a medium for expression, persuasion, humor, storytelling and art-making. This class has a required lab. Students in this course must also register for one section of MS 182L HM. Instructor: R. Mayeri [Prereq: MS 49, 50, 51 or equivalent. Production]

MS 50 HM: Language of Film

Language of Film is an introduction to film analysis, exploring the language of film through weekly screenings and discussions. We will examine the craft of filmmaking—cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound, and editing, from silent films, to classical Hollywood cinema, to experimental and independent film and video. We will also consider film as a story-telling medium, as an expressive art form, as an industrial product, and as a preeminent force in transmitting American culture, politics, stereotypes, and myths around the globe. Instructor: R. Mayeri [Introductory]

Pitzer

ART 125 PZ: Digital Photography

An introduction to digital imaging as a fine arts medium. The course will center on the use of the Photoshop (Macintosh) program. It will cover scanning, manipulation and printing of images. Students are required to have basic photographic camera and darkroom skills, as imagery will be scanned from photographs. Prerequisite: Art 120 or equivalent. Enrollment is limited. Program fee: $40. Instructor: M. Schiff [Production/Intermediate Production]

ART 126 PZ: Intermediate Photography

In this class we will create a strong body of work through theme-based assignments, as well as self-guided projects. By looking at art from present-day artists, we will be working to better understand decision-making and process in regards to our own photography. Each course will be exploring specific themes over the length of the semester. We will primarily be using digital photography as our main tool, so it is recommended that you have a digital SLR. Instructor: M. Schiff [Intermediate Production]

HIST 50 PZ: Journalism in America, 1787-Present

This course traces changes in the communication of "news" in the United States, from courthouse oratory in the early republic to network television in the late 20th century. Topics of study include the invention of "news" itself in the early 19th century, the development of journalism as a profession, the rise and fall of objectivity as a professional goal since 1900, and the ways in which changes in technology have affected the transmission of information. Formerly listed as HIST 150. Instructor: S. McConnell [Elective]

MS 49 PZ: Introduction to Media Studies

Presents a comprehensive view of the issues important to media studies, including the development of new technologies, visual literacy, ideological analysis, and the construction of content. Students read theory, history and fiction; view films and television programs; and write research and opinion papers. Instructor: E. Affuso[Introductory]

PZ MS 53: Science Fiction Film

One of the main icons of the science fiction film is the alien, an extraterrestrial visitor - friendly or hostile - who is markedly different from the human population.  That difference takes on various manifestations (sometimes even through similarity!), and in this class we will examine the ways the figure of the alien represents socially and politically charged differences related to racial and gender identity.  We will gain an understanding not only of the various ways the alien functions in science fiction texts, but also how we can read representations of the alien in light of different historical contexts.  We will examine science fiction texts from both film and television and engage the work of scholars in media studies, gender studies, and Critical Race Theory, attempting to answer this question: how does the figure of the alien in science fiction help us understand representations of difference in visual media and experiences of difference in society? Instructor: J. Subramanian [Media History]

MS 82 PZ: Intro to Video Art

This workshop is an introduction to all aspects of digital video production—camera, lights, tripods, sound and non-linear editing. Hands-on assignments will be organized around the formal properties and power of video. The workshop will allow students to evaluate each other’s work as well as that produced by media professionals and to create a final video of their own. This class has a required lab. Students in this course must also register for MS 82L PZ. Instructors: A. Juhasz, M. Ma, S. Hutin [Prereq: MS 49, 50, 51 or equivalent. Enrollment is limited. Fee: $150. Production]

MS 105 PZ: Transnational Media Theory

This course reviews a wide range of scholarship on national cinema and electronic media practices, as well as how visual media production and consumption connect to developing ideas of nation, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and a public sphere in diasporic and immigrant communities. Instructor: Eve Oishi [Theory]

MS 112 PZ: Anthropology of Media

Life today is saturated by various kinds of media. In the last two decades, a new field—the ethnography of media—brings anthropology's cross-cultural perspective and attention to everyday reality to studies of media and theorizes media as constituting new spaces of community and self-making in a globalized world. Instructor: R. Talmor [Theory]

MS 136 PZ: Online Feminist Spaces

This hyper/in/visibility of the feminist in digital spaces is the (non)place, and yet somehow also the very real location, of a course that will consider—by reading, using, and making—the nowhere and everywhere of feminism in on-line, user-generated, social networked spaces of web 2.0. Instructor: A. Juhasz [Theory]

MS 194 PZ: Media Arts for Social Justice

Working in groups or individually, students will implement hands-on media production projects with local non-profit and social service agencies. Students will culminate projects with an end of semester event for all participating groups. Collaboration will be a key component with Pitzer Ontario Project, CORE Partners of CCCSI including Kaos Network and the Women's Multimedia Center. Course fee: $150. Instructor: Fall, G. Lamb [Prereq: MS 82, or Art 120 (PZ) or Art 141 (SC) or by permission. Intermediate/Advanced Production]

MS 196 PZ: Media Internship

Internship in media related industry or institution integrated with significant and clear connection to academic curriculum through independent written or production project. May be taken twice for credit. Pass/NC only. Instructor: Staff. [Elective]

SOC 51 PZ: Class, Caste and Colonialism in Film and Documentaries

This course will explore the narratives, politics and representations of inequality across a number of key sociological variables that include social class distinctions, caste, colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism, and their intersections with race, ethnicity, nationalism, war, sexuality, freedom, and political repression in their historical, economic, and social context. Instructor: D. Basu [Elective]

SOC 136 PZ: Framing 'Urban' Life

The course draws upon a wide range of disciplinary orientations that examine the theories of urban life and representations of urban places and their cultures through literature, websites, maps, architecture, photography, documentary, film, popular art, music and advertising in local and international cities. It synthesizes visual and literary analysis of urban history and culture with the political economy of urbanization to: introduce you to influential works on the city, city cultures and representations or urban life; provide research skills in visual sociology and its application to city life and cultures; and simulate and act as a foundation for those going to/returning from the external studies site for Darjeeling/Nepal. Instructor: D. Basu [Elective]

Pomona

ART 21 PO: Digital Art I

Introduction to creative and conceptual strategies for artists working in the area of digital art. Readings and lectures provide a historical, technical and conceptual framework, while studio practice introduces computer- and network-based methods of art production. Instructor: M. Allen [Production]

CSCI 51 PO: Introduction to Computer Science with Laboratory

Introduction to the field of computer science using the object-oriented language Java. Topics include iteration and recursion, basic data structures, sorting and searching, elementary analysis of algorithms and a thorough introduction to object-oriented programming. Special emphasis on graphics, animation, event-driven programming and the use of concurrency to make more interesting programs. Each semester. Instructor: T. Chen [Elective]

CSCI 52 PO: Fundamentals of Computer Science

A solid foundation in functional programming, procedural and data abstraction, recursion, and problem-solving. Applications to key areas of computer science, including algorithms and complexity, computer architecture and organization, programming languages, finite automata, and computability. Instructor: E. Bull [Prereq: CSCI 51. Elective]

PO JPNT 176: Time and Space in Modern Japanese Literature

Are we purely the product of our environment? Or do we in some way also construct it? This course offers an overview of temporal and spatial concepts discernible in Japanese literature from antiquity to the present, focusing on modern Japan. Other literary traditions will be referenced for comparative purposes. Instructor: K. Kurita [Elective]

MS 49 PO: Introduction to Media Studies

Presents a comprehensive view of the issues important to media studies, including the development of new technologies, visual literacy, ideological analysis, and the construction of content. Students read theory, history and fiction; view films and television programs; and write research and opinion papers. Instructor: J. Friedlander or K. Fitzpatrick [Introductory]

MS 50 PO: Language of Film

Film and video can be understood as distinct semiotic systems with their own languages that can be studied from aesthetic, cultural, and historical perspectives. Students learn to analyze silent film, classic Hollywood, avant-garde film and video, as well as documentary, activist, and experimental work. Same as PZ MS 50 / CM LIT 130. Instructor: J. Hall. [Introductory]

MS 51 PO: Introduction to Digital Media Studies

An interdisciplinary introduction to digital and electronic media, exploring the relationships between "old" and "new" media forms, the historical development of computer-based communication and the ways that new technologies are reshaping literature, art, journalism and the social world. Instructor: K. Fitzpatrick [Introductory]

MS 85 PO: Independent & Experimental Film & Video

This course examines, in formal, historical, and political perspsective, independent, experimental, and avant-garde film traditions selected from a broad range of visual traditions. Topics vary yearly from the European avant-garde to postwar American 16mm filmmaking, from the rise of video to the radical experimentations in sound. Instructor: J. Hall. [Media History]

MS 147G PO: Topics in Media Theory: Virtuality & the Body

Traditionally, the notion of the virtual referred to something unreal. Yet, along with the development of digital technologies our understanding of “the actual” and the body’s perceptual capacities has transformed. Drawing on philosophical and cultural theories, we will investigate virtuality and the body’s capacities to apprehend and process virtual information. Instructor: M. Shurkus [Theory]

MUS 96A/96B PO: Electronic Music Studio

Laboratory course designed to develop electronic compositions using techniques of analog and digital synthesis. Permission of instructor required. Instructor: T. Flaherty [Elective]

THEA 1A PO: Introduction to Acting

Introduction to basic acting techniques. The fundamentals of voice, movement, relaxation, text analysis, characterization, and sensory and emotional-awareness exercises. Detailed analysis, preparation and performance of scenes. Required for majors, prerequisite for advanced theatre courses. Each semester. Instructors: Staff [Elective]

THEA 1E PO: Acting for Social Change

An introduction to the fundamentals of acting, drawing on different techniques such as psychological realism and physical theatre, these techniques will then be applied in forms such as Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre. Students will write and perform a self-written monologue, perform a two-person scene from a published script and present a work of documentary theatre or Playback theatre performance engaging a group outside of the classroom. Instructor: J. Lu [Elective]

THEA 2 PO: Visual Arts of the Theatre

The visual principles underlying the design of theatre productions: theatre architecture, staging conventions, historic and contemporary design, and environmental theatre. Attendance at professional theatre productions in the L.A. area, films, slides, readings, projects in three-dimensional design. Instructor: S. Linnell [Elective]

THEA 4 PO: Queer Theatre Activism

Creating activist theatre to build queer and allied community, and to address queer issues including homophobic, transphobic, sexist, and heterosexist behavior, policies and laws. Student will research global theatre activism practice and work with campus and community organizations to devise and present public performances. Instructor: J. Lu [Elective]

THEA 12 PO: Intermediate Acting

Scene study and voice work. Rehearsal and studio performance of selected scenes. Students will gain an understanding of the actor's work of character analysis through the use of objectives, inner monologues, and character research. Instructor: D. Blaney or Staff [Prereq: Theatre 1 or 3. Elective]

Scripps

ART 141 SC: Introduction to Digital Imaging

This course is designed to develop a sense of computer literacy using the Macintosh system and to acquaint students with the most current state-of-the-art programs in graphics software. Critical discourse is a key element to the structure of the course in examining some of the principles of visual literacy that are encountered in photography, video, animation, and the Internet. Laboratory fee: $75. Offered annually. Instructor: N. Macko [Production]

ART 142 SC: Intermediate/Advanced Digital Imaging

Adobe software is a suite of art and design programs of many levels and complexities. This course will provide the student with an opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of the various programs through a series of advanced tutorials and assignments. Course content may include creating a portfolio of digital fine art or graphic design work, and/or designing websites. Topics on digital printing, graphic design and contemporary art practice will be discussed in relation to student work. Related readings on contemporary digital art and design art practices. Instructor: N. Macko [Prereq: Art 141. Lab Fee: $75. Intermediate/Advanced Production]

ART 145 SC: Beginning Photography

A lecture and laboratory course in black-and-white photographic principles with an emphasis on visual content, aesthetic concepts, and creative seeing. Instruction in basic camera and darkroom technique and in the history of the photographic medium. Instructor: J. Orser [Students need to have constant access to a 35mm camera. Lab Fee: $75. Production]

ART 148 SC: Intro to Video Art

A studio course introducing students to the basic techniques of digital video production: camerawork and non-linear editing. Production is augmented by critiques, screenings, and discussions of conceptual and formal ideas. Instructor: T. Tran or Staff [Prereq: MS 49, 50, 51 or equivalent. Non-Scripps students need instructor permission. Production]

ART 181G SC: From Beauty to the Abject: Race, Whiteness and Modernism

Looking at various aesthetic models, this course will highlight the intersection of modern and contemporary art criticism with issues related to social and cultural constructions of difference as manifested within the visual arts. Topics include modernism, whiteness, race, and the history of lynching in California. Instructor: K. Gonzales-Day [Theory; G/U]

FREN 111 SC: French Cinema: Images of Women

This course will concentrate on three aspects of the role of women in French film in order to define the relationship between women as icons (larger-than-life images in the collective fantasy of a certain "Frenchness"), women as subjects, and, finally, women as creators of film. Appropriate readings in French will be assigned. Some films may be shown without subtitles; discussion and written work will be in French. Instructor: D. Krauss. [Prequisite: FREN 44 or equivalent. Elective]

MS 199 SC: Independent Study

Instructor: Staff

SPAN 140 SC: The Spanish Transition through the Lens of Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most recognizable auteur directors in Europe today. This course studies Pedro Almodóvar's development from his directorial debut to the present, from the "shocking" value of the early films to the award-winning mastery of the later ones. Instructor: C. Sanjuán-Pastor. Prereqs: SPAN 40 and 101. Course is taught in Spanish. [Elective]

IMS Jointly Taught Courses

MS 190 JT: Senior Seminar

This team-taught seminar, to be taken during the fall semester of the senior year, constitutes the senior exercise required to graduate with the IMS major in all three tracks: film/video, digital/electronic, and critical studies. It prepares students with the skills and knowledge to continue their media studies practice and research post-graduation. Students will be asked to complete a media project or written thesis. Instructors: J. Friedlander, M. Ma, R. Mayeri, T. Tran

MS 191 JT: Senior Thesis in Media Studies

Students write a thesis. Prerequisite: MS 190 JT. NOTE: Scripps students in Critical Studies track should register for MS 191 SC or MS 191H SC instead. Instructor: Staff.

MS 192 JT: Senior Project in Media Studies

Students complete a film/video or digital/electronic project. Prerequisite: MS 190 JT. Instructor: Staff.