Course Catalog • Film & Media Studies

A study of the artistic, economic, and sociological development of the American sound film with emphasis on the studio system, major directors, genres, and the impact of television. Analysis of selected films. Four papers; film journal; midcourse and final examinations. Instructor: Michael Graves.

Textbooks and e-readings (separate purchase):

• Lewis. American Film: A History, Norton, 2008.

Students will also be required to rent and view a selection of films on DVD or videotape.

A survey of the artistic, economic, and sociological development of the international sound film from 1950 to the present. Emphasis on Free Cinema, New Wave, and other emerging post-war cinemas. Four written assignments; paper; midcourse and final examinations. Instructor: Michael Graves.

Textbooks and e-readings (separate purchase):

• Thompson and Bordwell. Film History: An Introduction, McGraw Hill, 2009.

Students will also be required to rent and view a selection of films.

Course Description

Explores the specific details of popular culture through texts that reflect and inform the general undercurrents of the time - the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement, the sexual revolution, youth rebellion and the counterculture movement. These cultural texts represent issues relevant to the 1960s in terms of ideological concerns about gender, race, politics, social and cultural issues. Ten written assignments; two research papers; midcourse and final examinations. Instructor: Ron Wilson.

Textbooks and e-readings (separate purchase):

• Cassity and Levaren. The ‘60s for Dummies, Wiley, 2005.
• Charters. The Portable Sixties Reader, Penguin, 2003.
• Griffin. Black Like Me, Signet, 1996.
• Vonnegut. Cat’s Cradle, Dell, 1998.
• Wolfe. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Bantam, 1999.

Students will also be required to rent and view a selection of films on DVD or videotape.

Course Description

Explores the specific details of popular culture through texts that reflect and inform the general undercurrents of the time: Watergate, the Vietnam conflict, the New Age movement, Second-Wave feminism and the “New Woman,” and environmentalism. Ten written assignments; two research papers; midcourse and final examinations. Instructor: Ron Wilson.

Textbooks and e-readings (separate purchase):

• Bach. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Scribner, 2003. (Any edition will suffice.)
• Bailey and Farber, eds. America in the 1970s, University of Kansas Press, 2004.
• Lev. American Films of the 70s: Conflicting Visions, University of Texas Press, 2000.
• Schulman. The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics, De Capo Press, 2002.

Students also are required to view a selection of films and television programs available through libraries or rental facilities.