Modern Culture and Media

The Modern Culture and Media concentration combines the study of contemporary theories of representation and cultural production with the analysis of diverse texts – visual and verbal, literary and historical, archival and imaginative – in the period broadly designated as “modern” (18th to 21st centuries). Since the appearance of modern means of textual production and reproduction (print, film, video, sound recording, digital practices, etc.), traditional artistic and literary forms have changed significantly and new forms have been developed. MCM pursues teaching and research premised on the centrality of these changes to the analysis of modern culture. We may study the modern media or on the canonical texts of the humanities, but we examine all texts as elements in cultural systems that influence and organize textual production and reception at any moment in history. Our work always aims at better understanding ourselves as participants in and products of an international, mass-mediated culture.

Track I

Track I concentrators may choose to study a particular historical moment, a medium, or a mode of textual production, in combination with theoretical studies that examine the categories of cultural analysis: for example, the distinction between high and low culture. Possible focus areas include but are not limited to film, post-coloniality, the novel, and theories of ideology. Productive work in some modern medium or textual mode is encouraged for all concentrators. MCM’s approach to production recognizes the inextricable link between theory and practice, and the possibility of a fruitful complicity between them. Production, in the sense defined here, is a theoretically informed sphere or practice, one within which acknowledged forms of cultural creation are tested and extended in close complementarity with the analyses conducted elsewhere in MCM.

Track I consists of 11 MCM courses. Courses from other departments may count toward the fulfillment of a focus area, but they cannot substitute for the 11 required MCM courses.

Track I Concentration Requirements:

  1. MCM0150
  2. Two of the following: MCM0100, MCM0230, MCM0240, MCM0250, MCM0260, MCM1110. Only one additional course from this list may count for concentration credit.
  3. Five additional courses in MCM, of which
    1. two may be at any level in MCM above MCM0260
    2. one must be an upper level course numbered MCM1200
    3. two must be senior seminars (MCM1500 or MCM1700)
  4. Three additional MCM courses.

Other Requirements:

  1. Focus Area: The student's plan of study must include at least 3 courses in a focus area approved by a concentration advisor. These courses may be MCM courses, related courses, or a combination or the two, and they must represent a concentration on some aspect of modern literature, theory, media, art or culture. Examples of possible focus areas are: mass/popular culture, gender/sexuality, language/ representation/subjectivity, narrative, the novel, film, modern thought, the modern arts, modern Europe, colonialism and post-colonialism. This is not an exhaustive list. Production courses may be in the focus area but must be in addition to the minimum 3 courses.
  2. Production: Work in production related to the student’s focus area (as defined above) is not required but encouraged for all Track I concentrators. Of the 11 courses required for concentration, as many as 3 may be in production. These may be in the production courses offered by MCM (film, video, digital media) or in creative writing, painting, photography, journalism, etc., provided they do not bring the total number of concentration courses taken outside MCM to more than 3.

Honors: Students who qualify for Honors in Track I are eligible to apply to do an Honors project or thesis. Applications will be screened by the MCM Honors Committee. (Application forms should be obtained by prospective honors students in their 7th semester. They are available in the MCM office.) If approved, a student must then register for MCM1980, a one-credit thesis course in which they complete their Honors project.

Track II

Track II concentration combines production courses with the critical study of the cultural role of practice. It aims to engage students in the analysis of theories of production elaborated within philosophical, artistic, and technological traditions, while encouraging them to produce works that interrogate these traditions.

An MCM Track II concentration consists of 11 courses distributed as follows: two core courses, two additional courses below the 1000-level, three 1000-level courses, four production courses, and one senior seminar. Students are expected to meet regularly with their concentration advisors; they are required to meet at the beginning of their seventh semester to review their concentrations.

Track II Concentration Requirements:

  1. Two courses (chosen with the advisor to reflect the student’s production interest)
    1. MCM0100 or MCM0150
    2. Introductory Practice Course (For example: VISA0100, VISA0110, VISA0120, MUSC0200, CSCI0150, LITR0110, LITR0210) or History of a Medium or Practice (for example: HIAA0010, TSDA0030, MUSC0010, or MUSC0040)
  2. One additional course from the following: MCM010, MCM0150, MCM0230, MCM0240, MCM0250, MCM0260.
  3. Three 1000-level theory courses in Modern Culture and Media approved by advisors. (May include: MCM1110, MCM1200, MCM1500.)
  4. Four practice courses selected in consultation with an advisor. Courses can be in any medium or combinatory sequence of media: Modern Culture and Media, Visual Art, Music, Literary Arts, Theatre, Speech and Dance, Computer Science, supplemented by approved courses at Rhode Island School of Design and study abroad.
  5. One senior seminar: MCM1700 Seminars in Production or other equivalent in Production.

Honors: Honors in Track II entails one additional course, generally an independent study (MCM1980 Honors Thesis Project). Enrollment in this course is approved upon acceptance of an Honors Proposal. Application forms must be submitted by prospective Honors students in the beginning of their seventh semester and are available in the MCM office. The course is taken in the student’s final semester. An Honors degree reflects not only the completion of the thesis course and project, but generally distinguished performance in the concentration.



Page last updated in February, 2009.

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