Modern Culture and Media
Description
Modern Culture and Media (MCM) is an interdisciplinary concentration that explores the ties between media and broader cultural and social formations. We stress creative thinking and critical production: comparative analysis and theoretical reflection, as well as work that integrates practice and theory. We thus bring together aspects of modern culture that are normally separated by departmental structures such as film and media studies, fine art, literature, literary arts and philosophy. This concentration offers the student a range of possible specializations. A student might decide to focus the critical study and production of a certain type or combination of media (print, photography, sound recording, cinema, video, television, and digital media); or they might focus on certain cultural, theoretical and/or social formations (for example, gender / sexuality in post-Cold war television, postcolonial theory and film, the changing form of the novel, theories of subjectivity and ideology, video games and theories of representation). These paths are united by a commitment to critical thinking/practice: rather than reproducing conventions, MCM concentrators learn how conventions emerge, what work they do, and explore ways to change them.
Student Goals
Students in this concentration will:
- Understand the foundations of contemporary cultural criticism, including theories of cinema, television, and digital media
- Become adept at analyzing media texts and their apparatus
- Develop their writing abilities in a sequence of papers
- Produce a body of original work that may be creative, critical-theoretical, or a combination of both
Requirements
Click here for a list of the Modern Culture and Media concentration requirements. For more information about this concentration, please visit the department's website.
Honors and Capstones
View Honors websiteAll concentrators, whether pursuing track I or II, must complete a Senior Seminar. Students who qualify for Honors in either track may apply to complete an Honors project or thesis in their 7th semester. If approved, a student must then register for a thesis course. Please visit the department's website for more information on the requirements for Honors.
Tracks
- Track I
- Track II
Liberal Learning
This concentration allows you to address the following Liberal Learning goals:
- Enhance your aesthetic sensibility
- Expand your reading skills
- Collaborate fully
- Understand differences among cultures
- Embrace Diversity
- Engage with your community
- Develop a facility with symbolic languages
- Learn what it means to study the past
- Evaluate human behavior
- Work on your speaking and writing