Moving images increasingly belong to the very texture of our lives. The aim of the interdisciplinary major in Cinema and Screen Studies is to engage that texture and its multiformity in critical, innovative and experimental ways. Our goal is to help students become, through criticism and creation, active participants in and shapers of the culture and society of moving images. To this end, the major in Cinema and Screen Studies combines a rigorous course of study in the theory and history of moving images with an equally rigorous course of study in technical and creative production.

The major in Cinema and Screen Studies includes twelve courses divided into three groups: critical studies, production and electives. The first group, critical studies, constitutes the core of the program and includes four courses: English 286, Introduction to Cinema and Screen Studies; English 386, The Cinema; English 388, Film Genre; English 486, World Cinema. English 486 also satisfies the Intellectual Issues and Human Diversity requirements of the General Education Program. English 286 satisfies a Knowledge Foundations requirement.

The second group, production, includes four courses: Creative Writing 201, Screenwriting:Introductory; Creative Writing 301,  Screenwriting: Intermediate; Broadcasting 235, Digital Video Production; Broadcasting 465, Dramatic Video Production.  All students in the program are expected to produce at least one major film project for exhibition. All students in the program are expected to produce at least one substantial screenplay.

The electives group allows individual students to give a particular emphasis to their course of study and to take full advantage of the interdisciplinary elements of Cinema and Screen Studies. For example, a student might use this group of courses to fashion an emphasis in: acting and design, women's studies, Native American Studies, African American Studies, film education, technology, digitality and information science, marketing, biology, physics or cognitive science, visual anthropology and documentary, computer animation, political science, etc. The elective group, therefore, is both a response to and intervention in the varieties of moving image practices. Within this group students will be expected to begin the project of imagining and preparing for life beyond graduation, whether this means a career or further education.  The major concludes with Cinema & Screen Studies 467, Capstone Performance, a public performance of a film, a reading of a screenplay or research paper.

The Cinema and Screen Studies Faculty understands moving images as participating in and even constitutive of a wide variety of social practices, sometimes global, sometimes local, in scope and range. We do not conceive of our program as principally preparing students for careers in entertainment. We intend to prepare students to be both critically astute and technically proficient participants in these practices, whether in business, medicine, politics, education, art, etc.

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Cinema and Screen Studies Major                            37 credits

Critical Studies Group                                             12 credits
Eng 286 Introduction to Screen & Cinema Studies
Eng 386 The Cinema
Eng 388 Film Genre
Eng 486 World Cinema

Production Group                                                   12 credits
CRW 201 Screenwriting: Introductory
CRW 301 Screenwriting: Intermediate
BRC 235 Digital Video Production
BRC 465 Dramatic Video Production

Electives Group                                                      13 credits
At least 2 must be 300-level or higher
CSS 496, Capstone Performance