| FMST 101-01 |
Introduction to Film Studies
Instructor: Nicoletta Marini Maio
Course Description:
NOTE: Students in this class will also have required half-hour group appointments on Wednesdays sometime between 7-10pm. An introductory study of the preeminent art form of the 20th Century. The course will focus upon the fundamentals of film study as an academic discipline, including formal analysis of film narrative and cinematic technique (the art of film), contextual approaches to film, study of various film genres, and rudimentary experience with film production. Students will be exposed to aesthetically and historically important films from a number of cultural traditions.
|
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
ALTHSE 106 |
| FMST 102-01 |
Fundamentals of Digital Film Production
Instructor: Nevil Jackson
Course Description:
This course provides instruction in the basic aesthetic and technical aspects of digital film production, including writing, producing, directing, shooting, lighting, recording and mixing sound, and editing. Students will learn to harness digital tools while focusing on their roles as storytellers. Each participant will write and direct a video, rotating through various crew positions as they carry out exercises designed to deepen their knowledge of the different elements of moviemaking. Ultimately, students will collaborate in teams on short movies, which will be screened at the final class.
Offered spring semesters.
|
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, R
BOSLER 213 |
| FMST 210-02 |
Black Horror
Instructor: Nevil Jackson
Course Description:
Cross-listed with AMST 200-01. Horror films disturb our sense of peace. They terrify, shock, and alarm, provoking an unease that haunts the peripheries of our daily lives. Essentially, they tell us what, and whom, to fear. They are expressions of our deepest anxieties, and when examined critically, horror films can reveal societal and political concerns about race, gender, and class. So what happens when we look at the genre through the lens of Blackness in America?
This course examines the history of Black representation in American horror films from the 1900s to the present. From D.W. Griffiths 1915 film Birth of a Nation to Ryan Cooglers 2025 Sinners, well explore the trajectory of the horror genre, how it has reflected Americas anxieties, its role in shaping perceptions of Blackness, and how Black horror films have evolved from representations of oppressive ideology to expressions of Black existential thought.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
DENNY 212 |
| FMST 211-01 |
Screenwriting
Instructor: Khris Baxter
Course Description:
Cross-listed with CRWR 219-02. This course will familiarize students with the fundamentals of good screenwriting: structure, theme, conflict, character, and dialogue. Students take part in weekly writing exercises as preparation for their final class project--creating a detailed outline of an original screenplay, and completing the first act. Topics include plot and subplot, character development, and commercial considerations such as format and genre. Students are required to read essential books on scriptwriting and to analyze several films and the screenplays on which they are based. Prerequisite: CRWR 218 or any film course. This course is cross-listed as CRWR 219.
|
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
EASTC 411 |
| FMST 220-01 |
Imagining Futures: Gender, Power, and Justice in Utopian/Dystopian Worlds
Instructor: Charity Fox
Course Description:
Cross-listed with WGSS 101-01. Advancing social justice requires critical analyses of systemic power relations, which involves grappling with questions of power, privilege, and oppression. The speculative worlds of utopian and dystopian fiction provide a unique space to explore the complex problems facing humanity, examine oppressive power dynamics, and envision creative and liberatory solutions. Utopian and dystopian worlds challenge their audiences to both identify with and critique the structural injustices within their fictional worlds, understand how power functions, and imagine possibilities for sociopolitical transformation. Utopian and dystopian texts offer a valuable tool for testing ideological boundaries and shifting collective imagination, creating space for audiences to fundamentally reconsider our interconnections with one another and the futures we hope to inhabit/fear we will inhabit. In this course, we will delve into popular culture texts showcasing utopian and dystopian narratives across speculative fiction, science fiction, and futurism. Through a combination of film and media assignments, reading assignments, and active class discussions, we will explore what utopia and dystopia genre texts reveal about historical and contemporary efforts to understand gender, race, class, sexuality, justice, nature, politics, and possibilities for our collective future. Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions and complete weekly informal writing assignments, midterm, and a final project exploring a utopian/dystopian text of their choice.
|
09:30 AM-10:20 AM, MWF
DENNY 104 |
| FMST 220-02 |
Digital Studio 1: Image Manipulation and Experimental Processes
Instructor: Emily Lehman
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 223-01. This course will focus on 2-dimensional studio processes in the digital environment. It will also explore how digital processes can be used in conjunction with traditional processes like drawing, painting, and printmaking. The initial goal of this class will be to gain a thorough understanding of Adobe Photoshop for image manipulation. As the semester progresses, the class will explore uses of digital technology in contemporary art practice, including experimental processes. *Please note: this is not a photography course, some photo related processes will be part of the class, but those students looking for a more traditional approach to photography should consider the 221 Intro to Photography class.
|
09:30 AM-11:29 AM, MW
GDYRST 101 |
| FMST 220-03 |
Introduction to Photography
Instructor: Andy Bale
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 221-01. An entry-level course in black-and-white photography emphasizing theory, history, and practice. Students learn how to create images, use cameras, develop film and make prints using conventional darkroom processes. Students will also be introduced to Photoshop as well as the basics of scanning and digital printing.
|
09:30 AM-11:30 AM, TR
GDYRST 101 |
| FMST 220-04 |
Introduction to Photography
Instructor: Andy Bale
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 221-02. An entry-level course in black-and-white photography emphasizing theory, history, and practice. Students learn how to create images, use cameras, develop film and make prints using conventional darkroom processes. Students will also be introduced to Photoshop as well as the basics of scanning and digital printing.
|
01:30 PM-03:29 PM, TR
GDYRST 101 |
| FMST 220-06 |
Interactive Media
Instructor: Claire Seiler, ENGL STAFF
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 101-05. New media is considered distinctly interactive. In this class we will unpack and explore interactivity and the interactive, historically, culturally and aesthetically. We will work through a variety of media, from the obvious (video games, interactive films, choose your own adventure novels) to the less obvious (the novel, the art gallery, film). Interactivity, as a concept, will tie together a variety of objects and practices in this survey class. Ultimately, we will ask, what makes something interactive? How do passive and active media differ? What is the future of interactive media?
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
EASTC 411 |
| FMST 220-07 |
Activist Media/Public Scholarship
Instructor: Claire Seiler, ENGL STAFF
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 221-02. Many scholars and activists believe that new media democratize access to content creation and media production and distribution. Some would suggest that this has had the effect of rebalancing political and persuasive power. This class will experiment with a variety of tools in order to empower students to engage intentionally, meaningfully, and productively with a public. Working in small groups, students will be expected to produce an episode of a podcast, a video essay, and a digital project with the aim of translating big ideas into accessible forms, persuading the public to engage in meaningful reform, and/or activating a demographic to pursue social change. Discussions of course texts will compliment tutorial and exploratory work with different authoring platforms. Projects will be graded in critique, and students will be expected to create a portfolio of work for final submission.
|
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
EASTC 301 |
| FMST 310-01 |
The Essay Film
Instructor: Greg Steirer
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ENGL 331-02. In this course, students will examine the essay film, a genre of documentary that eschews traditional rhetorical and narrative cinematic approaches in favor of an exploratory, digressive, and often self-reflective approach to filmmaking. Readings will include a number of literary essays, as well as theoretical works on the essay as a genre of writing and filmmaking. Films may include works by Werner Herzog, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Derek Jarman, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, and Agns Varda.
|
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
EASTC 314 |
| FMST 500-01 |
Italian Cinema: History & Techniques
Instructor: Nicoletta Marini Maio
Course Description:
|
|
| Courses Offered in AMST |
| AMST 200-01 |
Black Horror
Instructor: Nevil Jackson
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 210-02. Horror films disturb our sense of peace. They terrify, shock, and alarm, provoking an unease that haunts the peripheries of our daily lives. Essentially, they tell us what, and whom, to fear. They are expressions of our deepest anxieties, and when examined critically, horror films can reveal societal and political concerns about race, gender, and class. So what happens when we look at the genre through the lens of Blackness in America?
This course examines the history of Black representation in American horror films from the 1900s to the present. From D.W. Griffiths 1915 film Birth of a Nation to Ryan Cooglers 2025 Sinners, well explore the trajectory of the horror genre, how it has reflected Americas anxieties, its role in shaping perceptions of Blackness, and how Black horror films have evolved from representations of oppressive ideology to expressions of Black existential thought.
|
01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
DENNY 212 |
| Courses Offered in ARTH |
| ARTH 221-01 |
Introduction to Photography
Instructor: Andy Bale
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 220-03. An entry-level course in black-and-white photography emphasizing theory, history, and practice. Students learn how to create images, use cameras, develop film and make prints using conventional darkroom processes. Students will also be introduced to Photoshop as well as the basics of scanning and digital printing.
|
09:30 AM-11:30 AM, TR
GDYRST 101 |
| ARTH 221-02 |
Introduction to Photography
Instructor: Andy Bale
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 220-04. An entry-level course in black-and-white photography emphasizing theory, history, and practice. Students learn how to create images, use cameras, develop film and make prints using conventional darkroom processes. Students will also be introduced to Photoshop as well as the basics of scanning and digital printing.
|
01:30 PM-03:29 PM, TR
GDYRST 101 |
| ARTH 223-01 |
Digital Studio 1: Image Manipulation and Experimental Processes
Instructor: Emily Lehman
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 220-02. This course will focus on 2-dimensional studio processes in the digital environment. It will also explore how digital processes can be used in conjunction with traditional processes like drawing, painting, and printmaking. The initial goal of this class will be to gain a thorough understanding of Adobe Photoshop for image manipulation. As the semester progresses, the class will explore uses of digital technology in contemporary art practice, including experimental processes. *Please note: this is not a photography course, some photo related processes will be part of the class, but those students looking for a more traditional approach to photography should consider the 221 Intro to Photography class. Prerequisite: 122, 221, or permission of the instructor.
|
09:30 AM-11:29 AM, MW
GDYRST 101 |
| Courses Offered in CRWR |
| CRWR 219-02 |
Screenwriting
Instructor: Khris Baxter
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 211-01. This course will familiarize students with the fundamentals of good screenwriting: structure, theme, conflict, character, and dialogue. Students take part in weekly writing exercises as preparation for their final class project--creating a detailed outline of an original screenplay, and completing the first act. Topics include plot and subplot, character development, and commercial considerations such as format and genre. Students are required to read essential books on scriptwriting and to analyze several films and the screenplays on which they are based.
|
01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
EASTC 411 |
| Courses Offered in ENGL |
| ENGL 331-02 |
The Essay Film
Instructor: Greg Steirer
Course Description:
Cross-listed with FMST 310-01. In this course, students will examine the essay film, a genre of documentary that eschews traditional rhetorical and narrative cinematic approaches in favor of an exploratory, digressive, and often self-reflective approach to filmmaking. Readings will include a number of literary essays, as well as theoretical works on the essay as a genre of writing and filmmaking. Films may include works by Werner Herzog, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Derek Jarman, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, and Agns Varda.
|
03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
EASTC 314 |