The goal of Hamilton's Cinema and Media Studies Program is to blend study in film and media history and theory while providing students opportunities to pursue their own artistic visions through the uses of new technology.
Hamilton’s Cinema and Media Studies Program offers opportunities to explore cinema and media history and theory through in-depth, broadly ranging exposure to pivotal contributions and accomplishments in media-making, as well as through hands-on creative experiences. The focus of the concentration is to develop critical perspectives on the aesthetics, structures, and impacts of visual representations and new media technologies.
A concentration in Cinema and Media Studies (CNMS) consists of ten courses: three required courses and seven additional courses. The three required courses are: CNMS-120 (this course satisfies the College’s Social, Structural, and Institutional Hierarchies requirement), CNMS-301, and CNMS-500. In addition, students must complete: three Theory/Genre courses, one Production course, one World Cinemas course, and two electives. (See lists below for each of these categories.)
Honors in CNMS is awarded to concentrators with at least a 3.7 average in the concentration and who complete CNMS-550 with a grade of at least A-.
A minor in Cinema and Media Studies comprises five courses: CNMS-120 and either four courses from the Theory/Genre list below, or three courses from the Theory/Genre list and one production course.
Important: All interdisciplinary majors require careful planning since courses depend on the offerings of individual departments and may change year by year. Courses taught in a language other than English are noted as such in the lists below. While several courses listed below are not crosslisted with CNMS (i.e. they do not have a CNMS number), they may still count toward the concentration and minor. You’ll find that some courses appear under multiple categories; however, they may only count once toward your concentration or minor. That is, a single course cannot be used to fulfill multiple requirements at once. Last but not least, to confirm whether a course that is not listed below will count toward the concentration or minor, please speak with your advisor or the director of the Cinema and Media Studies program.
Courses and Curricular Categories
3 required credits:
- CNMS-120 Introduction to the History and Theory of Cinema
- CNMS-301 Avant-Garde and Experimental Film: Cinema as Theory and Critique
- CNMS-500 Senior Seminar
3 credits in THEORY/GENRE from the following list (or comparable courses):
- CNMS-110 Ways of Seeing: Vision, Technology, Media
- CNMS-130 Introduction to Visual Studies
- FRNCH-160 History of French Cinema: Labor on Film
- CNMS-205 Broadcasting Freedom: Protest, Power, and Black Media
- CNMS-228 Philosophy and Film
- LIT-230 Bollywood Film
- CNMS-236 Visual Culture of Modernity
- CNMS-237 Visual Culture of World War II
- MUSIC-245/345 Music in American Film
- LIT-261 Listen! Sound Histories and Imaginaries
- CNMS-268 Political Film
- CNMS-290 Facing Reality: A History of Documentary Cinema
- CNMS-291 Classic American Film Comedy
- CNMS-304 Religion and Media
- CNMS-314 Digital Approaches to Print Media
- CNMS-324 Visual Culture and the Jewish Experience
- CNMS-330 Digital History and New Media: Theories and Praxis
- LIT-379 Transnational Feminist Frames
- CNMS-401 Meta-Cinema: Films Made from Other Films
1 credit in PRODUCTION from the following list (or comparable courses):
1 credit in WORLD CINEMAS from the following list (or comparable courses):
- GERMN-154 Introduction to German Cinema
- CNMS-155 History of Russian Cinema
- CNMS-160 Modern China Through Film
- FRNCH-160 History of French Cinema: Labor on Film
- JAPN-160 Modern Selves and Ways of Seeing: Japanese Film, Animation, and Literature
- CNMS-170 Introduction to Italian Cinema
- CNMS-202 Asian Film and Religion
- HSPST-223 Introduction to Hispanic Cinema (taught in Spanish)
- LIT-230 Bollywood Film
- HSPST-323/423 The Power of Looking: Re-imagining the Nation in Hispanic Film (taught in Spanish)
- FRNCH-348 Life on Reels: Art and Reality in Contemporary French Cinema (taught in French)
- CNMS-356 Introduction to Japanese Film
- HSPST-362/462 Literature on Film (taught in Spanish)
- FRNCH-374 African Cinemas (taught in French)
- LIT-379 Transnational Feminist Frames
- CHNSE-380 Transcultural Chinese-Language Cinema and Hollywood
- FRNCH-428 Post-War Cinematographic Memory (taught in French)
- FRNCH-432 Picturing War in Twentieth-Century France (taught in French)
- CHNSE-436 Chinese Legends in Film (taught in Chinese)
- CHNSE-442 Cinematic Heroes and Heroines in Post-Mao China (taught in Chinese)
2 credits in ELECTIVES from the following list (or from the lists above):
Students interested in pursuing Honors must also sign up for CNMS-550 Senior Honors Project