The Screen Cultures major is an innovative and interdisciplinary program that provides students with a flexible course of study. It offers a solid understanding of foundational issues related to the study and understanding of the moving image while also allowing students to focus their studies on a range of specific issues and areas.
As a humanities-based course of study grounded in the field of film studies, but drawing on neighboring disciplines such as cultural studies, area studies, media arts, and media theory, Screen Cultures allows students to study in depth the theory, aesthetics, history, and cultural and institutional contexts of film, television, and related screen media from interdisciplinary perspectives. The degree emphasizes international and multicultural foci and is attentive to the role that the moving image plays in the construction of national, racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities.
The degree also provides opportunities for experiential learning in the form of on-campus and off-campus internships and projects in collaboration with a variety of film festivals on campus and throughout Ithaca, ensuring that students graduate not only with core liberal arts skills, but with a keen understanding of the important role that visual media play in the contemporary world and in national/international public discourses and multiple industries.
