Offering an expansive approach to the powers of media in our increasingly mediated world, this program encompasses a range of topics concerning communication technologies and industries and critical relations between aesthetics and politics from the development of writing, cinema, and television to our expanding digital age of video games, online networks, mobile devices, AI and more.
The Media Studies Minor (15 credits total) is designed for students who want to pursue a critical understanding of how media shapes culture and society. Throughout this program, students will question: What are the relations between communication, technology, and power? Eligible courses examine different forms of media (e.g. linguistic, acoustic, journalistic, cinematic, digital) in different contexts and environments and from a range of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives. Topics of study include connections between aesthetics, politics, and economics; publicity, privacy, and networks; and concerns about representation and social justice in intersectional terms of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and more. The requirements consist of four elective courses and one core course, “Contemporary Media Theory” (HMS 440C). Students may declare the minor at any point, and approved courses already taken can be counted.
Minor Coordinator
Paul Haacke
