Film & Media Studies

This course closely examines several Taiwanese films from the past two decades, and through them, discovers what prominent phenomena and changes have been taking place in Taiwan's social culture. Taiwanese films present themselves as various attempts to make conversations with the world that we call Taiwan and live in. This course explores and reflects on Taiwanese social culture by not just watching but also reading Taiwanese films. The course intends for the students to familiarize themselves with Taiwanese history in the recent past, crucial events, contemporary social issues as well as cultural conditions. Through this course students expect to understand the social development vis-a-vis cinema in Taiwan. Students look closely at the emergence of Taiwan New Cinema in the 1980s as well as the socio-political and -cultural contexts in which it emerged. This course moves on to discuss various subject matters and social trends in Taiwan from the 1990s on; students also look at the films produced in Taiwan in relation to those matters and trends.

This course guides students through the history of Italian film, from its beginnings to the present day, using films shot in the Eternal City which has captured the minds of filmmakers for over a century. The course reviews the main currents and genres, from silent film to the “white telephone” films, from Neorealism to the Commedia all’italiana, from the great directors such as Roberto Rossellini, Mario Monicelli, Ettore Scola, Nanni Moretti, Cristina Comencini, and Paolo Sorrentino. Students watch these self-representations of Italians and their capital city to deepen their understanding of Italy and Italians, how they presented themselves to the world, what they were really like, and what they aspired to be. The lens of cinema allows students to understand the shifting cultural identity of Italy over the years, on both the local and global stage. Students experience the “Hollywood on the Tiber” first-hand by visiting the famous places where the films assigned to the course were made. Students participate on a special excursion to Rome’s world-famous Cinecittà studio, where some of the most famous films have been made by both national and international directors like Federico Fellini, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, William Wyler, and Wes Anderson.

In this course, students study London's history and culture through visits, tours, talks, walks, screenings, and events. The scope of the study is by period and locale with directed and self-directed study, so students are able to follow their own interests; history, politics, music, fashion, cinema, art, or literature. This is a summer course for those who want to learn about London by seeing and experiencing it. The teaching focuses research skills and practical skills in photography and writing through practice-based workshops in photography, journalism, and creative writing

This course introduces the superhero as an aspect of academic film study. Each lecture focuses on specific sub-topic of the genre, introducing key concepts, central themes and ideas in context of the primary readings and screenings. These include, but are not limited to, race, gender, and sexual orientation, the mythological and the historical superhero, the anti-hero and the wannabe, the rogue and the villain, and cultural, political, and historical connections.