Film & Media Studies

This course uses postwar Japanese films and animation (anime) as the principal texts and investigates their relationship with contemporary Japanese culture, society and politics. The course introduces the various genre and representative film and anime, together with specific critical writings on these works. The focus is on the relationship between the films and the audience, the impact of the dominance of films and anime in present day Japan and worldwide, and the various social and cultural issues such as violence and globalization that are closely related to the movie industry.

How has the media been incorporated into our experiences of place and culture? How do we understand our media consumption, and our dwelling and travelling experiences, and how would such an understanding help us make sense of the increasingly globalizing world in which we live?  

This course explores the role the media play in deterritorialized, global and multicultural contexts. It first introduces two key approaches to media globalization, cultural imperialism paradigm and cultural globalization thesis, and considers how the production, circulation and consumption of global entertainment media have shaped the ways we understand both domestic and foreign cultures. It then examines a range of contemporary cultural phenomena such as cultural migrants, diaspora, media representation of minority, etc. and considers how such phenomena are concerned with critical issues in relation to globalization, identity formation and the shaping of our sense of place. 
 
A range of media texts (e.g. movies, television programs) will serve as exemplars to be analyzed in the lecture and discussion, in order to help students grasp the key concepts of relevant theories. 

Since the Covid19 pandemic and in the context of climate change, slogans such as “follow the science” or appeals to “trust science” have become ubiquitous. In fact, for modern societies, science and scientists are probably the last remaining unquestioned authorities; when we need guidance, we turn to scientific experts and trust that they will give us solid advice. However, this is a relatively new development; during the time of the ascent of the sciences, from the 18th through to the mid-20th centuries, new discoveries and inventions in the sciences as well as the scientists and inventors themselves were met with fear, skepticism or suspicion. One powerful expression of this attitude of societies towards the sciences can be found in popular works of fiction: we still use the names of fictional characters such as Faust, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll or Dr Strangelove to characterize mad, evil or amoral scientists as well as dangerous scientific and/ or technological developments. Program: In this course, we will examine the development of literary / cultural imaginations of science and scientists, looking at key texts as well as key developments in the sciences: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, galvanism and the creation of life; Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde: experimental drugs and the split personality; H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr Moreau: Vivisection and genetics; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World: eugenics, genetic engineering and chemistry; the figure of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, in post-war reality and fiction, and, finally, the benevolent scientific research on climate change as presented in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Green Earth trilogy. Based on extracts from the texts and on academic texts which contextualize and analyze the topics, discussions in class will take literature as a point of departure for a more fundamental examination of the connection between science and society.

This course offers an introduction to the historical film genre by examining American, British, European, and Japanese films made during the past 20 years. It considers the debates surrounding the representation of history on film, and the influence and impact that historical films have on the public imagination and understanding of history. Students explore the aesthetic pleasures that historical films offer to audiences, as well as the wider public discussion and debate that historical films provoke among scholars, critics, and journalists in print and online. 

The course explores how the regional Catalan cinema (Catalan language productions), which encounters a disadvantage in the broader market dominated by Spanish-speaking audiovisuals, achieves distinctiveness, with a focus on the representation of women, social inequality, diverse minorities, and sustainability. Emphasizing the intersection of these issues, the course delves into the complexities of current Catalan social struggles on and off the screen. The course is divided into lectures, screenings, readings, discussions, group presentations, creative work in groups and field trips to filming locations and Catalan production firms.

This course focuses on skills to design and execute communication plans using social media. It explores the social, political, and economic impact of social media on public relations and strategic communication. It also discusses how social media, as part of the internet, affects private companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and people's daily lives.

This is a sequential course of FILM & MEDIA STUDIES 10A. 

Through movies and other visual materials, this course examines important issues in modern society from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Each lecture features guest speakers who work in the field of making films, videos, and broadcasting. The course reviews specific production methods and a future vision of movies in class discussions. 

The media landscape and associated industries are in a constant state of evolvement, repeatedly undergoing transformations in their manner of production and positioning within social and thus market contexts. These dynamic processes of change within the broader field of media products and services are often intertwined with and conditioned by associated innovations in the enabling and underlying technological frameworks employed to produce, distribute and consume them. Innovations in communication technology thus also entail an impact on individual, social and psychological aspects of modern life. While this impact has long been influential, pressures of digitization and digital transformation have been making the need for a scholarly assessment of aforementioned processes ever more apparent. In this seminar we will thus explore current research and theory aiming to shed light on the intricacies of such developments, getting to know different dimensions of innovation and connecting them to practical examples of how these processes take shape within the wider media landscape. The course thus offers a rather broad perspective on what characterizes media innovation, how it develops, and what structural conditions facilitate and shape it.
 

This  course explores the theoretical and practical intersections of filmmaking, social impact, and activism in international relations. It does so with a core focus on how filmmaking has been used to explore phenomena related to humanitarian issues globally, especially those linked to contexts of conflict, migration, and violence. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, the course delves into the rich scholarship of visuality across the social sciences, introducing that work both theoretically and practically in three main ways. First, the course engages with critical interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of visual media within contexts of violence through theoretical literature and audio-visual material. Second, it explores practical skills in visual research methodologies. As such, in this section of the course, students develop a short filmmaking project of their own. Workshop-format sessions are offered to develop the skills necessary to achieve this. Thematically, the course explores how filmmaking can illuminate questions concerning violence, humanitarianism, conflict, and migration in ways that connect local (i.e., Copenhagen) and global contexts. In addition, guest lectures inspire and connect students to experts in the field. Finally, the course reflects on broader questions, debates, and dilemmas that concern the use of filmmaking for social impact, activism, and/or political intervention. This ranges from the critical examination of storytelling techniques, ethical considerations, and the influence of the filmmakers situated gaze (i.e., positionality) on crafting visual narratives. The course engages these issues by collaboratively reflecting on the filmmaking project that each student develops in the preceding section of the course. Overall, this course provides a nuanced understanding of the transformative potential of filmmaking, alongside tools to navigate the many ethical challenges intrinsic to visual research.