Film & Media Studies

CIEE supports qualified students who wish to pursue an academically rigorous independent research project while abroad. In order to enroll, students must submit a research proposal including a clearly defined research topic,
explanation of research plans, description of preparation in the planned area of study, list of resources, tentative outline of a final paper, and suggested schedule of progress. Students complete a total of 100-120 hours of
research and meet regularly with an advisor to complete an academically rigorous, ethically sound, and culturally appropriate research project and final research paper. Approval for participation in Directed Independent Research
must be obtained from CIEE and the student's home institution prior to arrival on the program.

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

This course covers historical and thematic aspects of popular culture studies by raising some essential questions via a deep dive into a significant popular culture sphere: popular film.  

This is a “one-film-course" centering uponThe Greatest Showman, 2017, through which ten important themes of popular culture studies are critically examined: Being popular (History); Showman (Producer); Freak (Genre;) Fake (Authenticity); Dream (Consumption); Material (Infrastructure); Conflict (Humans); Class (Relations); Diversity (Community); and Happiness (Future). 

This course examines the pressures of technological change on contemporary media institutions and communications practices. Students will be introduced to key debates about media convergence, the relationship between technological change and media practices, and the shift from mass communication to networked communication. A range of case studies drawn from different media sectors including photography, the music industry, television, cinema, and the Internet will be complemented by examination of emerging practices such as video games, digital art and surveillance.

This course examines America's 'dream factory' as profit-oriented industry, mass entertainment, and cinematic art form. It covers key historical developments including the star system, Production Code censorship, New Hollywood, and the franchise film.

This course examines knowledge of industry standard tools for film production. Students will apply techniques, creative approaches, and methodologies to the production of a short film project.

This course provides fundamental knowledge of media history in Japan and Asia from the late 19th century to the early 21st century, discussing the historical process of the transformation of relations between media, governments and peoples. The focus is to promote historical understanding and analysis of media development with influences in political process.

This course examines key trends and changes in contemporary television drama. This includes the exploration of different genres and narrative forms, along with the impact of new styles and technologies in changing industrial contexts, to include both broadcast and streamed services. The course also explores broader theoretical ways of understanding contemporary television, such as its relation to modernity and the nation state, globalization, and the place of television in contemporary culture. Although much of the emphasis is on English language television, students are invited to explore comparative examples from other countries and cultures in the context of developing a specific area of focus for a case study.

The course introduces a special segment of popular culture in a historical context: the impact of the Cold War on science fiction film. It also considers how, as media technology developed between 1945-1990, nuclear threat, the arms race, and space race also inspired film and television directors to tell stories about a potential future. The course covers great movies born inside the Western and Eastern block, and discusses the different periods of Cold War (Thaw, Détente, etc.) thematized science fiction.

This course examines the hybrid and diverse nature of the British cinema since the advent of the British New Wave in the early 1960s. Students explore a number of key themes in the British cinema's long post-war quest for a sustainable model of film-making: the tensions between the local and the international; the consistent struggle between art and entertainment; and the recurring pattern of "boom and bust" in British production. Central to the examination of British cinema since 1960, however, is a focus on the social, political, and cultural contexts of British cinema, and the ways in which British cinema, and British culture, has been marked (and transformed) by the British Empire and its legacies.