Film & Media Studies

This course approaches Cinematic Chinatown intersectionally by situating it within cultural, social, political, and economic contexts, and addressing its relationship to racialized capitalism, labor, citizenship, identity, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, disability, inequality, globalization, transnationalism, diaspora, and colonialism, and intertwined with the production, circulation, and utility of Cinematic Chinatown as text, image, sound, space, artifact, technology, and discourse--Chinatown as a commodified sign. Key objectives include the analysis and critical interrogation of the function (social, political, economic, cultural, etc.) of Cinematic Chinatown within varying networks of power relations, the discussion of theoretical frameworks and concepts related to the representations of Chinatown within the field of cultural studies and media studies, a better understanding of the global flow and consumption of images and its effects on a planetary, globalized, transnational scale, and an understanding of how this affects our own imagination of Othered spaces here in Germany.

This course focuses on intersections between Holocaust memory and cinema in the digital age. It discusses films from various countries and decades in relation to present challenges of commemorating the Holocaust in the 21st century and various concepts of cultural and collective memory. The course provides interdisciplinary knowledge in cinema studies, media studies, and memory studies. Students analyze visual culture in relation to social and historical discourses and situate current cinema in context of global memory cultures and digital technologies as well as within the film historical context. Students examine topics including the history of Holocaust cinema and other media representation of the Holocaust, contemporary discourses on Holocaust memory, analyzing films and other visual and digital medias and applying knowledge of narrative and stylistic conventions in order to explore media of memory as social and historiographical mediators in the global age, and using and applying theoretical and empirical concepts of Holocaust memory (including memory conflicts) on popular visual and digital culture.

British cinema is often celebrated for its social realism, yet has made significant and influential contributions to the worlds of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. From the Gothic tradition of Dracula to nightmarish visions of London in 28 DAYS LATER and the spectacular popular fantasies of DOCTOR WHO and HARRY POTTER, this course investigates this alternative history or "repressed underside" of British cinema and the ways in which these films have responded to their social and cultural production contexts. This course includes field trips to sites of importance in London, such as Highgate Cemetery.