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Media Studies is an intercollegiate major offered jointly by Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona and Scripps Colleges. The major requires the completion of 11 courses, with a concentration in Film/Video, Digital/Electronic Media, or Critical Studies. All Media Studies majors will complete courses in the following areas. Courses listed as fulfilling each requirement are subject to change, and other courses may be counted toward those requirements with the consent of the Media Studies curriculum committee.
- MS 49 PZ, PO, SC: Introduction to Media Studies
- MS 50 HM, PZ, PO or LIT 130 CM: Intro to Film
- MS 51 PO: Introduction to Digital Media Studies
- ART 20 PO: Black and White Photography
- ART 21 PO: Foundations of 2D Design
- ART 116 SC: Intro to Digital Photo
- ART 141 SC: Intro to Digital Art
- ART 145 SC: Intro to Black and White Photography or Intro to B&W Darkroom Photo
- ART 148 SC, LIT 30 SC, MS 82 PZ, or MS 182 HM: Intro to Video Art
- MS 38 SC: Machine Learning for Artists
- MS 53 SC: Intro to Computational Media
- MS 55 PZ: Digital Storytelling
- MS 57 SC: Intro to Game Design
- MS 58 PZ: Intro Digital Sound Production
- MS 59 SC: Intro to Python and Viz (formerly Alt Comp Sci: Analogs/Algorithms)
- MS 60 PZ; Algorithmic Art (formerly Creative Coding)
- MS 159 SC: Fundamentals of Computational Photography (formerly Computational Photography I)
- LIT 131 CM: Film History I (1925-1965)
- LIT 132 CM: Film History II (1965-Present)
- LIT 134 CM: Special Studies in Film - Orson Welles and Modern Film
- LIT 134 CM: Special Studies in Film - Spy Films
- LIT 134 CM: Special Studies in Film - Horror
- LIT 135 CM: Alfred Hitchcock
- LIT 136 CM: American Film Genres - The Hollywood Western
- MCSI PZ: Apologies and Restitutions
- MS 45 PZ: Documentary Media
- MS 70 PZ: Media and Social Change
- MS 71 PO: Conspiracy and Media
- MS 73 PZ/PO: Capitalism, Technology & Race
- MS 79 PZ: Silent Film
- MS 88 PZ: Mexican Visual Cultures
- MS 89D PO: Popular Cultures and Audiences
- MS 90 PZ: Ecodocumentary
- MS 91 PO: History of American Broadcasting
- MS 92 PO: Principles of Television Study
- MS 97 PZ: Contemporary US Media (formerly American Media in Trump Era)
- MS 98 PZ: Media of the Middle East
- MS 100 PZ: Asian Americans in Media
- MS 101 PZ: Asian American Media in Communities
- MS 111 PZ: Perspectives on Photography
- MS 114 PZ: Film Sound
- MS 117 PZ: Celebrity Culture (formerly Fan Culture and Celebrity)
- MS 120 PO: Disability and Media
- MS 120 PZ: Social/Media
- MS 121 PZ: Cultural Politics of Self Care
- MS 123 PZ: Embodying Identity in Practice
- MS 124 PZ/PO: Self-Representation of Islam and the Middle East in US Media
- MS 125 PO: Critical Game Studies
- MS 153 PO: The Original Television Series
- MS 140 PO: Screening Violence
- MS 148F PO: Global Cinema
- MS 165 PO: Black Popular Culture
- MS 172 HM: Third Cinema
- MS 173 HM: Exile in Cinema
- MS 174 PO: Film Noir
- MS 175 PO: "Horror" and The American Horror
- AFRI 144A PO: Black Women, Feminism, and the Arts
- ARHI 141A PO: (Re)present Africa:Art, History, Film
- ARHI 144B PO: Daughters Africa Art Cinema Love
- ARHI 178 PO: Black Aesthetics/Political (Re)presentation
- ARHI 186L PO: Critical Race Theory/Representation
- ARHI 186W: Interrogating Whiteness: Race, Sex, Representation
- ART 181G: Abjection, Beauty, and Difference (formerly Beauty & Abject: Race/Gender/Art)
- ART 181M SC: Feminist Concepts & Strategies
- LIT 84 CM: Lyric Voice in Modern American Literature and Film
- LIT 138 CM: Film and Mass Culture
- LIT 139 CM : Film Theory
- MS 70 PZ: Media and Social Change
- MS 71 PO: Conspiracy and Media
- MS 74 PZ: Sound Theory, Sound Practice
- MS 90 PZ: Ecodocumentary
- MS 92 PO: Principles of Television Study
- MS 107 PZ: Sound and Power
- MS 111 PZ: Perspectives on Photography
- MS 112 PZ: Anthropology of Media
- MS 117 PZ: Celebrity Culture (formerly Fan Culture and Celebrity)
- MS 120 HM: Animal Media Studies
- MS 120 PO: Disability and Media
- MS 120 PZ: Social/Media
- MS 120 SC: Video Games & Media Discourse
- MS 121 PZ: Cultural Politics of Self Care
- MS 123 PZ: Embodying Identity in Practice
- MS 123-JT: Body Media
- MS 124 PZ/PO: Self-Representation of Islam and the Middle East in US Media
- MS 125 PO: Critical Game Studies
- MS 131 PO: The “Two” in Media
- MS 132 SC: Theories of Interaction
- MS 138 SC: Media and the Environment
- MS 140 PO: Screening Violence
- MS 141 PO: Cinema, Sensation, and the Body
- MS 142 PO: Queer Visions, Queer Theory
- MS 146 PO: Temperature of the Moving Image
- MS 148D: Powers of Pleasure
- MS 148F PO: Global Cinema
- MS 148G PO: Film Theory
- MS 149G PO: Theory & Aesthetics -Television
- MS 149T PO: Seminar: Critical Studies - Core Theories in Media Studies
- MS 150 PO: Seriality
- MS 171 PO: AI: Humans and Machines
- MS 172 HM: Third Cinema
- MS 173 HM: Exile in Cinema
- MS 179G HM: Dead Media/Special Topics in Media Studies
Students must take two courses in their chosen area of concentration. Media Studies offers
concentrations in the following 3 areas:
- Film/Video
- Digital/Electronic Media
- Critical Studies
- Major Declaration Form-Film & Video
- One intermediate or advanced film/video production class.
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- ART 149 SC: Intermediate Video Art
- MS 45 PZ: Documentary Media
- MS 48 PZ: (Digital) Media Ethnography
- MS 74 PZ: Sound Theory, Sound Practice
- MS 87 PZ: Media Sketchbook
- MS 90 PZ: Ecodocumentary
- MS 93 PZ: Experimental Media Studio
- MS 99 PZ: Advanced Editing
- MS 170 HM: Digital Cinema: Experimental Animation
- MS 175 PZ: Animation as Voice
- MS 194 PZ: Media Arts for Social Justice
- One additional course in media history, as listed above.
- Major Declaration Form Digital/Electronic Media
- One Intermediate/Advanced Production course
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- ART 134 SC: Traditional and Digital Printmaking (formerly Between Analog+Digital Printmaking)
- ART 142 SC: Intermediate Digital Art
- ART 143 SC: Advanced Digital Art
- ART 147 SC: Intermediate/Advanced Digital Photography
- MS 48 PZ: (Digital) Media Ethnography
- MS 54 SC: Intermediate Computational Media
- MS 74 PZ: Sound Theory, Sound Practice
- MS 93 PZ: Experimental Media Studio
- MS 130 SC: New Media Research Studio
- MS 131 SC: Interactive Narrative Design
- MS 152 SC: Navigating Digital Communities
- MS 160 SC: Computational Photography II
- MS 170 HM: Digital Cinema: Experimental Animation
- MS 175 PZ: Animation as Voice
- One 20th/21st Century Art History Course
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- Modern Latinx American Art
- US Mexico Border Art
- The Arts of Africa
- Land, Art
- Modern Architecture in LA
- Seminar in 20th Century Art
- Interrogating Whiteness
- Old New Media
- Four appropriate electives, drawn from the list of all approved courses that follows (note that Pitzer MS majors must select MS 194 PZ, Media Arts for Social Justice, or MS 196 PZ, Media Internship, as one of their electives).
- Major Declaration Form Critical Studies
- One additional media theory course, as listed above. One of the two required media theory courses must be MS 147 PO, MS 148 PO, or MS 149 PO.
- One additional course in media history, as listed above.
- Four appropriate electives, drawn from the list of all approved courses that follows (note that Pitzer MS majors must select MS 194 PZ, Media Arts for Social Justice, or MS 196 PZ, Media Internship, as one of their electives).
Media Studies Senior Seminar Project Proposal Form
The senior exercise consists of a topical senior seminar jointly taught during the fall semester by faculty from each of the concentrations. This seminar asks students to bring together them various aspects of their course of study, producing an appropriate culminating seminar project that demonstrates their command of the fields and the forms of critical and creative practice that they have studied. During this seminar, all senior Media Studies majors will be given the option to develop a proposal for a second-semester Senior Project. These proposals will be reviewed by the Media Studies faculty, and selected students will go on to complete an independent project under the supervision of two members of the Media Studies faculty or appropriate affiliated faculty members from the Claremont Colleges. The Senior Project course will count toward the four electives required for the major.
All students must take four appropriate electives, drawn from the list of all approved courses listed on the Courses page.
Note: Pitzer MS majors must select MS 194 PZ: Media Arts for Social Justice or MS 196 PZ: Media Internship, as one of their electives.