Cinema and Cultural Studies (CCS)
Administered by the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, the major in Cinema and Cultural Studies (CCS) locates cinema within an intricate social, historical, technological, and cultural matrix of audio-visual forms and practices. Using a cultural studies approach to cinema and its related media, the major is designed to investigate the cultural mechanisms through which a society’s ways of knowing, value systems, and collective identities are generated, disseminated, challenged, and reinvented. Throughout their study, students develop "media literacy,” where they learn to track the circulation, use, and formal qualities of print, television, video and digital media. The major's core courses promote strong writing and critical thinking skills so that students can use their knowledge of cinema and culture in their advanced study at the upper-division level. Our goal is to produce critical and self-critical readers prepared to actively participate in the intellectual conversations and social struggles that shape cinema and culture in our time.