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Catalogue 2019-2020 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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Film: II. Intermediate |
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FILM 214 - Genre: The War Film
1 unit(s)
An examination of how American films have represented World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War and the Gulf Wars. Films chosen include both those made while the conflicts rages (Bataan, 1942), and those made many years later (Saving Private Ryan, 1998, and Three Kings, 1999). This class focuses on such issues as: propaganda and patriotism, pacifism and sensationalism, the reliance on genre conventions and the role of changing film technologies. For comparison, we look also at documentaries, television, “home front” stories at war-time poetry, posters, and music. Reading assignments cover topics such as the government’s Office of War Information, the influence of John Wayne, the racism of the Vietnam films, the ways in which the Iraq war movies have been influenced by the genre. Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 210 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 216 - Genre: Romantic Comedy Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This class studies the genre of romantic comedy in American film from the “screwball comedies” of the 1930s (It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby) to the resurgence of the genre in the 1990s and the 21st century. The course focuses on the work of major stars such as Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Meg Ryan, as well as the contribution of such directors as Ernst Lubitsch, George Cukor, Preston Sturges, Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, or Nora Ephron. We place these films in the context of other representations of romance—such as Shakespeare’s comedies—and in the context of the changes in American culture, particularly in the role of women. Readings lead students to a deeper understanding of the history of American film, genre, and the star system. Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 217 - Video Art Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 217 ) Video continues to document, illuminate, and instruct our lives daily. New channels of accessibility have opened it to a broad range of alternative practices, always in relation to its online or televised utility. In this studio, students make videos to better understand the affects and formal potential of video as an opportunity for critique. Technical experimentation covers the major tools of video production and post-production. Workshops examine set, keying, montage, sound, pacing, composition, and the cut. Regular assignments address a range of structural problems, at once conceptual and plastic (topics include the question of the subject, politics of visibility, satire, abjection, abstraction, psychedelia, performance and humiliation). Work by artists who have harnessed or perverted video’s components is screened bi-weekly. Abigail Gunnels.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 218 - Genre: The Western Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course offers an historical and cultural exploration of the Western film genre. There is emphasis on the relationship between the Western and the central myths of the American experience. The changing nature of masculinity, the representation of violence, and the roles designated to women are addressed. The course examines Westerns directed by filmmakers D. W. Griffith, John Ford, Howard Hawks, George Stevens, John Huston, Fred Zinnemann, Sidney Poitier, Sam Peckinpah, and Clint Eastwood. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 220 - Chinese Film and Contemporary Fiction
1 unit(s)
(Same as CHIN 220 ) An introduction to Chinese film through its adaptations of contemporary stories. Focus is on internationally well-known films by the fifth and sixth generation of directors since the late 1980s. Early Chinese films from the 1930s to the 1970s are also included in the screenings. The format of the course is to read a series of stories in English translations and to view their respective cinematic versions. The discussions concentrate on cultural and social aspects as well as on comparison of themes and viewpoints in the two genres. The interrelations between texts and visual images are also explored. Wenwei Du.
Prerequisite(s): One course in language, literature, culture, film, drama, or Asian Studies, or permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 222 - Curating Microcinemas Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
The course meets for a total of six weeks, two weeks in the first third of the semester, and the final four weeks of the semester. In this intensive component, students learn about microcinemas, a key exhibition site in contemporary American avant-garde film, and then develop and program their own at an off-campus site. Students have the responsibility of selecting, pitching, and securing the titles to be screened, developing the space, performing audience outreach, composing program notes, and introducing the films at the screening. The intensive component is configured as one hour of additional in-class workshop and consultations plus three hours of independent research, outreach, and pitching during the initial two weeks of the intensive. During the last four weeks, the intensive is configured as half-hour small-group check-ins with the professor every week, as well as independent, out-of-class work to financially and logistically assemble the microcinema, finalize programming, publicize the screening, and produce the program. Erica Stein.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 .
Corequisite(s): FILM 221 .
Required for students enrolled in FILM 221 American Avant-Garde Film .
Course Format: INT
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FILM 231 - Minorities in the Media
1 unit(s)
This course examines the dynamics of race, class, gender and sexuality as they are represented in American society. Throughout the semester, we analyze films, television programs, videos and advertisements, as well as other mediated discourse, to assess the way categories of “minority” identity have been constructed in mainstream society. In addition to examining images of those persons collective known as “minorities,” we consider the representation of those defined as “majority” Americans. In addition to scholarship by black British cultural theorists, African American scholars, critical race theorists and sociologists, this course enlists scholarship from the growing field of whiteness studies. Issues and topics may include “model minorities” (Henry Louis Gates, Jennifer Lopez, Rahm Emmanuel, Tiger Woods, Ellen DeGeneres, The Williams Sisters, Barack Obama), global advertising, racial profiling, police brutality (Rodney King, Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell), Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice), the Proposition 209 conflict, the WNBA, gay marriage, Islamaphobia, and the representation of the Middle East. Readings, screenings and papers required. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 232 - African American Cinema
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 232 ) This course provides a survey of the history and theory of African American representation in cinema. It begins with the silent films of Oscar Micheaux and examines early Black cast westerns (Harlem Rides the Range, The Bronze Buckaroo, Harlem on the Prairie) and musicals (St. Louis Blues, Black and Tan, Hi De Ho, Sweethearts of Rhythm). Political debate circulating around cross over stars (Paul Robeson, Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Eartha Kitt, and Harry Belafonte) are central to the course. Special consideration is given to Blaxploitation cinema of the seventies (Shaft, Coffy, Foxy Brown, Cleopatra Jones) in an attempt to understand its impact on filmmakers and the historical contexts for contemporary filmmaking. The course covers “Los Angeles Rebellion” filmmakers such as Julie Dash, Charles Burnett, and Haile Gerima. Realist cinema of the 80’s and 90’s (Do the Right Thing, Boyz N the Hood, Menace II Society, and Set it off),is examined before the transition to Black romantic comedies, family films, and genre pictures (Coming to America, Love and Basketball, The Best Man, Akeelah and the Bee, 12 Years a Slave, The Great Debaters). Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 210 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 233 - The McCarthy Era and Film
1 unit(s)
This class focuses both on the history of anti-communist involvement with the American film industry and on the reflection of this troubled era in post-war films. We trace the factors that led to The House on Un-American Activities Committee’s investigation of communist influence in Hollywood, the case of the Hollywood Ten, the operation of the blacklist and its final demise at the end of the 1950s. We look at films overtly taking sides in this ideological conflict, such as the anti-Communist I Was a Communist for the FBI and the pro-labor Salt of the Earth, as well as the indirect allegories in film noirs and science fiction. Reading assignments are drawn from a wide range of sources, including HUAC transcripts, government documents, production histories, and genre studies. The course concludes with a look at how more contemporary films such as Good Night and Good Luck have sought to frame our understanding of this era. Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 210 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 238 - Music in Film
1 unit(s)
(Same as MUSI 238 ) A study of music in sound cinema from the 1920s to the present. The course focuses on the expressive, formal, and semiotic functions that film music serves, either as sound experienced by the protagonists, or as another layer of commentary to be heard only by the viewer, or some mixture of the two. Composers studied include Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman and others as well as film scores that rely upon a range of musical resources including classical, popular, and non-Western music. Specific topics to be considered this semester include music in film noir and the movie musical. Brian Mann.
Prerequisite(s): One course in Music (not performance) or Film.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 240 - Sculpting Images in Time Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course introduces students to the basic concepts and skills involved in digital film production such as camerawork and video editing. We begin with the image, exploring in great detail its formal qualities: composition, light, color, movement, mise-en-scène, juxtapositions and temporal dimensions. Sound is introduced as a way to complicate the image – first as sound design and finally as dialogue. Denise Iris.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite(s): FILM 209 can be taken concurrently.
One 3-hour period; additional lab time required.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 241 - Sound and Sight Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The course introduces students to basic concepts and skills involved in film production but inverts the usual priority granted to the visual over the aural in film: here we focus on sound as the generative kernel behind a cinematic work. The course explores how sound can function as the driving force of story, character, and world-building, and the moving image is introduced as a way to extend the expressive possibilities of sound.
Shane Slattery-Quintanilla.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite(s): FILM 209 can be taken concurrently.
One 3-hour period; additional lab time required.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 254 - Emotional Engagement with Film Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as MEDS 254 and PSYC 254 ) While movies engage our emotions in psychologically significant ways, scholarship on the psychological allure and impact of film has existed primarily at the interdisciplinary margins. This course aims to bring such scholarship into the foreground. We begin with a careful examination of the appeal and power of narrative, as well as processes of identification and imagined intimacy with characters, before taking a closer analytical look at specific film genres (e.g., melodrama, horror, comedy, action, social commentary) both in their own right and in terms of their psychological significance (e.g., why do we enjoy sad movies? How do violent movies influence viewer aggression? How might socially conscious films inspire activism or altruism?) In addition to delving into theoretical and empirical papers, a secondary goal of the course is to engage students as collaborators; brainstorm and propose innovative experimental methods for testing research questions and hypotheses that emerge in step with course materials. Dara Greenwood.
Prerequisite(s): For Psychology majors - PSYC 105 ; for Film majors - FILM 175 or FILM 209 ; for Media Studies majors - MEDS 160 .
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 255 - Four Italian Filmmakers (in English)
1 unit(s)
(Same as ITAL 255 ) Close analysis of the narrative and visual styles of Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Gianni Amelio and Nanni Moretti, in the context of post-war Italian cinema and culture. Theoretical literature on these directors and on approaches to the interpretation of film-such as psychoanalytic film theory, feminist theory, deconstruction, and post-colonial analyses of dominant discourses-aid us in addressing questions of style and of political and social significance. Cinematic interpretive skills are developed through visual and linguistic exercises, group projects, and film-making. Conducted in English. Rodica Blumenfeld.
Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. May be counted towards the Italian major.
Two 75-minute periods and two film screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 256 - American Television History Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as MEDS 256 ) This course surveys the history of television in the United States from the 1940s to the present. It examines the social and industrial significance of television and its impact on issues such as class, race, gender, consumerism, and national identity. We investigate changes in televisual aesthetics and narrative paradigms and the ways that television responded to significant cultural, political and technological changes in American society. Throughout the semester we draw upon a range of critical frameworks including media industry studies, genre theory, and celebrity studies as we address topics such as the attempts to develop alternate models of broadcasting, networks’ efforts to bolster television’s cultural status, media convergence, and the formal characteristics of different television genres. Screenings include I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Orange is the New Black. Alex Kupfer.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 for students registering for FILM 256. MEDS 160 for students registering for MEDS 256.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 260 - Documentary: History and Aesthetics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course explores the history, theory, and aesthetics of documentary cinema from its emergence to the present day. We examine the ways that cultural, political and technological factors have shaped the development of non-fiction film. In addition, the interrelationships between documentary and narrative cinema as well as other media including photography, comic books, and television are considered. The class places documentary in its broader contexts to include forms such as sponsored, experimental, scientific, and amateur films. Throughout the semester, students read primary historical sources along with scholarly approaches to the development, uses, and meanings of documentary cinema. Screenings include films by Michael Moore, George Stoney, Robert Drew, Agnes Varda, Chick Strand, Errol Morris, and many others. Alexander Kupfer.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 266 - Genre: Asian Horror Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 266 ) This course examines contemporary Asian horror. Using a variety of critical perspectives, we deconstruct the pantheon of vampires, monsters, ghosts, and vampire ghosts inhabiting such diverse regions as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines to explore constructions of national/cultural identity, gender, race, class, and sexuality. We ground these observations within a discussion of the nature of horror and the implications of horror as a trans/national genre. Sophia Harvey.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 283 - Fandom and Sports Media Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as MEDS 283 ) This course examines the historical and cultural development of sports media in the United States. It explores the definitions of sports media as a generic and industrial label and the transformation of audiences into fan communities. Throughout the semester, we examine how producers, leagues, and fans have used media to engage with cultural, political and technological changes in American society. We also consider more recent forms of cultural production and participation that engage the varied social practices associated with fandom. Special attention is paid to the connections between media consumption and performances of identity and community. The course places sports media in a broader industrial context that will include forms such as sponsored, experimental, amateur, and documentary films and television series. Screenings include Moneyball, Senna, Jim Thorpe All-American, Hoop Dreams, Raging Bull, The Jackie Robinson Story, and O.J.: Made in America. Since this course focuses on the relationship between media and fandom, students do not need to have any knowledge of sports to enroll. This course is not open to first-year students. Alexander Kupfer.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 or MEDS 160 .
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 284 - The Liberation Arts Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
What does it really mean to be free? Does one need to learn it? If so, how? In this intensive we reimagine the liberal arts as the arts of liberation: over the course of the semester, various students, staff, faculty, and guests will introduce us to the creative practices that best serve them in their pursuit of freedom, however they choose (or refuse) to define it. In addition to participating in the workshops, students play a role in documenting, through sound, image, and text, the various perspectives and practices we encounter. This documentation culminates in a final collaborative process of weaving these audiovisual materials into a work of art that reflects upon our shared experiences and discoveries. This intensive foregrounds experiential, interdisciplinary, and non-hierarchical collaborative practices. Shane Slattery-Quintanilla.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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FILM 285 - Fragile Presence: The Ultra Short Film as a Diaristic Practice Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
Can we use filmmaking to cultivate attentiveness and a playful sense of presence in everyday life? What does it mean to have a cinematic practice, a laboratory of ongoing audiovisual exploration? In this intensive, we search for the poetry, whimsy and depth of meaning in the daily unfolding of our outer and inner lives. Experimenting with different approaches that blur the boundaries between documentary and fiction, students create six 1 min. films in six weeks. This intensive replaces classroom instruction, discussion, and viewing of film clips with site-specific shooting and improvisational editing experiences. We meet at various locations around campus and vicinity for hands-on exercises based on weekly prompts. Outside meeting times, students shoot and edit on their own and respond to their classmates’ work on a Moodle forum.
Priority given to students with some shooting and editing experience. Denise Iris.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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FILM 287 - Music in Classic French Cinema: 1930-1960 Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as MUSI 287 ) The scholarly study of film music is a burgeoning topic. And yet a bias towards more recent film scores, taken together with Hollywood’s overwhelming influence, has tended to overshadow the accomplishments of European composers. This course examines a number of French films whose reputations rest in no small measure on their scores. We begin with an introduction to the terminology of film music studies, and then proceed to the works themselves, examining in detail the various uses to which music is put. Musical literacy is not required. Brian Mann.
Prerequisite(s): One course in either Music or Film Studies.
First six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 289 - The Functions of Film Music Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as MUSI 289 ) This course examines the functions of film music. We begin with musical style and then move on to examine how music contributes its function to each aspect of film: rhythmic pacing, action and dialogue underscoring, building suspense, shaping the dramatic sequence, and so forth.
Prerequisite(s): One college-level course in either Music or Film is strongly recommended.
First six-week course.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
To be elected in consultation with the adviser.
Course Format: OTH
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FILM 381 - The Essay Film Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The term “essay” evolved out of its verb forms meaning “to try” and “to test.” What we call the essay film carries on this tradition of foregrounding the searching quality of human consciousness, the way that meaning can often emerge organically out of more open and meandering forms and strategies than those we typically associate with narrative or rhetoric. In this course we explore these strategies through practice-based exercises leading up to the creation of an original short essay film. Shane Slattery-Quintanilla.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period; additional lab time required.
Course Format: CLS
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Film: III. Advanced |
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FILM 300 - Film Research Thesis Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
An academic thesis in film history or theory, written under the supervision of a member of the department. Since writing a thesis during fall semester is preferable, film majors should talk to their advisers spring of junior year. In Film, a research thesis is recommended, especially for those students not writing a Screenplay Thesis or enrolled in Documentary workshop, but it is not required. Members of the department.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 210 /FILM 211 , two additional courses in film history and theory, and permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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FILM 301 - Film Screenplay Thesis Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
The creation of a feature-length original screenplay. Open only to students electing the concentration in film. Senior status required. Students wishing to write a screenplay instead of a research thesis must have produced work of distinction in FILM 317 (Intro to Screenwriting) and FILM 319 (Screenwriting). The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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FILM 310 - Film Authorship
1 unit(s)
This course examines the complications of authorship in film by analyzing various competing theoretical models. Then it tests these models against the work on an auteur. Students are expected to attend screenings, conduct independent research, and keep up with wide variety of historical and theoretical readings. Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 210 and FILM 211 .
Note that this class does not replace the major requirement of FILM 392 .
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 325 - Writing the Short Film Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
A screenwriting course that explores and celebrates the possibilities of the short form, not simply as subordinate or preliminary to the work of feature filmmaking, but as its own vital approach to the moving arts.
Those wishing to take FILM 327 are strongly encouraged to take FILM 325.
Denise Iris.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor. This course is closed to Film correlates.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 326 - Senior Project: Non-Fiction Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Students create short nonfiction films, from concept to final delivery. Participants offer reciprocal support of their peers’ projects by filling crew positions. Students wishing to enroll in the course must submit a project proposal in the preceding semester.
The Department.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor. Strong preference given to students who have completed FILM-383 Cinema Modes. This course is closed to Film correlates.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 327 - Senior Project: Fiction Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Students create short fiction films, from concept to final delivery. Participants offer reciprocal support of their peers’ projects by filling crew positions. Students wishing to enroll in the course must submit a project proposal in the preceding semester. Those wishing to make narrative films are strongly encouraged to take FILM 325 Writing the Short Film . Denise Iris.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor.
This course is not open to Film correlates.
One 3-hour period.
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FILM 335 - Celebrity and Power: Stardom in Contemporary Culture
1 unit(s)
Celebrity fascinates Americans. It informs popular culture, professional sport and national politics. Yet what defines celebrity? How are stars manufactured by the Culture Industry? Why is the ubiquitous cult of celebrity so important in contemporary Western culture and across global mediascapes? Through classic and contemporary theoretical writings, the course examines stardom and various brands of star charisma. We interrogate conventional forms of celebrity power as well as the conversion of entertainment industry charisma into forms of political charisma and cultural capital (i.e., the careers of Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sidney Poitier, Jennifer Lopez, John Leguizamo, the Brangelina trademark, and Beyonce Knowles). The course will address the rise of reality television celebrities. As intertextual signs, stars reveal the instabilities, ambiguities and contradictions within a given culture. The changing configuration of American society is revealed in an examination of celebrity and stardom as social phenomena. This course transverses from Mary Pickford to Oprah Winfrey and beyond. Readings, screenings and writing assignments required. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 210 , and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 336 - African Cinema: A Continental Survey
1 unit(s)
African national cinemas reflect the rich, complex history of the continent. These films from lands as diverse as Chad, Senegal, and South Africa reveal the various ways filmmakers have challenged the representation of Africa and Africans while simultaneously revising conventional cinematic syntax. This survey course examines the internal gaze of African-born auteurs like Ousmane Sembene (La Noir De, Xala, Mandabi), Djbril Diop Mambety (Hyenes), Desire Ecare (Faces of Women), Manthia Diawara (Conakry Kas), and Mahmat-Saleh Haroun (Bye-Bye Africa). It places these films alongside the external gaze of practitioners Euzan Palcy (A Dry White Season), Jean-Jacques Annaud (Noir et Blancs en Couleur) and Raoul Peck (Lumumba). The films of documentary filmmakers Anne Laure Folly, Ngozi Onwurah and Pratibah Parmaar are also examined. This course utilizes the post-colonial film theory and scholarship of Imruh Bakari, Mbye Cham, Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike and Manthia Diawara. Screenings, readings and papers required. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 210 , and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 337 - Indian National Cinema
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 337 ) This course is designed to introduce students to the dynamic and diverse film traditions of India. It examines how these texts imagine and image the Indian nation and problematizes the “national” through an engagement with regional cinemas within India as well as those produced within the Indian diaspora. Readings are drawn from contemporary film theory, post-colonial theory, and Indian cultural studies. Screenings may include Meghe Dhaka Tara / The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960), Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957), Shatranj Ke Khilari / The Chess Players (Satyajit Ray, 1977), Sholay (Ramesh Sippy, 1975), Bombay (Mani Ratnam, 1995), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham/ Happiness and Tears (Karan Johar, 2001), Bride and Prejudice (Gurinder Chadha, 2004), and Mission Kashmir (Vidhu Vinod Chopra, 2000). Sophia Harvey.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 210 and permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 339 - Contemporary Southeast Asian Cinemas
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 339 ) This survey course is designed to introduce students to the dynamic and diverse film texts emerging from and about Southeast Asia. It examines how these texts imagine and image Southeast Asia and/or particular nations within the region. More specifically, the course focuses on the themes of urban spaces and memory/trauma as they operate within texts about Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Timor-Leste. The course reading material is designed to provide (1) theoretical insights, (2) general socio-cultural and/or political overviews, and (3) more specific analyses of film texts and/or filmmakers. Sophia Harvey.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 175 or FILM 210 and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FILM 379 - Computer Animation: Art, Science and Criticism
1 unit(s)
(Same as ART 379 , CMPU 379 , and MEDS 379 ) An interdisciplinary course in Computer Animation aimed at students with previous experience in Computer Science, Studio Art, or Media Studies. The course introduces students to mathematical and computational principles and techniques for describing the shape, motion and shading of three-dimensional figures in Computer Animation. It introduces students to artistic principles and techniques used in drawing, painting and sculpture, as they are translated into the context of Computer Animation. It also encourages students to critically examine Computer Animation as a medium of communication. Finally, the course exposes students to issues that arise when people from different scholarly cultures attempt to collaborate on a project of mutual interest. The course is structured as a series of animation projects interleaved with screenings and classroom discussions. Thomas Ellman, Harry Roseman.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Two 2-hour periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 380 - Working with Social Actors Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course focuses on the history and practice of collaboration with actors in fiction and non-fiction cinema. By re-considering traditional relationships between director and actor, as well as the difference between the term “subject” and “social actor,” this course focuses on how to navigate the complex relationship between the person behind and the person in front of the camera. In what ways does the filmmaker invite creative input from their social actor? What are different formal approaches to the interview in documentary history, and how might the documentary filmmaker determine their project’s approach? And most importantly, how does the filmmaker account for the inherent performativity of life in seeking out the right approach to their project? We look at the collaborative approach of such filmmakers as (but not limited to): Jean Rouch, The MacDougalls, Shirley Clarke, The Dardenne Brothers, Mike Leigh, Clio Barnard, and many more. Students participate in a series of production exercises that culminate in a final project that draws from the various methods they consider throughout the course. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 and permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 383 - Cinema Modes Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The course exposes students to narrative, documentary, and experimental approaches and explores how these modes mutually inform and fertilize one another. Prepares students for senior-level work as they create one narrative, one documentary, and one experimental film. The course culminates in a final project that can be any of the three modes or hybrid that fruitfully overlaps or evades these categories. Denise Iris.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 240 or FILM 241 and permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 391 - Sensuous Theory Writing Workshop Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
This intensive is attached to FILM 392 . The writing workshop is based upon peer review, works-in-progress presentations, writing accountability groups, in-workshop writing sessions, and end of the semester paper presentations. This intensive meets with the instructor five times throughout the semester. Sophia Harvey.
Corequisite(s): FILM 392 .
Required for students enrolled in FILM 392 Research Seminar in Film History and Theory .
Course Format: INT
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FILM 392 - Research Seminar in Film History and Theory Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
This course is designed as an in-depth exploration of a theoretical topic. Students contribute to the class through research projects and oral presentations. Their work culminates in lengthy research papers. Because topics change, students are permitted (encouraged) to take this course more than once. Preference is given to film majors who must take this class during their senior year; junior majors and others admitted if space permits.
Topic for 2019/20a: Sensuous Theory. This seminar explores the relationship between film and the senses. How can film, an audio-visual medium, represent and engage with the proximal senses of touch, taste, and smell? How might films employ the senses to reconfigure the relationship between the cinema and the spectator? How can these sensuous films articulate senses of belonging, displacement, or exile? The seminar situates our discussions of these questions within discourses of film phenomenology, postmodernism, gender studies, and postcolonialism. Readings may include: Jennifer M. Barker (The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience, 2009), Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener (Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses, 2010), Laura U. Marks (The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment and the Senses, 2000, and Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media, 2002), Hamid Naficy (An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking, 2001), and Vivian Sobchack (Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture, 2004). Film screenings may include: Un Chien Andalou (Luis Bu?uel, 1929), Daisies (Vera Chytilova, 1966), The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974), Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977), Tetsuo, the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989), The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991), Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, 1992), Calendar (Atom Egoyan, 1993), Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995), Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999), Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, 2008), and The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar, 2011). Sophia Harvey.
Topic for 2019/20b: Artist, Auteur: Spike Lee. The son of a musician and a teacher, Shelton Jackson Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Nicknamed “Spike”, he grew up in a household that valued education as well as the arts. With the release of his first feature film, Lee initiated another cinematic revolution. He demonstrated to Hollywood studios that serious contemporary African-American films were not only aesthetically innovative, they were also commercially profitable. His success has created opportunity for other writers, directors, actors and technicians. Over the last twenty years Spike Lee has directed an array of challenging, innovative and provocative features, documentaries and commercials. The themes embedded in his work are often culled from news headlines, making him one of the most politically engaged filmmakers of his generation. This course is a senior seminar in which the films of Lee are rigorously examined. Mia Mask.
Prerequisite(s): FILM 209 ; two additional units in film history and theory, and permission of the instructor.
Corequisite(s): FILM 391 , Fall semester only.
One 2-hour period plus outside screenings.
Course Format: CLS
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FILM 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
To be elected in consultation with the adviser.
Course Format: OTH
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French and Francophone Studies: I. Introductory |
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FFS 105 - Elementary French Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Fundamentals of the language. Students learn to understand spoken French, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read French of average difficulty. While enhancing their communicative skills, students acquire knowledge of France and the Francophone world. Adam Cutchin.
Enrollment limited by class.
Open to seniors by permission of the instructor.
Not open to students who have previously studied French.
Yearlong course 105-FFS 106 .
Three 50-minute periods; two 50-minute periods of drill and oral practice.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 106 - Elementary French Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Fundamentals of the language. Students learn to understand spoken French, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read French of average difficulty. While enhancing their communicative skills, students acquire knowledge of France and the Francophone world. Adam Cutchin.
Enrollment limited by class.
Open to seniors by permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have previously studied French.
Students should go on to FFS 205 after successful completion of 106.
Yearlong course FFS 105 -106.
Three 50-minute periods; two 50-minute periods of drill and oral practice.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 109 - Basic French Review Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
For students who have had some French but who are not yet ready for an intermediate course. Students learn to understand spoken French, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read French of average difficulty. While enhancing their communicative skills, students acquire knowledge of France and the Francophone world. Thomas Parker.
Enrollment limited by class.
Placement test required.
Students must successfully complete the proficiency exam at the end of the semester in order to satisfy the foreign language requirement with this course.
Two 75-minute periods, two 50-minute periods of drill and oral practice.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 180 - Paris in the 1920s Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The 1920s in Paris have been dubbed “Les Années Folles” or the “Crazy Years.” A postwar beacon for artistic talent where ingenuity and imagination shone with unparalleled brilliance, Paris was an intellectual destination and a refuge, a place for experimentation in lost causes and new beginnings. What made the 1920s so memorable and creative a time for the many young idealists and iconoclasts who lived together in Paris, intent on reinventing themselves and the world around them? In the writing seminar we explore major cultural and literary facets of the decade, from cabarets to cafés, and from surrealist poetry to the modernist novel, sifting fact from fiction, politics from poetry, glitter from grit, and trauma from nostalgia. Works read in whole or in part are selected from such authors as Djuna Barnes, Sylvia Beach, Gwendolyn Bennett, André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Paul Eluard, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, James Joyce, George Orwell, Jean Rhys, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Tristan Tzara. English works are read in the original, other works in English translation. Mark Andrews.
Open to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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French and Francophone Studies: II. Intermediate The intermediate level comprises three ascending levels: 1) FFS 205 and FFS 206 2) FFS 210 and FFS 212 and 3) 200-level courses numbered above 212. Rotating topics courses may be taken more than once.
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FFS 206 - Intermediate French II Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Emphasis on more complex linguistic structures. Reading, writing, and speaking skills are developed through discussion of cultural and literary texts and use of audiovisual material. The course prepares students linguistically for cultural and literary study at the intermediate level. Mark Andrews, Anne Brancky (a); Patricia-Pia Célérier (b).
Prerequisite(s): FFS 205 or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken a course at or above the FFS 210 level.
Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required.
Three 50-minute or two 75-minute periods; 50 minutes of scheduled oral practice.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 210 - The Francophone World Through Text, Sound, and Image Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Introduction to the Francophone world and to basic modes of interpretation and analysis through the study and discussion of short texts (print or online magazine or newspaper articles, short stories, essays), films, and other visual or recorded media. The course includes a grammar workshop, vocabulary building, essay writing, image analysis, and “explication de texte.” The course includes review and expansion of complex linguistic structures, and serves as a preparation for upper 200-level courses. Anne Brancky, Thomas Parker (a); Thomas Parker (b).
Prerequisite(s): FFS 206 or the equivalent.
Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required.
Two 75-minute periods; 50 minutes of scheduled oral practice.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 212 - Reading Literature and Film Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Introductory study of French and Francophone literature and cinema through the analysis and discussion of poetry, short fiction, theater, the essay, and film. Biographical information, cultural context, historical background, critical theory, and the evolution of genre are explored. Cynthia Kerr (a); Kathleen Hart (b).
Prerequisite(s): FFS 210 or equivalent.
Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 228 - Tellers and Tales
1 unit(s)
Study of narrative fiction using short stories taken from several periods of French literature. Mark Andrews.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 230 - Medieval and Early Modern Times
1 unit(s)
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 231 - Revolutionary France and Its Legacies
1 unit(s)
Studies in French literature, history, and culture in relation to the French Revolution during the Enlightenment and the Romantic period. Cynthia Kerr.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 232 - The Modern Age Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2019/20a: The Worlds of Madame Bovary. Censored by the government on moral and religious grounds, Flaubert’s 1857 novel Madame Bovary is considered today to be an important document for the reading of modernity in France, a great example of the conflicts surrounding the feminine in the nineteenth century, and a “master text” of French literature. The novel is also relevant to contemporary questions of material culture, desire and the feminine, the individual and society, and literary production. Taking Madame Bovary as our central focus, we read Flaubert’s masterpiece in conjunction with some of the novels, images, and texts from the everyday press that informed the culture that produced its heroine and that she fictitiously and famously consumed herself. The principles of simultaneous readings and the juxtaposition of genres that organize this course offer a unique perspective into both what Emma read and the influence of mass culture on the production of the literary masterpiece. We also consider how Emma’s readings and character persist into the twentieth century by taking up some later incarnations of this novel in both film and text. This class serves as both an exploration of narrative forms and an introduction to the practice of interdisciplinary cultural analysis. Susan Hiner.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 235 - Contemporary France Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course offers a study of French society as it has been shaped by the major historical and cultural events since WWII. The main themes include Vichy France, de Gaulle’s regime, the wars of French decolonization, the Mitterrand years, immigration, and the religious issues facing France today. The course draws on a variety of texts and documents including articles from the press and movies. Patricia-Pia Célérier.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor .
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 240 - Grammar and Composition Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
A course designed to improve written expression through the study and practice of various forms of writing, readings, and oral practice as well as an in-depth study of major aspects of French grammar. Adam Cutchin.
Prerequisite(s): A minimum of FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Recommended: One unit above FFS 212 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 241 - Composition and Conversation
1 unit(s)
A course designed to improve written and oral expression, through the study and practice of various forms of writing, and the discussion of readings on contemporary issues. Enrollment limited by class. Mark Andrews.
Prerequisite(s): A minimum of FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Recommended: One unit above FFS 212 is recommended.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 244 - French Cinema
1 unit(s)
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 246 - French-Speaking Cultures and Literatures of Africa and the Caribbean
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 246 )
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 280 - The Secret Life of Music Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Today’s popular music can teach us much about the contemporary French-speaking world. But did you know it can also serve as a portal to French cultural and political history? This course uses the lyrics, musical styles and biographies of current French and Francophone musical artists - some of which are selected by students – as a starting point to explore connections between France’s present and its artistic, political and colonialist past. After listening to each new weekly musical selection (a song, a movie theme, a creole jazz band, a commercial jingle, etc.), we examine other musical works in relation to a short text, podcast or film that sheds light on the music in relation to previous cultural developments, and the frequently hidden historical forces behind them. Kathleen Hart.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 unit(s)
As a form of community-engaged learning, students work either in pairs or alone to offer weekly 45-minute lessons in French to the pupils of a local private school. Grades range from kindergarten to fourth grade. Lessons involve simple vocabulary, songs, games, and imparting geographical or cultural information. Under the supervision of the faculty coordinator, students invent weekly lesson plans, reflect upon their experience in weekly blog posts or journals written in French, and write a final paper in French. Students also meet periodically with the faculty coordinator to discuss their experiences. Kathleen Hart.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 206 or the equivalent.
Course Format: INT
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FFS 292 - Independent Work on Pre-Study Away Projects Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 unit(s)
This intensive brings together students who wish to prepare for a semester or a year abroad by exploring a specific area of interest in relation to their chosen study away program. Over the course of the semester, students meet bi-weekly while completing a series of investigative research steps (i.e. defining a topic of study, outlining, bibliography, etc.) that culminates in a final exploratory paper or project that the student could then pursue while studying away. This half unit can be complemented with a post-study away companion intensive FFS 394. Mark Andrews (a), Anne Brancky (b).
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent.
Course Format: INT
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FFS 293 - Language Pedagogy and the Classroom Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
This intensive prepares students who wish to be language assistants, interns, and drill instructors, specifically for FFS courses at the elementary level (105-6, 109, but also 205 and 206). In addition to learning how to construct and execute drill exercises and prepare other activities and pedagogical work to help students learn the building blocks of the French language and reinforce structures, students have the opportunity to explore a variety of teaching methods, such as task-based language teaching (TBLT) and the communicative approach to language teaching. Being principally task-based, students get hands-on experience in FFS courses mentioned above and are eased into the teaching experience, building a tool box with a variety of creative, fun, and useful exercises that they can put into practice during the semester. Tom Parker. Tom Parker.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent.
First six-week course.
Course Format: INT
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FFS 294 - Le Labo: The Culture and Language of the French and Francophone Labs Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as BIOL 294 ) This half-unit intensive meets several times over the course of the semester to prepare students wishing to enroll in a course in the sciences while on a Francophone program abroad. Students learn to navigate francophone laboratory setting and cultures while reading scientific articles in the French language and work on building technical vocabulary in a field of their choice. Texts studied depend on student interest, but may include readings from any of the disciplines in the natural sciences and mathematics. Students also learn to write scientific material in the target language. Independent work between course meetings is emphasized. Offered in conjunction with the department of Biology/French and Francophone Studies. Colin Aiken (Biology), Tom Parker (French and Francophone Studies).
Prerequisite(s): FFS 210 or the equivalent recommended; can be taken simultaneously with 210.
Course Format: INT
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FFS 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
One unit of credit given only in exceptional cases and by permission of the chair. The department.
Course Format: OTH
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French and Francophone Studies: III. Advanced Prerequisite for all advanced courses: two units of 200-level work above FFS 212 , or equivalent, or by permission of the department. Open to first-year students and sophomores only by permission of the instructor. Rotating topics courses may be taken more than once.
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FFS 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Open only to majors. The department.
Permission required.
Course Format: INT
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FFS 301 - Senior Translation Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 or 1 unit(s)
Open only to majors. One unit of credit given in exceptional cases only and by permission of the chair. The department.
Course Format: OTH
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FFS 302 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
Senior Thesis Preparation. Course to be taken in conjunction with FFS 303 . Only open to majors.
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FFS 303 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Senior Thesis. To be taken upon successful completion of FFS 302 . Open only to majors.
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FFS 332 - Literature and Society in Pre-Revolutionary France Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2019/20a: Guilty as Charged? Crime and Punishment in Early Modern France. What constituted a crime under French law from the Middle Ages to the Revolution, and why does it still matter today? Who determined guilt, how did the accused defend themselves against false charges, and what kinds of punishments were inflicted? This seminar on criminal behavior, prejudice, and the struggle for human rights examines from a modern perspective six of the most famous courtroom battles in history. It provides a look into the lives of heretics and rebels, enemies of the state, and hapless individuals caught up in the machinery of government. Students delve into original court documents, literary texts and film adaptations, and assess how contemporary scholars, directors, and politicians have continued to exploit these celebrated cases. Case studies include Joan of Arc, Voltaire, Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette. Cynthia Kerr.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 348 - Modernism and its Discontents Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2019/20b: Personal Politics in French-language Autofiction. Recent collective movements like #Metoo, #Balancetonporc, #Timesup, along with strategies like doxxing and leaking, have transformed the second-wave feminist mantra, “The personal is political” by demonstrating the direct political and commercial power—and the indelible risks—in the public disclosure of personal information.
There is a long tradition of literary writers disclosing personal information for various aesthetic and political ends. In this course, we study a range of French-language literary texts from the 20th and 21st centuries where the author uses autobiographical material to raise broader ethical questions or to illustrate specific political realities. We look at the different ways that writers articulate a politics of the personal through the literary lens, examining formal choices on the one hand, and the positions they espouse on the other. Authors may include Marguerite Duras, Assia Djebar, Annie Ernaux, Virginie Despentes, Edouard Louis. Anne Brancky.
One 2-hour period.
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FFS 355 - Cross-Currents in French Culture Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2019/20b: Twentieth-Century Avant-Gardes. From the Belle Époque to May ‘68, France was an epicenter of cultural avant-gardism on an international scale, where visitors, émigrés, and expatriates brought fresh perspectives and expectations, fueling artistic experimentation. Innovative and iconoclastic artistic practices in art, literature, and music, as well as in film, fashion, and architecture, elevated new movements and icons as Paris reinvented itself and France modernized. What defines avant-gardism and what was its contribution in bringing progress to a period of social upheaval scarred by war? Were its challenges to political and spiritual authority instrumental in advancing women’s rights and freedom from colonial rule? The course seeks answers in the theories and practices of avant-garde movements, including surrealism, negritude, and existentialism. It examines the works of prominent literary figures, artists, and philosophers, and explores the cultural milieux, from Montparnasse to Montmartre, where avant-gardes emerged. The course also considers the economic and ideological obstacles to literary and artistic success that beset emergent voices soon overlooked or forgotten in the City of Light, lost in the ferment of the Entre Deux Guerres and the Trente Glorieuses. A range of short texts are read. Authors of longer works may include Proust, Colette, Césaire, Beauvoir, Camus, Queneau, and Wittig. Mark Andrews.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 366 - Francophone Literature and Cultures
1 unit(s)
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 370 - Stylistics and Translation Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Translation is used as a vehicle for creative experimentation and intellectual inquiry while enhancing students’ French communicative skills. Students become more sophisticated speakers and writers by practicing how to render specific grammatical structures and lexical items from French to English and vice versa. At the same time, they learn to think critically about the broader cultural issues raised by translation as a form of creative rewriting. Class discussion centers on cultural as well as more language-focused issues raised by translations of various French-language literary passages, proverbs, cinematic subtitles or advertisements from different time periods and regions of the francophone world. Exploring various theories, strategies and concepts, students learn to reflect on their translation choices with enhanced sensitivity to language, culture, genre, and context. Kathleen Hart.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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FFS 378 - Black Paris
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 378 and ENGL 378 ) This multidisciplinary course examines black cultural productions in Paris from the first Conference of Negro-African writers and artists in 1956 to the present. While considered a haven by African American artists, Paris, the metropolitan center of the French empire, was a more complex location for African and Afro-Caribbean intellectuals and artists. Yet, the city provided a key space for the development and negotiation of a black diasporic consciousness. This course examines the tensions born from expatriation and exile, and the ways they complicate understandings of racial, national and transnational identities. Using literature, film, music, and new media, we explore topics ranging from modernism, jazz, Négritude, Pan-Africanism, and the Présence Africaine group, to assess the meanings of blackness and race in contemporary Paris. Works by James Baldwin, Aime Césaire, Chester Himes, Claude McKay, the Nardal sisters, Richard Wright. Ousmane Sembène, Mongo Beti, among others, are studied.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
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FFS 394 - Independent Work on Post-Study Away Projects Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 unit(s)
This intensive brings together students who wish to deepen their understanding of a specific area of interest related to their study away and work with data gathered while abroad. Students supplement their findings while away with research at home as well as exercises that foster critical reflection on the topic in bi-weekly group meetings and independently. This work culminates in a final project or paper that is presented salon-style to their peers and the department. Students are invited to propose topics prior to their departure abroad. Can be taken as a companion to pre-study away intensive FFS 292 . Anne Brancky (a), Mark Andrews (b).
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent.
Repeatable for credit.
Course Format: INT
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FFS 395 - Thinking Africa: Conversations on the Thought of Achille Mbembe Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 395 and POLI 395 ) The Intensive examines a select number of texts by Achille Mbembe, the Cameroonian postcolonial theorist and author of De La Postcolonie: Essai sur l’Imagination Politique dans L’Afrique Contemporaine (2000) [On The Postcolony (2001)], “Necropolitics” (2003), Sortir de la Grande Nuit (2010), Critique de la Raison Nègre (2013) [Critique of Black Reason (2016)]. Charting Mbembe’s intellectual history, the major debates and concepts he engages, and their implication for thinking with and about Africa, we discuss the complexity of an African thinker reflecting on the condition of a continent (and humanity at large).
A goal of this Intensive is to develop a greater critical fluency on what it means to think, read and write the world from Africa. With insights from Mbembe’s corpus and the work of his interlocutors, the Intensive explores the stakes of Mbembe’s thought and relates them to other lines of inquiry, reflection, and creativity. Working individually and collaboratively, the students undertake a large writing, translation, or creative project which engages an element of Mbembe’s work and relates it to an area of their intellectual interest.
This intensive is organized as a peer-to-peer, inter-disciplinary conversation hinging on three main activities: 1. Textual exegesis, translation (from French to English) of interviews, podcasts, and conference presentations, and critique. 2. Participation in two student-organized workshops with Mbembe’s interlocutors from different disciplines, e.g., Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Philosophy/French, Columbia University) and Abdourahman Waberi (Literature and Creative Writing, George Washington University). 3. Ongoing conversation and guided independent studies with the two professors teaching the intensive as they edit a volume on the themes of this intensive.
Working in English and French, this team-taught intensive allows students to collaboratively explore Mbembe’s ideas in ways that might not be possible in a traditional senior seminar. Our discussions will take place in English, with the French and Francophone Studies students reading some of the texts and writing their assignments in French for FFS credit. Patricia-Pia Celerier and Samson Opondo.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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FFS 398 - Acting French: From the Page to the Stage Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
Who was Molière, and why is he still one of the most frequently performed playwrights in the world today? This discussion-based intensive focuses on two key comedies written by France’s most famous and subversive actor-playwright. It provides a language-immersion environment essential to improving oral skills and an overview of the cultural range and artistic diversity of classical and contemporary theater. To hone their language skills, students practice the same voice techniques and diction exercises used by French theater students at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris. They read Molière’s original texts, explore bold and surprisingly contradictory reboots and mashups imagined by professional directors and actors, and work together on their own personal interpretations of short passages. At the end of the workshop, they present one joint creative project: a compilation of carefully selected scenes from one or both plays, performed live or on tape. Cynthia Kerr.
Course Format: INT
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FFS 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
One unit of credit given only in exceptional cases and by permission of the Chair. The department.
Course Format: OTH
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Geography-Anthropology |
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GEAN 290 - Community-Engaged Learning
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Course Format: INT
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GEAN 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis with 1/2 unit graded provisionally in the fall and 1/2 unit graded in the spring. The final grade, awarded in the spring, shall replace the provisional grade in the fall. Ordinarily, the senior thesis will have two faculty advisors, one from Anthropology and one from Geography. The department.
Yearlong course 300-GEAN 301 .
Course Format: INT
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GEAN 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
A 1-unit thesis with 1/2 unit graded provisionally in the fall and 1/2 unit graded in the spring. The final grade, awarded in the spring, shall replace the provisional grade in the fall. Ordinarily, the senior thesis will have two faculty advisors, one from Anthropology and one from Geography. The department.
Yearlong course GEAN 300 -301.
Course Format: INT
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GEAN 302 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
Students may elect a 1-unit thesis only in exceptional circumstances. Usually, students will adopt GEAN 300 -GEAN 301 . The department.
Course Format: INT
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GEAN 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
By permission of the adviser and the instructor who will supervise the work.
Course Format: OTH
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Geography: I. Introductory |
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GEOG 100 - Earth Resource Challenges
1 unit(s)
(Same as ESCI 100 , ESSC 100 , and ENST 100 ) This course combines the insights of the natural and social sciences to address a topic of societal concern. Geographers bring spatial analysis of human environmental change, while Earth scientists contribute their knowledge of the diverse natural processes shaping the Earth’s surface. Together, these distinctive yet complementary fields contribute to comprehensive understandings of the physical limitations and potentials, uses and misuses of the Earth’s natural resources. Each year the topic of the course changes to focus on selected resource problems facing societies and environments around the world. When this course is team-taught by faculty from Earth Science and Geography, it serves as an introduction to both disciplines.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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GEOG 102 - Global Geography: People, Places, and Regions Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Places and regions are fundamental parts of the human experience. From our hometowns to the Vassar campus, the United States, and the world beyond, we all inherit but then actively reproduce our geographies through the ways in which we lead our lives—by our social practices and spatial movements, and by the meanings we ascribe to people, places, and regions. In this manner, people shape their cultural landscapes and create the spatial divisions that represent global power relations, ideologies, socioeconomic differences, and the uneven distribution of resources. In this course we study the making of the modern world at different scales, ranging from the local to the global—through case studies drawn from the Hudson Valley and around the world—with an emphasis on the ways people, places, and regions relate to socio-economic inequalities. In addition to learning about specific places and regions, we focus on major themes and debates in geography, including mapping and cartographic communication, culture and landscape modification, population and sustainable development, agriculture and urbanization, and political divisions of the globe. Joe Nevins.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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GEOG 111 - Science and Justice in the Anthropocene Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ESCI 111 and STS 111 ) Geoscientists have proposed a new designation in the geologic time scale for our current time period, “the Anthropocene.” The designation reflects the fact that human beings are acting as geological agents, transforming the Earth on a global scale. In this first-year seminar course we explore the possibilities of reconfiguring the actions of humans in the Anthropocene so as to lead to a flowering of a new Era once called ‘the Ecozoic’ by cultural historian Thomas Berry. Jill Schneiderman.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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Geography: II. Intermediate |
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GEOG 202 - Public Policy and Human Environments Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 202 , ESCI 202 , ESSC 202 and URBS 202 ) This course combines the insights of the natural and social sciences to address a selected topic of global concern. Geographers bring spatial analysis of societal and political-ecological changes, while Earth Scientists contribute their knowledge of the diverse natural processes shaping the earth’s surface. Together, these distinctive but complementary fields contribute to comprehensive understandings of the physical limitations and potential, uses and misuses of the Earth’s natural resources.
Topic for 2019/20a: Water and Cities. The explosive urbanization of the modern world places new and unprecedented demands on the earth’s hydrological systems. A variety of environmental issues—such as water provision and drought, depletion of aquifers, pollution of watersheds, flooding, regional climate change, socioeconomic disparities in water infrastructures (environmental injustice), privatization of supply and other policy questions—arise out of the insatiable demands for water of contemporary metropolitan regions. This course combines geographical and geological perspectives on the increasingly urgent problems of urban water. Case studies focus on of water problems in the New York metropolitan region, cities and suburbs of the arid U.S. Southwest, Beijing, Mexico City, São Paulo, Capetown, and other rapidly growing mega-cities of the developing world. Brian Godfrey and Kirsten Menking.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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GEOG 220 - Cartography: Making Maps with GIS Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ESCI 220 ) Cartography, the science and art of map-making, is integral to the geographer’s craft. This course uses GIS to make thematic maps and to acquire and present data, including data fitting students’ individual interests. In addition, we explore the culture, politics, and technology of historic cartography, and we examine techniques in using maps as rhetoric and as political tools. Throughout the course, we focus on issues of clear, efficient, and intentional communication through graphic presentation of data. Thus, the course integrates problems of graphic design and aesthetics with strategies of manipulating quantitative data. ArcGIS is used in labs for map production and data analysis. Mary Ann Cunningham.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level Geography or Earth Science course, or permission of the instructor.
Satisfies the college requirement for quantitative reasoning.
Two 75-minute periods; one 2-hour laboratory.
Course Format: CLS
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GEOG 221 - Soils
1 unit(s)
(Same as ESCI 221 ) Soils form an important interface between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. As such, they are critical to understanding the functioning of ecosystems. This course studies soil formation, and the physical and chemical properties of soils critical to the understanding of natural and constructed ecosystems. Field trips and laboratory work focus on the description and interpretation of local soils.
Prerequisite(s): One introductory course in Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science; or ENST 124 .
Two 75-minute periods; one 4-hour laboratory/field period.
Not offered in 2019/20.
Course Format: CLS
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