Welcome to the NEW Media and Cultural Studies Department and the Film and Visual Culture Program!
The Film and Visual Culture major provides an interdisciplinary examination of film, video, television, multimedia, and visual culture with a primary emphasis on history and theory and a secondary focus on production. The major consists of three curricular tracks, in one of which students may concentrate:
- Film and Visual Media
- Film, Literature, and Culture
- Ethnography, Documentary, and Visual Culture
The Film and Visual Culture major combines the breadth of an interdisciplinary major with a precise focus on visual media. Its interdisciplinary structure brings together approaches to visual media that would usually be separated by discipline. Students have a unique opportunity to acquire critical skills in the reading and analysis of media texts together with those involved in various modes of media production. This applied experience includes training in creative, documentary, and ethnographic video; photography; multimedia production; and screenwriting. Familiarity with media, either for its academic or industrial applications, enhances one's understanding of any field in the humanities or social sciences today.
Media and Cultural Studies Colloquium
Muslim Women of Minang (26 minutes, work in progress)
Screening and Discussion with Director and Producer Irum Shiekh
Tuesday, November 29, 12:30-2 pm in INTS 3154
Muslim Women of Minang is a documentary about a young woman, Amna, from the San Francisco Bay Area who takes a trip to West Sumatra, Indonesia to learn about the Minangkabau--the largest matrilineal society (4-6 million people) in the world, which also happens to be Muslim.
Shot digitally in high definition, the documentary is a reflective personal narrative in which Amna shares her experience of visiting Minangkabau culture where women are regarded highly for being women, and how this experience changes her perceptions about the social construction of gender.
Irum Shiekh is a guest lecturer at Media and Cultural studies and has directed and produced several documentaries about issues of social justice.
For additional information please contact Freya Schiwy at freyasch@ucr.edu