Geoff Pingree, Director, Cinema Studies Program; Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and English
EunJung Grace An, Associate Professor of French and Cinema Studies
Doron Galili, Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies
Rian Brown-Orso, Associate Professor of New Media and Cinema Studies
Carla Carter, Visiting Instructor in Cinema Studies
William Patrick Day, Professor of English and Cinema Studies
Daniel Goulding, Emeritus Professor of Film Studies and Theater Arts
Jeffrey Pence, Associate Professor of English and Cinema Studies
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Cinema, modern culture’s primary art form, is also the central component of the media traditions and industries that structure contemporary society. We cannot understand fully how music, painting, literature, and other artistic practices have developed without seeing them in relation to cinema, and we cannot begin to comprehend the full significance of the media in our lives without first studying cinema. Movies, as well as novels, magazines, radio broadcasts, television shows, art installations, and the Internet (to name just a few) comprise what we think of, loosely, as media. Each profoundly influences how we understand and experience the actual world; each stands, in some meaningful way, between us and that world – past, present, and future.
Oberlin’s Cinema Studies Program encourages its students to consider cinema and media within this framework and to explore the “in between” – to think, more precisely, about what mediates the relations among authors and readers, artists and audiences, filmmakers and spectators. It encourages them to pursue the meanings of cinema and other media in the broadest, most interdisciplinary ways, considering movies, for example, as works of art, as cultural forms, and as industrial practices.
Cinema and other media are material forces that enable a global exchange of information, ideas and stories. From the Guttenberg press to Kindle wireless reading devices, from Morse Code to short-wave radio broadcasts, from magic lanterns to movie projectors, from typewriters to computer word processors, from town criers to YouTube, media have integrally shaped human history and society.
Students majoring in Cinema Studies explore not only the “how” of this influence (how, for instance, an ancient poem or a contemporary television program is composed, gains influence, and both reflects and shapes social and cultural attitudes and behaviors), but the “what” as well. They study the materials of art and communication – whether as words spoken, texts written, canvases painted, or celluloid exposed to light – that mediate their understanding of the world, of their own experience, of each other. And they consider media’s “how” and “what” in order to enrich their reflection upon its “why” – upon its moral, political, and cultural purposes, justifications, and effects.
PRACTICAL REQUIREMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Cinema Studies at Oberlin thus addresses the broad processes of critical understanding and creative production that lie at the heart of liberal arts education – processes that involve paying close attention not only to the values and assumptions we bring to our encounters with different artistic and communicative structures, practices, and artifacts, but also to our engagements with the individuals, communities, and traditions that give them human significance.
We study cinema and other media, in other words, so that we might become more reflective not only about the forms that structure our world, but about our own actions as creators, critics, and consumers of those forms. On the idea that to genuinely understand cinema and other media one must learn to create media forms as well as analyze them, then, majors have the opportunity to enroll in both hands-on media production as well as critical studies courses.
And on the belief that to fully grasp media’s role in structuring social relations and shaping communities one must engage in concrete ways with one’s own community, students have the opportunity to translate their experience with cinema and media into community outreach and service learning through the Apollo Outreach Initiative, a year-round media literacy outreach program housed in Cinema Studies whose central mission is to provide sustainable educational outreach and media literacy opportunities for public school students of all ages. After receiving training in the Program’s courses in media literacy and pedagogy, majors can work with local public elementary, middle, and high school students to help them grow as artists, citizens, and leaders by mentoring them in the use of media, especially film, as a force for local and global education, understanding, community building, and change.
OVERVIEW OF COURSES
First-Year Seminars
Part of the College’s First-Year Seminar Program, these courses do not count toward the major. Several are taught by Cinema Studies faculty, however, and in addition to providing foundational learning experiences for first-year students, they provide one way to satisfy the prerequisite for Cinema Traditions Courses.
General Interest Courses
These courses are intended mainly for students not planning to major in Cinema Studies. While it fulfills an elective requirement towards the Cinema Studies major, CINE 111 - What is Media?, for example, is open to all students in the College.
Introductory Core Courses
CINE 290 - Introduction to the Study of Cinema is required for all Cinema Studies majors and is a prerequisite for all advanced courses in the major (for those who declared before July 2009, CINE 299 - Persistence of Vision fulfills this requirement). Students interested in majoring in Cinema Studies should take CINE 290 as early as possible – no later than the end of their sophomore years, before they declare the Cinema Studies major, and before studying abroad/away. Students may not take CINE 290 in either of their final two semesters at Oberlin and still count it toward the major.
Cinematic Traditions Courses
Cinematic Traditions Courses, which count as electives toward the major, include all courses taught by the Cinema Studies faculty at the 200-level (except CINE 290 and CINE 298) as well as film courses from various other College and Conservatory departments or programs (indicated in the list of cross-referenced courses below). Either CINE 111 or CINE 290 is suggested as preparation for Cinematic Traditions Courses. Courses cross-referenced with other departments may have different requirements noted in the catalog section of the listing department.
Production Courses
Committed to the integrated (i.e. critical and creative) study of cinema and media, Cinema Studies offers, along with its critical studies courses, an introductory and a number of advanced media production courses. Although no production courses are required for graduation in the major, students who wish to pursue production must begin with CINE 298, Video Production Workshop I, which is the prerequisite for all advanced production courses (see Advanced Courses below). Students may take no more than one production course in a given semester at Oberlin (students studying production in the Prague, Tisch, or other such programs are obviously exempt during their semester abroad/away). Production courses are selective and consent-only and enroll during the first week of classes; interested students should consult with advisors and/or course instructors prior to applying for admission.
Oberlin Arts Intensive Semester (OASIS)
OASIS is an arts-intensive semester (plus a Winter Term) at Oberlin in Fall 2012 and Winter 2013 that culminates in performances of faculty and student work at the Cleveland Public Theater. Some OASIS courses may count as elective credit towards the Cinema Studies major.
Advanced Courses
Advanced Courses are classes taught by Cinema Studies faculty at the 300 level. Although additional prerequisites vary (see course descriptions for details), all Advanced Courses require CINE 290, and all Advanced Courses that are also Production Courses require CINE 298 as well. Most Advanced Courses require consent of the instructor. Majors must take at least three Advanced Courses to graduate; at least one of these must be completed before the senior year, and at least one must be in critical studies (not a Production Course).
Media Literacy and Outreach Courses
These courses, geared for students who are interested in learning through teaching and community involvement, are specially designed to prepare majors to participate in the Apollo Outreach Initiative (AOI), and they count as electives toward the major. Interested students should first take CINE 394 - Practicum in Media Literacy and Pedagogy I: Theory, which is offered each spring, and then take CINE 395 - Fall Practicum in Media Literacy and Pedagogy II: Practice, and/or CINE 396 - Spring Practicum in Media Literacy and Pedagogy II: Practice, to continue their involvement with AOI. CINE 298 and consent of the instructor are required for students who wish to enroll in Media Literacy and Outreach Courses. The combination of CINE 394 and either CINE 395 or CINE 396 may count towards the major as the equivalent of a 300-level course.
Senior Capstone Courses
To fulfill the major’s capstone requirement, students must, prior to graduation, successfully complete either (1) CINE 400 - The Senior Portfolio, (2) a Cinema Studies 400-level senior seminar, or (3) a fourth Cinema Studies 300-level course. The Senior Portfolio is enrolled by invitation based on applications and work samples submitted by majors at the end of their junior years and does not count towards any other requirement for the major. All graduating Cinema Studies seniors, regardless of their Senior Capstone Course, may submit their final projects for award recognition at the end of the academic year.
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