Media Studies
Media Studies is an intercollegiate major offered jointly by Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona and Scripps Colleges, together forming Intercollegiate Media Studies (IMS). Media Studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field that emphasizes the cultural and historical importance of media and focuses on the production, circulation, and reception of texts and representations, which are analyzed in terms of aesthetics, meanings, and uses. IMS at the Claremont Colleges is one of the first undergraduate programs in the United States to combine theory, history, and practice, integrating critical studies and media production.
IMS provides rigorous interdisciplinary training, enabling our students to learn how to analyze diverse media forms and the power relations that undergird them, and to ethically express their knowledge through critical scholarship, community-engagement, and creative media practice. The IMS major draws from anthropology, art history, cinema and film studies, communications, cultural studies, English, gender and feminist studies, performance studies, photography, postcolonial and transnational studies, queer studies, sound studies, and the visual arts. The major prepares students for graduate work and careers in teaching, art, entertainment, digital media, and the non-profit sector.
IMS offers abundant opportunities for hands-on learning in the form of independent multi-modal research projects, off-campus internships throughout the Los Angeles region, as well as creative projects in the form of video art, documentary, photography and digital imaging, media installation and performance, web-based and interactive media, and community-based and activist media. IMS combines the rich resources of the Claremont Colleges to support student research and production, namely the Mosbacher/Gartrell Center for Media Experimentation and Activism, which houses a professional standard post-production facility, classrooms, staff and faculty offices, an art gallery, a screening room, a video studio, an animation and special project studio, as well as other student work spaces. Other resources include the Honnold Library media collection,Pomona College’s Brian Stonehill Media Studies Library, Scripps College’s Lang and Steele Media Labs, Harvey Mudd College’s gallery in the Shanahan Center and media art project space in Parsons Engineering Building, the media collection housed at Pitzer College’s Audio/Visual Services, and the intercollegiate alumni group Claremont Entertainment Media (CEM).
Pitzer Advisers: A. Acosta, E. Affuso, G. Lamb, J. Lerner, M-Y. Ma, R. Talmor.
Major Requirements
Students who wish to do a combined major will complete nine graded courses as follows. Combined majors who study abroad may bring back two courses towards their intermediate requirements with IMS approval. All other courses should be from the core Media Studies course list in the catalog and IMS program materials.
Course Requirements
Courses designated as fulfilling each requirement in the course list below are subject to change and other courses may be counted toward those requirements by petition to the IMS curriculum committee. For an up-to-date list of all approved courses, their designations and current course offerings, please see the IMS Website.
Introductory Courses (3)
Students take three introductory courses to introduce them to Media Studies theory and practice. Two thirds of courses in this area must be completed before moving to intermediate level courses and all should be completed by end of junior year.
Intermediate Theory and Practice Courses (4)
Students take four intermediate level courses to broaden their knowledge and skills within Media Studies and related fields. These courses must be from the course list in the catalog and IMS program materials.
Theory Courses
- AFRI 144A AF -Black Women, Feminism(s) & Arts
- ARHI 141A PO -(Re)present Africa:Art,Hist,Film
- ARHI 144B PO -Daughters Africa Art Cinema Love
- ARHI 178 PO -Black Aesth/Poli (Re)presentatn
- ARHI 186L PO -Critical Race Thry/Representatn
- ARHI 186W PO -Interrog Whiteness:Race,Sex,Rep
- LIT 131 CM -Film History I (1925-1965)
- LIT 132 CM -Film History II (1965-Present)
- LIT 136 CM -American Film Genres
- LIT 138 CM -Film and Mass Culture
- LIT 139 CM -Film Theory
- MS 052 PZ -Introduction to Sound Studies
- MS 070 PZ -Media and Social Change
- MS 071 PO -Conspiracy and Media
- MS 073 PO -Capitalism, Technology & Race
- MS 073 PZ -Technology, Capitalism & Race
- MS 079 PZ -Silent Film
- MS 088 PZ -Mexican Visual Cultures
- MS 089D PO -Popular Cultures and Audiences
- MS 091 PO -History of American Broadcasting
- MS 092 PO -Principles of Television Study
- MS 097 PZ -Contemporary US Media
- MS 098 PZ -Media of Middle East
- MS 100 AA -Asian Americans in Media
- MS 101 PZ -Asian Amer Media in Communities
- MS 111 PZ -Perspectives on Photography
- MS 112 PZ -Anthropology of Media
- MS 114 PZ -Film Sound
- 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 123 PZ -Embodying Identity in Practice
- MS 124 PO -Self-Rep of Islam/MidEast in US
- MS 124 PZ -K-pop and Digital Culture
- MS 125 PO -Critical Game Studies
- MS 138 SC -Media and the Environment
- MS 141 PO -Cinema, Sensation, and the Body
- MS 142 PO -Queer Visions, Queer Theory
- MS 146 PO -Temp. of the Moving Image
- MS 148G PO -Film Theory
- MS 153 PO -The Original Television Series
- MS 175 PO -“Horror” and The American Horror
Practice Courses
Advanced Theory and Practice Courses (1)
Students will take one course in advanced theory/practice to develop depth as well as breadth. The course needs to come from the advanced/theory practice course list in the catalog and IMS program materials.
Theory Courses
Practice Courses
Senior Seminar (1)
Students complete their capstone by enrolling in a topical seminar in the fall or spring of their senior year.
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