Department of Modern Culture and Media
Concentration Tracks
Theory-Based Track
The Theory-based track focuses on the theories and histories of media and consists of 11 MCM courses. Courses from other departments may count toward the fulfillment of a focus area, and must be approved by an MCM concentration advisor as part of a coherent program of study.
Theory-based concentrators may choose to study a particular historical moment, a medium, or a mode of textual production, in combination with theoretical studies that examine the categories of cultural analysis: for example, the distinction between high and low culture.
Examples of areas of interest include but are not limited to:
- Film
- Gender/sexuality
- Digital media
- Television
- Post-coloniality
- The novel
- Modern thought
- The modern arts
- Sound
- Theories of ideology and subjectivity
Productive work in some modern medium or textual mode is encouraged for all concentrators. MCM’s approach to production recognizes the inextricable link between theory and practice, and the possibility of a fruitful complicity between them. Production, in the sense defined here, is a theoretically informed sphere or practice, one within which acknowledged forms of cultural creation are tested and extended in close complementarity with the analyses conducted elsewhere in MCM.
Requirements
Focus Area
Of the 11 courses required for the concentration, at least 3 courses must be in a focus area approved by a concentration advisor. These courses may be MCM courses, related courses, or a combination of the two, and they must represent a focus on some aspect of modern literature, theory, media, art or culture. Examples of possible focus areas are: mass/popular culture, gender/sexuality, language/ representation/subjectivity, narrative, digital media, film, modern thought, television, the modern arts, the novel, colonialism and post-colonialism. This is not an exhaustive list. Production courses may be in the focus area but must be in addition to the minimum 3 courses.
Production
Work in production is encouraged but not required for Theory-based concentrators. Of the 11 courses required for concentration, as many as 3 may be in production. These may be production courses offered by MCM (film, video, digital media) or courses in creative writing, painting, photography, journalism, etc., provided they do not bring the total number of concentration courses taken outside MCM to more than 3.
Practice-Based Track
The Practice-based track focuses on production alongside theory and consists of 11 courses distributed as follows: two core courses, two additional courses below the 1000-level, three 1000-level courses, four production courses, and one senior seminar. Students are expected to meet regularly with their concentration advisors; they are required to meet at the beginning of their seventh semester to review their concentrations.
The Practice-based track combines production courses with the critical study of the cultural role of practice. It aims to engage students in the analysis of theories of production elaborated within philosophical, artistic, and technological traditions, while encouraging them to produce works that interrogate these traditions.