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
- MCM0150 Text/Media Culture: Theories of Modern Culture and Media
Note: This requirement should be completed before the senior year. - Two of the following core courses:
- MCM0220 Print Cultures: Textuality and the History of Books
- MCM0230 Digital Media
- MCM0240 Television Studies
- MCM0250 Visuality and Visual Theories
- MCM0260 Cinematic Coding and Narrativity
- MCM1110 The Theory of the Sign
No more than three courses from this list may count for concentration requirements
- One must be an upper level course numbered MCM1200 Special Topics in Modern Culture and Media.
Note: Topics vary from year to year and instructor to instructor. - Two must be senior seminars (MCM1500 Senior Seminars in Modern Culture and Media or MCM1700 Seminars in Production).
Note: Topics vary from year to year and instructor to instructor. - The remaining two must be at any level in MCM above MCM0260.
These courses may be in MCM or in related departments. The specific courses must be approved by an MCM concentration advisor as part of a coherent program of study.
Theory-based Honors students may substitute MCM1980 Honors Thesis/Project Research in Modern Culture and Media (Part 1) for one of these 3 additional courses.
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.
Requirements
- MCM0150 Text/Media Culture: Theories of Modern Culture and Media
Note: This requirement should be completed before the senior year. - Introductory Practice Course:
- MCM0700 Introduction to the Production Image
- MCM0710A Introduction to Filmic Practice Time and Form
- MCM0730A Introduction to Video Production: Critical Strategies and Histories
- MCM0750A Art in Digital Culture
- VISA0100 Studio Foundation
- VISA0120 Foundation Media: Sound and Image
- MUSC0200, CSCI0150 Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming and Computer Science
- LITR0110 Workshops in Creative Writing I
- LITR0210 Workshops in Creative Writing II
- History of a Medium or Practice (for example: HIAA0010 A Global History of Art and Architecture, TAPS0030 Introduction to Acting and Directing
- MUSC0010 Music in History, from Kildegard to Hamilton
- MUSC0040 World Music Cultures (Africa, America, Europe and Oceania)
Note: This list is not exhaustive.
- MCM0220 Print Cultures: Textuality and the History of Books
- MCM0230 Digital Media
- MCM0240 Television Studies
- MCM0250 Visuality and Visual Theories
- MCM0260 Cinematic Coding and Narrativity
- MCM1110 The Theory of the Sign
- At least one of these courses must be MCM1500
- MCM1200 Special Topics in Modern Culture and Media
- MCM1500 Senior Seminars in Modern Culture and Media
Note: Topics vary from year to year and instructor to instructor.
Practice courses must be selected in consultation with an advisor. Courses can be in any medium or combinatory sequence of media from the following departments:
- Modern Culture & Media
- Visual Art, Music
- Literary Arts
- Theatre and Performance Studies
- Computer Science
- Engineering
- Supplemented by approved courses at Rhode Island School of Design and study abroad.
Note: This list is not exhaustive.
Practice-based Honors students may substitute MCM1980 Honors Thesis/Project Research in Modern Culture and Media (Part 1) for one of these 4 practice courses.
MCM1700 Seminars in Production or other equivalent in production.