Courses

UVM has a few minors in media and culture-related fields like film and advertising. And some students have put together their own Individually Designed Majors in the area. But media and culture related courses are spread throughout the university in a wide variety of departments and disciplines. What follows is a list of some, but not all, of the relevant courses that have been offered at UVM in recent years. (As some of them are special topics courses, they may or may not be offered again in the future; check with the official UVM catalog for details.)

Media Production

Art 004: Intro to Film/Video Production. Introductory study of the principles and properties of four-dimensional media, including the mechanical and electronic phenomena behind the creation of a moving image.
Art 139: Animation. Techniques of single frame filmmaking, including drawing on film, producing a flipbook, animating a repetitive form, a two-dimensional sequence, and a three-dimensional sequence.
Art 137: Photography. Photographic processes as methods of seeing, emphasizing visual discovery through informed manipulation of materials. Students explore light, camera, photosensitive materials relating to photographic realities.
Art 143: Intermediate Film/Video Prod. Exploration of the principles and properties of sound and moving image through projects in synchronous sound filmmaking and live studio production.
Art 144: Computer Art. New approaches to making imagery using computers both as direct means of production and as vehicles for work in other media. No prior experience with computers necessary.
Art 244: Advanced Digital Art. This class introduces mutli-media as a vehicle for artistic expression. Students will have an opportunity to explore structure, sequence and both linear and non-linear forms of story-telling. Through digital applications like Premiere 5.0 and SoundSculptor, students will be able to create the components of multi-media and learn how to successfully integrate them in Director. Students are introduced to the conceptual and cultural issues that define multi-media and are required as a part of this class to critically examine the work of other artists who use this media.
English 112: Personal Voice - Section A (3 cr.) FULWILER
"Personal Voice" examines the role of authorial voice in non-fiction writing, addressing questions about the origins and nature of our written voices, whether we have one or many such voices, and to what extent we consciously shape or modify our voice(s). Reading assignments include current essayists such as Joan Didion, Lewis Thomas, Alice Walker, Barry Lopez, and Margaret Atwood as well as William Zinsser, Donald Murray, and Winston Weathers. Writing assignments include journals, letters, personal and analytic essays in traditional as well as experimental styles, forms, and genres. Portfolio assessment.
English 117: Advanced Writing: Non-Fiction - This is course is sometimes taught as a course in literary journalism. Most recently, it was taught by Prof. Nancy WELCH, who offers the following course description:
Though the essay is often regarded as rigid and fixed (essay=not creative) or as a dry means of transmitting information (essay=not critical, restless, and questioning), its history and current practitioners can tell us a different story: essay writing as "spinning out new constellations of meaning" (Nancy Mairs), as struggling to grasp both the "requirements and possibilities of language" (June Jordan). In this course we'll consider gendered conceptions of the essay, discuss how and why women especially have sought to transform this genre, and, of course, work hard at transforming our work in this genre too. Readings for the course will include essays by contemporary women writers such as Gloria Anzaldua, Patricia J. Williams, and Marianna De Marco Torgovnick plus essays by women and men who have taken 117 in past semesters and who can teach us much about the requirements and possibilities of this form. You can expect to keep a writing/reading notebook, participate zestfully in all class activities and discussions, and work hard on your own essays, the best of which you'll revise, edit, and bind in your own essay collection. The topics you'll explore through your essays? The many forms and variations your essays may take? With the support and challenge of class activities, discussions, and your reading, you'll be responsible for creating answers to these questions. Portfolio grading. Prerequisite: English 50, 53, or instructor permission. Fulfills category (A) of majors requirement.

Media and Society, Media Criticism

Art 140: Hist of Optical Media as Art. Theory and development of the art of optical media: photography, film, and video. Emphasis on discovery and explication of technical, aesthetic, and expressive properties.
Cmty Dev & Apld Econ 128: Consumer&Economic Advertising. Examination of advertising strategy and how it impacts consumers and the economy. Extensive application of critical analysis to actual advertising campaigns from development through evaluation.
English 96: Television & American Cultures - Section A (3 cr.) WON
This course is an introduction to--not a survey of--selected topics in television studies and popular culture. Gender, race and sexuality will be emphasized (as topics of discussion). Although we use a textbook (Campbell's Media&Culture), our primary objects of examination will be televised images and sounds. If you are interested in meticulous, close textual analysis and enjoy the process of revising papers, this course may be for you. Grades are based on participation, presentations, reading quizzes, pop quizzes, two papers & one revision.
English 184: Intermediate Studies in TV - Section A (3 cr.) WON
This class explores specific analytical fields in the study of TV and popular culture. Probable topics this term include: countersubversive mentalities, violence on TV, cross-cultural cross-dressing, etc. If you are enthused by the use of "Foucault" and "Walker Texas Ranger" in the same sentence, this course may be for you. Probable textbooks include RethinkingPopularCulture and Ronald Reagan: TheMovie. This course assumes a competence in close reading and analytical writing. Also a willingness to participate and initiate class discussion. Reading quizzes, pop quizzes, papers.
Sociology 043: Survey of Mass Communication. The historical development of the socioeconomic, political, educational, and religious impacts of the press, film, radio, and television in American society.
Sociology 243: Mass Media in Modern Society. Intensive examination of selected topics in the structure of media organizations and their relationships to and impacts upon the major institutions and publics of contemporary issues.
Political Science 137: Politics and The Media
The role of the media in politics, including how media presentation and interpretation of events affect public opinion, political institutions, and public policy. Prerequisites: 21. Three hours.

Cultural Studies

Sociology 150: Popular Culture. Analysis of social significance of a selected range of contemporary non-elite cultural forms in the U.S., such as rock music, television programming, and popular literature.
Sociology 250: Sociology of Culture. The relations of cultural forms and subjective experience to social structure and power; in-depth applications of interpretive approaches in contemporary sociology.
Anthropology 195/295: Introduction to Visual Anthropology. This course provides an introduction to current anthropological theories of visual communication and to contemporary methods of critiquing, producing, and displaying visual representations of cultural phenomena. Seminar style discussions in the morning will critically explore a wide range of concepts and issues salient to the field of visual anthropology. Hands-on practicums in the afternoon will involve applying these critical perspectives to the production and editing of our own video footage of cultural activities in the Burlington area. From the onset of the course, students will begin developing their video skills, specifically geared toward the production of anthropologically informed visual texts. Students will document a community practice/tradition using videocameras and sound equipment. Towards the end of the course, students will begin the editing process. On the last day of the course, we will hold a forum where students' final project will be screened.
HST 095D TAP: COMING TO AMERICA: AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND ETHNICITY
This course examines the relationship between history, culture, and ethnicity as revealed in the autobiographies of first and second generation Americans and Canadians. Among the works we will be reading are Peter Balakian's Black Dog of Fate (Armenia), Eric Liu's The Accidental Asian (China), Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation (Poland), and Agathe Nesaule's Women in Amber (Latvia). Readings and discussion will be augmented by guest speakers and films, and the last part of the course will be devoted to individual student projects. You will have an opportunity to research and present to the class the history of your own family's "coming to America." 3 Hours YOUNGBLOOD W 3:35-6:20
English 170: Re-Orienting the Western Landscape: Asian American and Other Minor(ity) Literary Cultures - Section A (3 cr.) WON
This class explores the possible meanings of the term "minor" in the context of Asian American and other literary categories. Ultimately we will concern ourselves with the question: Why is literature? Probable readings include Deleuze and Guattari's Kafka, Yamamoto's Seventeen Syllables, Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars, Hwang's M.Butterfly, etc. This course assumes a competence in close reading and analytical writing. Also a willingness to participate and initiate class discussion. Reading quizzes, pop quizzes, papers.

Communication and Language

Communication Sciences 160: Intercultural Communication
Exploration of communication between individuals of different races, socioeconomic status, ethnic groups, genders, and occupations. Emphasis on culturally-based misunderstanding, conflict, and resolution. Three hours. Roberts
Communication Sciences 162: American English Dialects
Study of dialects throughout the U.S., with focus on Vermont. Emphasis on methods and on the social meaning of dialect variation. Alternate years. Three hours. Roberts
English 111: Literacy Politics in the United States - Section A (3 cr.) WELCH
In his autobiography Always Running, Chicano poet and activist Luis Rodriguez writes that what he seeks is a "complete literacy" that will grant all individuals and groups within the United States "access and participation at all levels of society." In this course we'll consider the constructions of literacy (language practices in particular cultural contexts such as home, school, and workplace) that have worked against the fuller access and participation that Rodriguez and other literacy activists have sought. Cross-listed with Women's Studies, this course will also consider how feminist researchers have worked against gender-, race-, and class-based restrictions on literacy. We'll also engage in such against-the-grain work ourselves through volunteering one afternoon or evening each week at the King Street Youth Center, working with middle school and high school students participating in King Street's Teen Futures Program. Prerequisites: sophomore standing, instructor permission.
Anthropology 128: Linguistic Anthropology
Introduction to the anthropological study of language, focusing on language and communication as they pertain to how we become human and what makes us human. Prerequisites: 21. Three hours. Woolfson