Film and Media Studies

Department Website

The Film and Media Studies Program is devoted to the critical study of media – its many forms, industries, aesthetics, audiences and impacts on global culture. Students learn to critically engage with a wide array of media forms and practices as citizens, creators and scholars. Our programs cultivate increasingly important skills such as analysis and interpretation, research, writing, communication and collaboration. Graduates enter diverse career paths within the entertainment and media industries as well as professional fields such as law, education, business and nonprofit administration, advocacy, diplomacy and more. 

Our program offers a Bachelor of Arts in film and media studies and a minor. Students build media literacy skills, investigate media history from an international perspective, examine the economics and labor structures of globalized media industries, and engage the central methods and concepts of the discipline. The program provides unique opportunities that include production collaboration with Media Arts, engagement with the remarkable film and television archival content of Moving Image Research Collections, and support from faculty to conduct independent research on almost any aspect of media culture. 

The program regards basic knowledge of media production as essential. The major requires coursework in this area, although it is not primarily a production degree. Most courses require students to experience media (watch films, read comics, play games, etc.) as preparation for class lectures and discussion. Access to these media objects and texts are provided via the course Blackboard site. 

Students who might want to major or minor in film and media studies should begin with either FAMS 240 (CC-AIU) or FAMS 300 (CC-GHS). FAMS 110 (CC-AUI) is designed for non-majors who seek a broad introduction to foundational concepts in the analysis and production of media arts.

Programs

Courses

FAMS 110 - Media Culture (3 Credits)

Introduction to the critical study of film, video, photography, audio, and new media.

Cross-listed course: MART 110

Carolina Core: AIU

FAMS 180 - Film Culture (3 Credits)

How the film industry developed and the impact the movies have had on global popular culture. Does not count toward the film studies major.

Carolina Core: AIU

FAMS 240 - Film and Media Analysis (3 Credits)

Introduction to the critical study of film and media. Students will closely analyze moving images and develop written arguments about film and media.

Cross-listed course: ENGL 240

Carolina Core: AIU

FAMS 300 - Film and Media History (3 Credits)

Surveys the development of cinema and related media from the 1820s to the present. Attention to the relations among key technological, cultural, and industrial changes, their causes, and consequences.

Carolina Core: GHS

FAMS 301 - Media, Power & Everyday Life (3 Credits)

Foundational approaches to media as a means of defining and distributing social power in everyday life.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 240 or FAMS 300.

FAMS 308 - Global Media Industries (3 Credits)

Provides the foundation for the study of globalized film and media industries.

Cross-listed course: GLST 308

FAMS 310 - Special Topics In Popular Media (3 Credits)

Intensive study of a specific topic in popular film and media. May be repeated up to three times for a total of nine credit hours as content varies by title.

FAMS 311 - Classical Hollywood Cinema (3 Credits)

Survey of Classical Hollywood Cinema in aesthetic, cultural, political, and economic contexts.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 240 or FAMS 300.

FAMS 312 - Stardom, Celebrity and Performance (3 Credits)

Exploration of the different forms and functions of stardom and celebrity and investigation of how a variety of performers and performance traditions within the histories of film, television, music and new media can be understood in relation to industrial, technological, and socio-cultural influences.

FAMS 315 - African American Cinema (3 Credits)

Survey of the history of African American cinema that engages questions of culture, politics, race, and representation in American society.

Cross-listed course: MART 315

FAMS 316 - Music and the Hollywood Film (3 Credits)

Examination of how music guides audience interpretation and shapes Hollywood film style.

FAMS 325 - Superheroes across Media (3 Credits)

Examination of the superhero within and across media, industries, and eras addressing topics such as genre, style, seriality, remediation, franchising, and fandom.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 240, FAMS 350, or ENGL 350.

Cross-listed course: ENGL 352

FAMS 328 - The Blockbuster (3 Credits)

Examination of the post-1975 blockbuster film phenomenon with an emphasis on marketing, finance, and reception.

FAMS 330 - Special Topics in Non-Film Media (3 Credits)

Intensive study of a specific topic concerning a medium or mediums other than film. May be repeated up to three times for a total of nine credit hours as content varies by title.

FAMS 332 - American Television (3 Credits)

Examination of American television as an industry, art form, medium of social representation, and set of viewer practices.

FAMS 335 - African American Television (3 Credits)

Introduction to the critical study of African American representation on American television.

Cross-listed course: MART 335

FAMS 336 - Critical Studies in Digital & Emerging Media (3 Credits)

The history, politics, and culture of digital and emerging media, including the internet, social media, AI, algorithms, platforms, and smart devices.

Cross-listed course: MART 336

FAMS 338 - Contemporary British Television Industry (3 Credits)

Examination of industrial structures, network histories, production cultures, and regulation contexts of contemporary British television.

FAMS 350 - Introduction to Comics Studies (3 Credits)

Scholarly study of the formal and aesthetic evolutions of graphic novels, comic books, and other related forms.

Prerequisites: ENGL 101 and ENGL 102.

Cross-listed course: ENGL 350

FAMS 351 - History of the American Comic Book Industry (3 Credits)

Study of the history of the American comic book industry.

Cross-listed course: ENGL 351

FAMS 355 - Special Topics in Comics Studies (3 Credits)

Intensive study of a specific topic in comics studies. May be repeated as content varies by title.

Cross-listed course: ENGL 353

FAMS 360 - Special Topics in Global Media (3 Credits)

Intensive study of a specific topic in film and media centered outside the U.S. May be repeated up to three times for a total of nine credit hours as content varies by title.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 240 or FAMS 300.

Cross-listed course: ENGL 355

FAMS 361 - Middle East on Screen (3 Credits)

Examines representations of the Middle East on screen within multiple media-making traditions and considers their aesthetic, political, and ethical dimensions.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 240 or FAMS 300.

FAMS 363 - Hong Kong Action Cinema (3 Credits)

Survey of the transnational history of Hong Kong action cinema and introduction to critical approaches through which it has been studied.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 240 or FAMS 300.

FAMS 365 - Screening China (3 Credits)

Survey of Chinese language cinema. Chinese film history and vocabulary with which to discuss film texts. Covers classic leftwing cinema, Hong Kong martial arts films, as well as the Hong Kong, Taiwan, and PRC New Waves. Taught in English. Films subtitled.

Cross-listed course: CHIN 365

FAMS 380 - Special Topics in Alternative Media (3 Credits)

Intensive study of a specific topic concerning film and media forms and/or practices outside the commercial mainstream. May be repeated as many as three times for a total of nine credit hours as content varies by title.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 240 or FAMS 300.

FAMS 381 - History of Experimental Film (3 Credits)

Survey of key examples and tendencies in the history of experimental film.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 240 or FAMS 300.

FAMS 383 - Documentary Studies (3 Credits)

History, theory, and practices of documentary film and media.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 240 or FAMS 300.

FAMS 399 - Independent Study (3-9 Credits)

Contract approved by instructor, advisor, and program director is required.

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Research

FAMS 470 - Genre Studies Film & Media (3 Credits)

Critical study of a popular genre (e.g., horror, science fiction, melodrama), or set of genres, in film and media. Course content varies and will be announced in the schedule of courses by title. May be repeated as topics vary.

FAMS 499 - Internship in Film and Media Studies (3 Credits)

Internship in Film and Media Studies. (Variable) Supervised professional experience working with media production, distribution, exhibition, archiving, and/or education.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: C or better in FAMS 308.

FAMS 510 - Special Topics in Film and Media Histories (3 Credits)

Intensive study of a specific topic in film and media history. May be repeated as content varies by title.

Prerequisites: C or better in FAMS 300.

Cross-listed course: ARTH 569, MART 592

FAMS 511 - Special Topics in Film and Media Studies (3 Credits)

Intensive study of a specific topic in film and media studies. May be repeated as content varies by title.

Prerequisites: FAMS 240.

Cross-listed course: ARTH 551, MART 591

FAMS 566 - Special Topics in U.S. Film and Media (3 Credits)

Intensive study of a specific topic in U.S. film and media studies. May be repeated as content varies by title.

Prerequisites: FAMS 240.

Cross-listed course: ENGL 566, MART 593

FAMS 581 - Critical Interactives (3 Credits)

Foundational techniques in multidisciplinary software development, specifically of applications designed to present sensitive, sometimes controversial, materials in ways to engender empathic awareness of the interactor.

Cross-listed course: CSCE 571

FAMS 598 - Special Topics in Global Film and Media (3 Credits)

Intensive study of a specific topic concerning films produced in a country other than the United States. May be repeated as content varies by title.

Prerequisites: C or better in FAMS 240.

Cross-listed course: ENGL 567, FORL 598, MART 594

Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Global Learning

2025-2026 Academic Bulletin

Film and Media Studies

Courses