Screen Studies, M.A.
Student Learning Outcomes
The goal of the program is to provide a comprehensive education in cinema history, theory, criticism, and aesthetics and to encourage the scholarly exploration of motion pictures as a form of art and a means of social communication. Because the degree program is housed in the same facility (the Steiner Film Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard) as the proposed M.F.A. in Cinema Arts, it encourages students to deepen their knowledge within the context of a larger community of filmmakers, entertainment management practitioners, and cinema scholars. This program’s interrelationship with the M.F.A. program makes it truly unique. Students benefit from the depth of M.F.A. electives, while interacting with professional filmmakers at the Steiner site.
Today, the very idea of cinema is in flux. No longer does it exclusively involve projected images in a darkened auditorium. Now, filmmakers create work that is viewed on televisions, computers, hand-held devices, and even cellular phones. The purpose of the M.A. in Cinema Studies is not merely to invest in its students a specific body of facts; rather, it is to prepare them to engage with the changing cinematic landscape and to understand its broadest aesthetic and cultural implications across media.
To do this, the program provides a solid foundation in those areas traditionally associated with advanced study in the discipline: cinema history, theory, criticism, and aesthetics. At the same time, it fosters intellectual independence and ask its students to pursue research that deepens understanding of the cinematic past while contextualizing present and future cinematic forms.
Initiation of the proposed branch campus is consistent with the institution’s mission and goal of the University's commitment to access and excellence. The program seeks to attract students who reflect the rich cultural diversity of the United States and beyond, and thus invite into the scholarly discussion of cinema voices that would not otherwise be heard.
