The Committee on Cinema and Media Studies

The Committee on Cinema & Media Studies offers a Ph.D. program that focuses on the history, theory, and criticism of film and related media. Faculty are drawn from a wide range of departments and disciplines, primarily in the humanities. In addition to offering its own doctoral degree, the committee offers courses and guidance to students who specialize in film and related media within departmental graduate programs or might be pursuing a joint degree.

Centering on the cinema, the graduate program provides students with the critical skills, research methods, and an understanding of the debates that have developed within cinema studies as a discrete discipline. At the same time, the study of cinema and related media mandates an interdisciplinary approach in a number of respects. The aesthetics of film is inextricably linked to the cultural, social, political, and economic configurations within which the cinema emerged and which it in turn has shaped. Likewise, the history of the cinema cannot be separated from its interaction with other media. Just as it is part of a wholly new culture of moving images and sounds that includes television, video, and digital technologies, the cinema draws on earlier practices of instantaneous photography and sound recording and, in a wider sense, those media that are more often described as the fine arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, theater, and music). Finally, the interdisciplinary orientation of the program entails an emphasis on the diversity of film and media practices in different national and transnational contexts and periods and thus an understanding of the cinema as a historically variable and rich cultural form.

The Film Studies Center, located on the third floor of Cobb Hall, serves as a resource for course-related and individual research and as a forum for cinema and media-related activities.

The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

The requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in Cinema & Media Studies are as follows:

Students are expected to complete sixteen courses during their course of study, of which a minimum of eleven have to be listed among the offerings of the Committee on Cinema & Media Studies. These cinema and media studies courses will include:

1. Three required courses originating in the committee:
   (a) Methods and Issues in Cinema and Media Studies: an introduction to research methods, key concepts, and theoretical approaches, using case studies to introduce students to debates and issues in the field;
   (b) Film History I and II: a two-quarter survey course that is designed as both a beginning-level graduate and an upper-level undergraduate course.
   
2. Eight elective courses in the Committee on Cinema & Media Studies.
   

A sample program for students entering the committee without previous graduate study in cinema and media studies would consist in the following:

• First year: A total of seven courses: the three required courses; a minimum of two elective courses in the Committee on Cinema & Media Studies; two further elective courses.
  
• Second year: A total of six courses: a minimum of four elective courses in the Committee on Cinema & Media Studies; two further elective courses. Of these six courses, three must be designated as advanced courses.
  
• Third year: A total of three courses; at least one Ph.D. research seminar in the Committee on Cinema & Media Studies; one intensive screening course, designed to broaden the student’s knowledge of film history; one elective course.
  

For students entering the committee with an A.M. from another institution or another program, some of these requirements may, with the consent of the faculty, be waived.

Oral fields requirement: Students entering the committee without previous graduate study in cinema and media studies are expected to take their oral fields examination by the end of the third year; students entering with a master’s degree may be encouraged to take the examination earlier.

Language requirement: Given the highly international nature of the field of cinema and media studies, proficiency in two modern foreign languages has to be demonstrated by high passes on the University’s foreign language reading examinations. The first of these two languages must be either French or German, and proficiency should be demonstrated by the end of the autumn quarter of the student’s second year. The second language will be chosen in consultation with the graduate advisor, and proficiency must be demonstrated before the student will be permitted to take the oral fields examination.

Teaching: Students are eligible for course assistantships after their oral fields examination (but may apply for them as soon as a date for the exam is scheduled). Once students have served as course assistants, they may apply for teaching a free-standing course (normally during their fourth and/or fifth year).

Dissertation proposal: Before being admitted to candidacy, students must write a dissertation proposal under the supervision of the dissertation committee.

Dissertation: Upon completion of the dissertation, the student will defend it orally before the members of the dissertation committee.

Application and Financial Aid

Applicants to the Committee on Cinema & Media Studies are not required to have an undergraduate degree in film studies or in a related area, but it is recommended that students have had background in the field before applying to the program. Along with the application form, applicants have to submit a writing sample, GRE (Graduate Record Exam) scores from the general examination, and three letters of recommendation. Foreign applicants have to submit TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) scores in addition to the material above. Admission to the committee is competitive. Fellowships and scholarships are offered to a select number of highly qualified graduate students. The committee makes every effort to recommend offers of financial aid to cover tuition and, in many cases, a stipend for a student’s living expenses. Financial aid is awarded generally for four years if the student makes satisfactory progress in the degree program.

For further information concerning Cinema & Media Studies, please contact the program office in Gates-Blake 405, telephone: (773) 834-1077, e-mail: cine-media@uchicago.edu, web page: http://humanities.uchicago.edu/cmtes/cms/.

This page last updated on 9/03/2003.