With deepfakes and social media manipulation proliferating, contemporary citizenship requires a deep understanding of media technologies, uses, and ethics. We need students to develop media literacy, which requires a critical understanding of how media are produced and disseminated. At the same time, today’s developments mark only an intensification of a long history: across the modern period, political and economic transformations have been enabled, carried out, and frequently challenged through specific media developments and strategies. To ensure informed, engaged, and ethically minded citizens—committed, as Rice aspires, to the betterment of our world—arguably no field of study is more essential than Media Studies.
The Program in Media Studies offers both a major in Media Studies and a minor in Cinema and Media Studies (per University policy, students pursuing the major may not additionally declare the minor). The course offerings for both the major and the minor are similar, but the major in Media Studies provides a wider context of study, ensuring students simultaneously master the history, theory, and production of media.
Both the major and minor are structured to allow students to pursue their own intellectual and creative interests. Students take a small number of required core courses (see the requirements at the links above, or in the General Announcements), but the majority of courses are chosen by students from a long list of electives in three main areas. A sample of these courses is below.
Film History and Aesthetics
- ENGL 286 CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY FILM
- ENGL 320 SHAKESPEARE ON FILM
- ENGL 375 FILM AND LITERATURE
- ENGL 398 SLAVERY IN 20TH AND 21ST CENTURY FILM AND FICTION
- FILM 432 FILM GENRE: THE WESTERN
- FILM 433 FILM GENRE: SCIENCE FICTION CINEMA
- FILM 435 SEMINAR ON FILM AUTHORSHIP: THE NEW HOLLYWOOD
- HART 180 14 FILMS YOU SHOULD SEE BEFORE YOU GRADUATE
- HART 336 CINEMA AND THE CITY
- HART 364 GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN FILM
- HART 383 GLOBAL CINEMA
- HIST 218 HISTORY THROUGH FILM IN EAST AND NORTHEAST ASIA
- FREN 402 GLOBAL FRENCH CINEMA
- GERM 336: NATIONAL SOCIALISM AND FILM
- GERM 410 THE POLITICS OF GERMAN FILM
- MDIA 201 HISTORY OF CINEMA AND MEDIA I: INVENTION TO 1945
- MDIA 202 HISTORY OF CINEMA AND MEDIA PART II: 1945-PRESENT
- SOCI 389 RACE, GENDER, CLASS IN FILM
Media and Cultural Theory
- ANTH 338 - READING POPULAR CULTURE
- ANTH 339 - IMAGE, MEDIA, ANTHROPOLOGY
- ANTH 385 - MEDIA, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY
- ANTH 395 - CULTURES AND COMMUNICATION
- ANTH 428 - FEMINIST SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES
- COMP 300 SOCIETY IN THE INFORMATION AGE
- COMP 301 COMPUTER ETHICS
- ENGL 249 : BOB DYLAN
- ENGL 273 MEDICINE AND MEDIA
- ENGL 358 CONSUMPTION & CONSUMERISM
- ENST 316 ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA
- FREN 305 THE MEDIA IN FRANCE
- FREN 319 FRANCE: THE SOCCER EMPIRE
- FREN 324 FROM DECOLONIZATION TO GLOBALIZATION
- HART 308 BLACK VISUAL CULTURE
- HART 311 REPRESENTATIONS OF DISABILITY
- HEAL 212 CONSUMER HEALTH AND THE MEDIA
- LALX 330 LATINX STORYTELLING TV & FILM
- LALX 350 PIRATES, REBELS, NARCOS
- LALX 390 TECH CULTURE & SOC IN LATIN AM
- POLI 343 MEDIA AND POLITICS
- SPAN 328 GAZING AT DISASTER: VISUAL CULTURE AND CATASTROPHE IN LATIN AMERICA
- SPAN 406 LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA
Media Production and Applied Research
- ARTS 238 SOUND ART
- ENGL 302 SCREENWRITING
- ENGL 308 INTRODUCTION TO PODCASTING
- ENGL 386 MEDICAL MEDIA ARTS LAB
- FILM 284 NONFICTION FILM
- FILM 287 INTRODUCTION TO EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO & INSTALLATION ART
- FILM 324 ENVIRONMENTAL FILMMAKING (D1)
- FILM 327 DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION (D1)
- FILM 328 FILMMAKING I (D1)
- FILM 333 VIDEO ACTIVISM
- FILM 420 FILM STUDIO
- FILM 444 HANDMADE FILM [8MM & 16MM FILM CLASS]
- MDIA 401 CRITICAL MEDIA LAB
- MUSI 315 MULTI-MEDIA COMPOSITION