phd film california

Film & Media PhD

Phd in film and media.

Students in the Film and Media PhD are encouraged to situate moving images within the larger theoretical and analytical frameworks of a range of other disciplines. They integrate the traditions of history, law, literature, cultural studies, gender studies, and political theory to the newer disciplines of film studies and digital media, applying the tools of post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, new historicism, media archaeology, Frankfurt School, feminist theory, queer theory, post-colonialism, and critical race theory. Many combine their degree study with a campus designated emphasis (graduate minor) in New Media, in Critical Theory, or in Women, Gender and Sexuality.

Designated Emphasis in Film Studies

PhD students at Berkeley outside the Department of Film & Media may add a Designated Emphasis in Film Studies to their major fields. The designated emphasis provides curricular and research resources for students who want to concentrate on film and media research within their respective disciplines and have their work formally recognized. Designed to bring together faculty and students from different departments, the program provides a unique contliext for rigorous cross-disciplinary thinking and promotes innovative research in the theory and history of cinema and media studies.

Contact Info

[email protected]

7408 Dwinelle Hall

Berkeley, CA 94720

At a Glance

Department(s)

Film and Media

Admit Term(s)

Application Deadline

December 4, 2023

Degree Type(s)

Doctoral / PhD

Degree Awarded

GRE Requirements

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Ph.d. program.

Critical Practice in Film & Digital MediaIntegrating creative and critical endeavor in a range of media including film, television, video art and digital media, our new Ph.D. progra m challenges traditionally conceived borders between creative and critical practice. Our program fosters dialogue between creative practice and theoretical knowledge as related forms of intellectual work and provides the conditions for students to realize a wide range of possible projects, including those that exist across the traditional divides of theory and praxis. The program is designed to prepare students for intellectually-informed creative practice, as well as theoretical and critical production in a range of environments, not limited to traditional academic contexts.

Application for the program is now available: access the application here . For more information about UCSC applications, consult the UCSC Graduate Division's Application Instructions for UCSC Graduate Studies Applicants

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Berkeley Berkeley Academic Guide: Academic Guide 2023-24

Film & media.

About the Program

Phd in film and media.

Students in the Film and Media PhD are encouraged to situate moving images within the larger theoretical and analytical frameworks of a range of other disciplines. They integrate the traditions of history, law, literature, cultural studies, gender studies, and political theory to the newer disciplines of film studies and digital media, applying the tools of post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, new historicism, media archaeology, Frankfurt School, feminist theory, queer theory, post-colonialism, and critical race theory. Many combine their degree study with a campus designated emphasis (graduate “minor”) in New Media, in Critical Theory, or in Women, Gender and Sexuality.

Designated Emphasis in Film Studies

PhD students at Berkeley outside the Department of Film & Media may add a Designated Emphasis in Film Studies to their major fields. The designated emphasis provides curricular and research resources for students who want to concentrate on film and media research within their respective disciplines and have their work formally recognized. Designed to bring together faculty and students from different departments, the program provides a unique contliext for rigorous cross-disciplinary thinking and promotes innovative research in the theory and history of cinema and media studies.

Visit Department Website

Admission to the University

Applying for graduate admission.

Thank you for considering UC Berkeley for graduate study! UC Berkeley offers more than 120 graduate programs representing the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary scholarship. A complete list of graduate academic departments, degrees offered, and application deadlines can be found on the Graduate Division website .

Prospective students must submit an online application to be considered for admission, in addition to any supplemental materials specific to the program for which they are applying. The online application can be found on the Graduate Division website .

Admission Requirements

The minimum graduate admission requirements are:

A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;

A satisfactory scholastic average, usually a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale; and

Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in your chosen field.

For a list of requirements to complete your graduate application, please see the Graduate Division’s Admissions Requirements page . It is also important to check with the program or department of interest, as they may have additional requirements specific to their program of study and degree. Department contact information can be found here .

Where to apply?

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page .

Admission to the Designated Emphasis Program

Applicants must be enrolled in a doctoral program at Berkeley and must have completed either FILM 201, offered each fall semester, or FILM 200 , taught every spring.

Doctoral Degree Requirements

Designated emphasis requirements, coursework/curriculum.

A minimum of three graduate seminars in Film Studies must be taken at Berkeley. Independent study courses are not acceptable to fulfill this requirement.

Required courses

Qualifying examination (qe).

A member of the Graduate Group in Film Studies must be a formal member of the PhD qualifying examination committee. If applicable, the Film Studies Graduate Group member in the student’s home department will serve in this function. A member of the Graduate Group may also serve as the outside member of the qualifying exam committee. A Film Studies topic must be included as a subject on the qualifying examination.

Dissertation

A member of the Graduate Group in Film Studies must be a formal member of the dissertation committee. The dissertation must contribute to the study of film and moving-image media.

Degree Conferral

Upon completion of these requirements and the dissertation, the student will receive a designation on their transcript to state that they have completed a “PhD in [major] with an Emphasis in Film Studies.”

Film and Media

Film 200 graduate film theory seminar 4 units.

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 This seminar will examine both traditional and recent critical approaches to a systematic and historical study of film. Although we will emphasize contemporary structuralist-semiotic, psychoanalytical, and socio-critical methods, we will also study the classical debates in film theory about representation, filmic vs. literary signification, sexual difference, and the social function of images in modernism and postmodernism. Illustrations will be taken from film history from 1910 to 1980. Graduate Film Theory Seminar: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar and 1 hour of discussion per week

Additional Format: Three hours of Seminar and One hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks.

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Graduate

Grading: Letter grade.

Graduate Film Theory Seminar: Read Less [-]

FILM 201 Graduate Film Historiography 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 The theoretical and methodological issues raised by the recent practice of film history are the focus of this seminar. Intended primarily for first-year film studies graduate students and other students interested in starting work on film history, the seminar provides both a theoretical overview of film historiography and an introduction to the practice of historically oriented film research. The first part of the course uses both overtly historiographic readings and film history examples to raise historical questions of technology, institution-formation, exhibition, cultural history, and spectatorship. Graduate Film Historiography: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar and 2 hours of laboratory per week

Additional Format: Three hours of seminar and two hours of laboratory per week.

Graduate Film Historiography: Read Less [-]

FILM 203 Film Studies Proseminar 2 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 A seminar introducing Film Studies graduate students to the field, the profession, and the faculty practicing film studies. Envisioned as a way for new students to learn what is expected of them and for more advanced students to pass through the all-important last years of their training in an atmosphere of helpful camaraderie. Introduces students to the intellectual and physical resources of the Berkeley campus as well as the Bay Area. By the end of the semester students should gain an understanding of the expectations of their performance in graduate school, have identified the major goals on the way towards getting a Ph.D., and, depending on where they are in their studies, have begun to achieve those goals. Film Studies Proseminar: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Graduate standing

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week

Additional Format: Three hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.

Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.

Film Studies Proseminar: Read Less [-]

FILM 204 Compact Seminar 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2010 A compact seminar features a distinguished, short-term visitor with expertise in Film and Media. During the stay, the visitor meets intensively with graduate students, who then continue to work on research topics for the remainder of the semester. The seminar meets eight times one hundred and twenty minutes, not including screening time, and a substantial (twenty-five page) research paper is required at the end of the semester. Compact Seminar: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 4 weeks - 4 hours of seminar per week

Additional Format: Four hours of seminar (meeting two times per week).

Compact Seminar: Read Less [-]

FILM 220 Film Curating 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2011, Fall 2006 An introduction to the theory, history, and practice of film curating taught by Pacific Film Archive curators. What do curators do? How do they decide what to show? What is the role of film archives and film exhibition in the field of film and moving image study? Using the Pacific Film Archive and its programmers as a laboratory, students will go behind-the-scenes of the Archive's curatorial, print traffic, publicity, and editorial departments and learn how to program by doing. The course will culminate in a proposal for a comprehensive film series. Film Curating: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar and 1-4 hours of laboratory per week

Additional Format: Three hours of Seminar and One to Four hour of Laboratory per week for 15 weeks.

Film Curating: Read Less [-]

FILM 221 Film Curating Part 2 2 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2007 Students will develop and present a film series for presentation at the Pacific Film Archive. Possibly refining a series proposed in 220. PFA curators will have final approval of the series topic and the film/video selection. Students will locate and book all films, write program notes, do outreach, and introduce programs. Guest speakers will include local press, writers, and artists. Local film and videomakers will trace the history of a work from production through exhibition. Film Curating Part 2: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 220

Film Curating Part 2: Read Less [-]

FILM 230 Graduate Production Seminar 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Spring 2013, Spring 2012 Intensive study of the basic elements of film and digital video production and post-production. Graduate students will develop a working knowledge of film and video making through hands-on production experience that will enable them to film and edit their own productions. They will also acquire training to teach basic video and film production classes. The uses of specific technologies and formats will be discussed in relation to aesthetic and theoretical questions. Training includes pre-production-scripting and storyboarding, production elements including image capture, and post-production strategies and aesthetics for non-linear digital editing programs. The course will also introduce problems of how to format video/films for exhibition and approaches to distribution, exhibition, and funding. Classes will consist of technical lectures and hands-on workshops, creative exercises, seminar-style discussion and critique, film screenings, assigned readings, and visiting artists and speakers. Graduate Production Seminar: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of lecture and 3-5 hours of laboratory per week

Additional Format: Two hours of Lecture and Three to Five hours of Laboratory per week for 15 weeks.

Graduate Production Seminar: Read Less [-]

FILM 240 Graduate Topics in Film 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023 Selected topics in the study of film. Graduate Topics in Film: Read More [+]

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of laboratory per week

Additional Format: Three hours of lecture and two hours of laboratory per week.

Graduate Topics in Film: Read Less [-]

FILM 297 Dissertation Writing Seminar 4 Units

Terms offered: Prior to 2007 Students having completed doctoral qualifying examinations and now working on a dissertation or prospectus will undertake a structured process leading to the completion of a finished piece of work, in most cases a dissertation chapter. Each week, students will discuss one or more works in progress, and will have an opportunity both to learn from other students’ process and research, and to receive feedback from a diverse group on your own writing. Alongside the work of participants, students will read relevant theoretical texts and discuss research methods, questions of genre, tools for moving through blocks, and avenues for publication. Dissertation Writing Seminar: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Students must have successfully completed their doctoral qualifying examinations and advanced to candidacy

Additional Format: Three hours of seminar per week.

Dissertation Writing Seminar: Read Less [-]

FILM 298 Special Study 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2022 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2021, Fall 2017 Designed to allow students to do research in areas not covered by other courses. Requires regular discussions with the instructor and a final written report. Special Study: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Graduate standing

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week

Summer: 3 weeks - 5-20 hours of independent study per week 6 weeks - 2.5-10 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 2-7.5 hours of independent study per week 10 weeks - 1.5-6 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: Individual conferences. Individual conferences.

Special Study: Read Less [-]

FILM 299 Directed Research 1 - 12 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Summer 2021, Fall 2020 Open to graduate students who have passed their Ph.D. qualifying examinations. Directed Research: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-12 hours of independent study per week

Summer: 8 weeks - 1.5-22.5 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: One to Twelve hour of Independent study per week for 15 weeks. One and one-half to Twenty-two and one-half hours of Independent study per week for 8 weeks.

Directed Research: Read Less [-]

FILM 375 Teaching Reading and Composition through Film & Media 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021 This course serves as introductory training for first-time R&C GSIs who are interested in incorporating moving-image materials and instructional strategies into their teaching repertoire. Teaching Reading and Composition through Film & Media: Read More [+]

Objectives & Outcomes

Course Objectives: This course exposes students to current research on teaching student writing, encourages discussion of strategies and practices for R&C courses using both readings and moving-image media in the instructional content, and creates a structured space for current GSIs to workshop and troubleshoot issues from teaching in progress during the semester’s instruction.

Student Learning Outcomes: 2. be able to create and evaluate the effectiveness of lesson plans and assignments that employ active learning strategies (e.g., discussion, collaborative problem solving, applied practice) in the study of moving-image media materials; 3. know the standards of ethical conduct by which they and their students must abide and how to provide a welcoming and respectful learning environment for a diverse student body; 4. know general and field-specific University policies and resources for teaching film and media composition courses on the Berkeley campus, such as those pertaining to students with disabilities, students in distress, student athletes, sexual harassment, academic integrity, and instructional technology; 5. know how to assess student learning and grade student work fairly, consistently, and efficiently, with special attention to the structural and cultural differences in preparation that present barriers to learning effective writing; 6. be able to use feedback and assessment tools such as mid-semester evaluations to improve teaching; 7. be able to reflect upon teaching and learning and explain why they make the choices they do as teachers in their field; 8. know how to effectively communicate and collaborate with members of a teaching team (e.g., faculty instructor, head GSI, co-instructors, fellow GSIs, Readers, course support staff). Upon completion of the course, GSIs should: 1. know effective practices, current directions, and resources for engaging students in writing about film and media;

Prerequisites: Current or upcoming first-time appointment as GSI

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week

Additional Format: Two hours of seminar per week.

Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Professional course for teachers or prospective teachers

Teaching Reading and Composition through Film & Media: Read Less [-]

FILM 602 Individual Study for Doctoral Students 1 - 6 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018 Individual study in consultation with faculty director as preparation for degree examinations. Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-6 hours of independent study per week

Summer: 8 weeks - 1.5-11 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: One to Six hour of Independent study per week for 15 weeks. One and one-half to Eleven hours of Independent study per week for 8 weeks.

Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Graduate examination preparation

Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read Less [-]

Contact Information

Department of film and media.

7408 Dwinelle Hall

Phone: 510-642-1415

Fax: 510-642-8881

[email protected]

Film & Media Department Chair

Kristen Whissel

[email protected]

Film & Media Graduate Advising Office

Graduate Student Advisor

7407 Dwinelle Hall

[email protected]

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Cinema & Media Studies MA

Whether aiming for a career in academia or the bustling world of entertainment, the Cinema and Media Studies Program at UCLA equips students with historical insights, theoretical frameworks, and practical skills to navigate an ever-evolving media landscape.

Two distinct MA tracks are presented within CMS: the Academic Track and the Professional Track.

World-Class Faculty

Sean Metzger

Jasmine Nadua Trice

Denise R. Mann

Requirements.

The CMS Media Professions MA Degree Track is an MA for students planning to pursue careers in film and media festival programming, archives, and the entertainment industry. The degree can be completed in three quarters, but students are permitted to take up to seven quarters to complete. This degree offers the option of a professional internship, which students should begin to seek in their first quarter of residency. Completing the Media Professions MA Degree Track requires successful completion of 36 units and at least 9 courses.

The PhD Program is intended primarily for students who wish to build a career around excellence in university teaching and research. The PhD Program requires successful completion of a minimum of 7 Core Courses and at least 7 elective courses (not counting those completed at the Masters level) and successful completion of the Intellectual Statement, Sixth Quarter Review, Comprehensive Exam, Prospectus Review, Foreign Language Requirement at level three or higher and successful submission and defense of the Dissertation.

CMS Media Professions MA Degree Track

Completing the Media Professions MA Degree Track requires successful completion of 36 units and at least 9 courses, which consist of the following:

Required: 4 Core Courses: These courses are required during the 1st year in the CMS Media Professions MA Degree Track.

• FTV 210 Common Course (Fall)
• FTV 215 Theory and Method (Fall)
• FTV 211 Historiography: Media, History and the Archive (Winter)
• FTV 213 Capstone Seminar (Spring)

Required: 5 Elective Graduate Seminar Courses

• A maximum of two elective courses may be taken outside of CMS.

Recommended: Internship:

• FTV 498 Professional Internship: students are encouraged to seek internships as part of their professional development. This course is recommended but not required.

Recommended: Teaching Assistant Training

• FTV 495A, Section 1 TA Training: students are encouraged to enroll in the TA Training course. Students who have been awarded at Teaching Assistant position or who wish to apply, must have completed or be currently enrolled in 495A to accept a TA position (offered one time/year in fall).

Recommended: CMS Colloquium

• FTV 212 CMS Colloquium (Fall, Winter): students are encouraged to enroll in or attend the CMS Colloquium during all quarters to participate in screenings, research presentations and discussions. May be repeated for credit. Even if students are not enrolled, they are encouraged to attend the lectures as a practice of engaging in the intellectual community of the program.

CMS Ph.D. Degree Track

The PhD Program requires successful completion of a minimum of 7 Core Courses and at least 7 elective courses (not counting those completed at the Masters level) and successful completion of the Intellectual Statement, Sixth Quarter Review, Comprehensive Exam, Prospectus Review, Foreign Language Requirement at level three or higher and successful submission and defense of the Dissertation.

Year One 2023-2024: 4 Core Courses, Intellectual Statement

• FTV 495A Teaching Assistant Training (does not need to be repeated if taken during MA)
• FTV 210 Common Course (with all of FTVDM incoming MA, MFA, and PhD students) (Fall)
• First Quarter reflection (500 word-minimum) & Five-Year-Plan (Due beginning of Winter Quarter)
• FTV 211 Historiography (Winter)
• Academic Progress Report/Intellectual Statement (Spring)[1]
• Begin taking courses toward language requirement
• Establish California residency (U.S. citizens and permanent residents only)
• Academic Progress Report (April 1 st )

Funding and Fellowship Applications (Strongly Recommended): 

• Apply for Donor Awards (Deadline: Winter) Applications due Jan. 15
• Apply for Graduate Summer Research Mentorship (GSRM) (Deadline: Winter) or Foreign Language and Area S tudies Fellowship (FLAS)
• Apply for Graduate Research Mentorship (GRM) Applications by Jan. 15
• Consult UCLA Fellowship website to find other internal and external funding sources: https://grad.ucla.edu/funding/
• Apply for TAships for summer (Jan. 15) and next AY ( Deadline: March 15 )

[1] The Intellectual Statement is an end-of-the-year review of progress for students in the PhD program. It is designed to assess the milestones, development, and epiphanies that occurred, as well as to talk through any problem areas or concerns. It should also elaborate plans for the upcoming summer. Each student will meet with their advisor to discuss their progress and plans. See the CMS Milestones doc for more details.

Summer after Year 1: Recommended Research Development Milestones

• Start to prepare a paper you have written for presentation or publication
• Investigate conferences related to your research topic
• Begin to consider what fields you will cover in your exams
• Reach out to potential advisors before the Fall
• Begin to develop and hone central research questions by reading in your prospective subfields and developing preliminary reading lists
• Begin gathering prospective primary materials for your proposed dissertation (develop a media-filmography, visit archives, identify potential interviewees, visit potential field sites)
• Continue progress toward completion of language requirement

Year Two/Academic Year 2024-2025: 2 Core Courses, the 6 th Quarter Review and Completion of the PhD Study Plan

• FTV 274 Research Design A (Bibliography and Exam Prep) (Fall)
• Exam Lists ( End of Fall , should be sent to Brian Brown and all of your advisors)
• FTV 274 B (Exam Prep with advisors)
• PhD Comprehensive Exam ( End of Winter /Stipend quarter)
• (If you pass the exam you can move to the next stage and prepare for your prospectus, if you fail your first attempt you can re-sit the exam at the end of Spring Quarter, but if you fail your second attempt the Program will recommend you for dismissal from the program).
• FTV 274 Research Design III (Writing the Prospectus) (Spring)
• Continued progress toward language requirement (must be completed by the end of the 3 rd Year)
• Prospectus Review (End of Spring)

       Funding and Fellowship Applications (Strongly Recommended): 

• Apply for outside fellowships (Deadline: Fall)
• Apply for Donor Awards (Deadline: Winter)
• Apply for Graduate Research Mentorship (GRM)
• Apply for TAships for summer and next AY (Deadline: Spring).

Take a stipend term in Winter to prepare for exams: The winter stipend term is meant to provide time for intensive reading and towards the exam at the end of the term. You should plan to meet with your faculty regularly during the term. Read for exams on the basis of lists created in bibliography course; plan which conferences you will attend in the coming year.

Summer after Year 2: Recommended Research Development Milestones

This summer is meant to provide time for intensive writing / revision of your prospectus and preparing for the advancement-to-candidacy meeting/oral exam in the Fall. You should plan to meet with your faculty committee regularly during the summer.

Year Three 2025-2026: Nomination of Doctoral Committee and Advancement to Candidacy

• Advancement to Candidacy/Nomination of Doctoral Committee (Fall) (Contingent upon language requirement completion, passing comprehensive exams and passing the preliminary dissertation review by CMS faculty)

Winter/Spring/Summer Year 3: Post Advancement to Candidacy:

In this period, you will finish your required classes at UCLA, though you may continue to develop your research skills through auditing seminars. The post-advancement time requires close coordination with your dissertation chair and intensive independent dissertation research. You will be coordinating with your chair to create a timeline for the completion of your dissertation research (see advising timeline template linked in the CMS Milestones document). It is recommended that you also actively participate in major conferences, including SCMS and/or other related conferences (American Studies Association, Film History conference, Screen, or others).

• Apply for outside fellowships for dissertating students
• Apply for TAships for summer and next AY (Deadline Spring)

Years 3, 4, 5

• Dissertation research and writing, in close consultation with your Dissertation Chair.
• Continued submission of Academic Progress Reports April 1 st .
• By the end of year 4 you should have one completely finished chapter (if you want to apply for a DYF, you need 2 completed chapters by the end of January in order to apply for a DYF)
• By December of year 5 you should have two completely finished chapters (and apply for a DYF)

Year 6 (contingent on external funding)

Continued time for dissertation research and writing, pending external funding (e.g., DYF)

Normative time to degree is 6 th year, we cannot fund or promise any funding beyond year 5.  After your 8 th year you will have to reapply to the program.

PhD Program Reminders:

Required During Years One – Three: 5 Elective Graduate Seminar Courses. A maximum of 2 of elective courses may be taken outside of CMS. Additional permitted by petition.

Required During Years One-Three: Language Requirement Courses & Petition. Completion of level 3 language training or higher (as determined by Dissertation Committee) must be provided prior to student Advancement to Candidacy.

Recommended During Years One-Three: Colloquium. Students are encouraged to enroll in or attend Colloquium during all quarters to participate in screenings, research presentations and discussions. May be repeated for credit.

• FTV 212 CMS Colloquium

World-Class Students

Iftin Abshir

Emmelle Israel

Jade Abston

• Welcome to UC Santa Cruz
• Introducing UC Santa Cruz
• Academic Programs
• Digital Arts and New Media
• Film and Digital Media B.A.
• Film and Digital Media Minor
• Social Documentation M.F.A.

Film and Digital Media Ph.D.

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2023-24 UCSC General Catalog > Academic Units > Arts Division > Film and Digital Media > Film and Digital Media Ph.D.

Introduction

Focusing on a diverse range of cultural production that includes cinema, television, video art, and Internet-based media, Ph.D. students interrogate the historical, aesthetic, political, ideological, and technological aspects of these media forms across a range of international contexts, investigating their points of connection and convergence as well as their relationship to broader cultural and historical change. The program thus prepares students for intellectually informed creative practice as well as theoretical and critical production in a range of environments, not limited to traditional academic contexts.

Advancement to Candidacy

Course requirements.

• Applicants who already hold an M.A. or M.F.A. degree may petition to waive up to 30 credits of coursework; including up to two of the six required Film and Digital Media (FDM) Ph.D. electives; such a waiver is subject to the approval of the director of Graduate Studies. Such a waiver would advance the normative timeline described below; students will determine the exact timing of milestones with their advisors and the director of Graduate Studies.
• Residence for a minimum of six quarters.
• When in residence, students will take a minimum of 36 credits per year until advancement to candidacy.
• First-year students will be required to take the three foundational courses ( FILM 200A - FILM 200B - FILM 200C ), FILM 202 (Pedagogy in Film and Digital Media, 2 credits), plus at least two film and digital media graduate elective courses.*
• FILM 296F must be taken quarterly with the primary advisor until advancement to candidacy.
• Second-year students must then take at least four film and digital media graduate elective courses.*
• FILM 203 (Professional Development in Film and Digital Media) is a required course, to be taken after the first year.
• Students are not permitted to enroll in FILM 295 (Directed Reading) classes during their first year and are limited to one during their second year, unless they enter the program with an M.A. or M.F.A.
• Third-year students arrange three Directed Readings ( FILM 295 ) to prepare for the three topic areas of their qualifying examination.
• Prior to advancing to candidacy, students will continue to meet the minimum number of credits with other 2-5 credit elective courses as appropriate.
• The remaining course units may be selected from film and digital media graduate courses or graduate courses other departments, subject to approval from the student’s faculty advisor.
• Any course taken to fulfill the six-course Film and Digital Media (FDM) Ph.D. elective requirement may only count once toward satisfaction of this elective requirement.
• Students must obtain permission from the director of Graduate Studies, their faculty advisor to take advanced undergraduate courses.

Students are expected to complete at least one year of supervised teaching as part of the degree requirements.

*Non-film and digital media graduate courses that are taught by film and digital media faculty can count as film and digital media graduate electives. Graduate electives in this category are listed in the annual and quarterly courses posted on the Programs page on department’s website , select Courses.

Foreign Language Requirements

Students must demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. This may include a computer programming language instead of a natural language when such a language is integral to the student’s field of study. The language requirement may be satisfied in one of two ways:

• by passing an upper-division course in a language related to the student’s research;
• by passing a reading proficiency test administered by a qualified person approved by the director of Graduate Studies.

A student must pass the language requirement before taking Ph.D. qualifying examinations. There are three exceptions. (Documentation for the exception must be received and approved by the director of Graduate Studies at least two months before the qualifying examination.)

• The “foreign” language requirement may be waived for a non-English native speaker who has passed the proficiency test in English required for admission.
• The requirement may be waived for a student who is a native speaker of another language in addition to English. The student must submit a statement to the director of Graduate Studies attesting to their proficiency in the additional native language.
• The requirement may be waived if a student has proof of proficiency in a language other than English in the form of a language major or minor from recent undergraduate or master’s level education or equivalent. This must have been completed within the past five years at an accredited institution.

Teaching Requirement

Pre-qualifying requirements.

During the first year of study in FILM 200A - FILM 200B - FILM 200C classes, students will be introduced to the methodologies of developing a critical practice approach. This will occur while students simultaneously strengthen, with the appropriate elective classes, areas of theory or practice that pertain to their focus.

During the second year, the student will focus on selecting classes from the film and digital media elective series numbered FILM 200–FILM 289. Students will also be encouraged to take electives from other graduate programs on campus.

At the end of the second year, students undergo a second year review which functions as the master’s examination. Students will submit four to five coursework projects for the examination. One of these must be the final project from FILM 200C . Students will also submit a statement about that work and its contexts, which will form the basis for oral examination questions by faculty members.

Students may nominate faculty members to the committee. The student’s faculty advisor and the director of Graduate Studies will assemble the committee, taking into account the student’s nominations. The committee will have a minimum of three faculty members, at least two of whom must be from the film and digital media faculty. One of those two must be the faculty advisor, who will chair the meeting. The committee must also include the director of Graduate Studies. (The director of Graduate Studies will not necessarily sit on the student’s committee for future exams/reviews.) The examination is closed; only the student and the faculty committee will be present.

For students entering without a master's degree, the committee will recommend one of three grades for the M.A. examination: fail, pass, or pass with permission to proceed. Students who fail may retake the oral component of the examination one time. A student with a pass only may leave the program with the degree of master of arts. Students who pass with permission to proceed may enter the third year of coursework toward the Ph.D. For students entering with a master's degree, the committee will discuss the result of the review and its recommendations for further progress in the program, including the timeline to the Ph.D. qualifying examination (QE).

Qualifying Examination

The third year will be spent developing three qualifying examination topics that will lead to the dissertation in close consultation with the student’s faculty advisor. (This may occur earlier for students who enter with a master’s degree.) Students work with three faculty members to develop three distinct topic areas with a corresponding bibliography/mediagraphy in FILM 295 (Directed Reading). Topic areas must be pre-approved by the director of Graduate Studies who will ensure that the breadth requirement is met.

Students will also begin assembling a qualifying examination (QE) committee. The QE committee will be comprised of three faculty members, at least one of whom must be from another discipline at UC Santa Cruz or from another campus. Students will also nominate a faculty member to chair the examination committee. The chair should be a tenured faculty member from the Film and Digital Media Department, holding a Ph.D., but should not be the student’s primary faculty advisor or the person who will chair the dissertation. The composition of the QE committee must be approved by the Graduate Division and must be submitted to the director of Graduate Studies at least five weeks prior to the written examination.

The qualifying examination will typically be scheduled for the fall of the fourth year and no later than the end of the fourth year. (Students who enter with a master’s degree may be eligible to take the qualifying examination before their fourth year.) The QE will consist of a written examination and an oral examination. A student who fails the Ph.D. qualifying examination will be permitted to re-take it one time. During the qualifying examination quarter, students may enroll in up to two FILM 299 (Thesis Research) classes with members of their committee.

Post-Qualifying Examination Requirements

No later than two academic quarters after successfully passing the qualifying examination, students must submit and defend a Dissertation Prospectus. The candidate’s dissertation committee must approve this prospectus. After the dissertation prospectus has been approved, the student will schedule a dissertation colloquium open to all film and digital media faculty and graduate students. The colloquium can be scheduled before or shortly after the official advancement to candidacy.

Students will advance to candidacy once they have successfully:

• completed all required coursework with satisfactory grade;
• satisfied the language requirement;
• passed the Ph.D. qualifying examination;
• organized an approved dissertation committee, through the dissertation nomination form; and
• defended a dissertation prospectus and had it approved by their dissertation committee.

Dissertation

Completion of the Degree

Upon successful advancement to candidacy, students must then complete the following requirements for the Ph.D.

The dissertation, or Ph.D. thesis, is to be an original contribution of high quality to the field of film and digital media. If a student’s thesis contains a substantial creative component, the thesis project must also include a written component of no less than 75 pages. The dissertation must be approved by a committee consisting of a minimum of three faculty members. The dissertation chair must be a film and digital media faculty member and at least two committee members must be from the film and digital media faculty.  If the dissertation chair does not hold a Ph.D. degree, then the majority of the remaining committee members must hold Ph.D.s. Also, the majority of the dissertation committee membership shall be members of the Santa Cruz Division of the Academic Senate. 

The Ph.D. candidate shall submit the dissertation providing a minimum of 45 days for the committee members to review it. Once the committee has deemed it ready to defend, the candidate will work with the department and committee to schedule the oral dissertation defense.

Dissertation Defense

The oral defense will be comprised of a brief introduction of the dissertation’s form and content, and an articulation of the scholarly and artistic intervention it forges; the student will then answer questions posed by their dissertation committee. Invited members of the academic community may attend the defense, but the discussion will remain among the candidate and the committee.

Once the student has passed the oral dissertation defense, responds to any questions or suggestions for revisions, and has the dissertation approved by the committee, they will be eligible to “Announce Candidacy for Ph.D.” by submitting the dissertation and required documents to the Division of Graduate Studies.

Academic Progress

Normative time for completion of the program is six years. The first two years of the program are primarily devoted to coursework. Preliminary exams for the master’s degree occur in the spring of the second year. By the end of the third year, students should have formulated a dissertation topic and proposal deriving from their work in that year and should have nominated a Ph.D. qualifying examination committee and dissertation committee. Qualifying examinations for advancement to Ph.D. candidacy typically occur in the fall of the fourth year. These are approximate timelines, subject to variation depending on previous degree(s), transfer credits, substitutions, progress in program, leaves and/or other factors.

Applying for Graduation

You must submit an application for the Ph.D.  to your graduate coordinator for review by the end of the second week of the quarter in which you intend to receive the certificate. The graduate coordinator will forward your application to the Graduate Division.

Please see Registration Requirements for all Graduate Degrees for details about registration requirement the quarter you intend to graduate.

For additonal forms and information please visit the UCSC Graduate Division website .

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2023-24 edition, film and media studies, ph.d..

The Film and Media Studies Ph.D. program is dedicated to understanding film, television, and digital media texts in relation to questions of power, inequality, and difference. Students are encouraged to think critically about questions of aesthetics, production, and cultural meaning as they manifest in film, television, and digital media both past and present. Students in the Ph.D. program gain a foundation in the humanities-based discipline of Film and Media Studies while also developing innovative research projects that interrogate media in relation to race, gender/sexuality, nation, religion, ability, and other constructions of difference.

Applications for admission are accepted in the fall quarter only. Complete applications include:

• A statement of purpose (1,200 words maximum) that describes research interests and reasons for seeking a Ph.D. The statement of purpose should indicate how proposed research correlates to the program's emphases and how student's benefit from working with core faculty.
• A personal history statement (1,200 words maximum) that describe educational accomplishments and goals. Applicants should communicate whether they have experienced unique or significant opportunities, challenges, and/or obstacles in the pursuit of an education. Applicants should describe the career paths they plan to pursue after graduation.
• A sample of academic writing, approximately 20 pages in length, that demonstrates original thinking and clear writing.
• Three letters of recommendation, preferably from faculty with whom the applicants have studied.
• Transcripts.
• Results of the TOEFL or IELTS exam for international applicants for whom English is not their primary language.

View the online application .

For questions about the program or the application process, please email [email protected] .

First-Year Review

Students are required to select and confirm their Primary Advisor by the end of the first year.

At the end of the spring quarter, the Film and Media Studies faculty reviews the performance and progress of each first-year student and provides written evaluation of their work. This evaluation includes an assessment of the student’s ability to complete independent research.

A positive assessment indicates that the student is making good progress.

A cautionary assessment is accompanied by a description of specific improvements that a student must make in order to advance to candidacy in the third year.

A negative overall assessment places the student on Academic Conditional Status. Faculty gives written feedback with specific areas for improvement and a timeline for future expectations of academic progress. Students who fail to demonstrate improvement may be recommended for dismissal from the program without a degree.

MA Requirements

All students apply for and are accepted into the doctoral program.

Students who enter the Ph.D. program with a prior graduate degree (M.A. or beyond) in Film and Media Studies or a related discipline may petition to waive the M.A. exam requirement in recognition of their prior degree; normatively, this is approved. In these cases, students do not complete the M.A. exam requirement nor earn a second M.A. en route to the Ph.D. Film and Media Studies faculty determine what graduate degree fields qualify as related disciplines. Students entering with an M.F.A. typically are required to complete the M.A. exam unless the Graduate Committee determines that the degree is equivalent to an M.A.

Students who have not earned an M.A. in a relevant field prior to matriculating in the Film and Media Studies Ph.D. program must earn an M.A. degree as part of the Ph.D. program. The program does not offer a stand-alone or terminal M.A., except in instances when a student does not continue in the program toward earning the Ph.D.

To earn the M.A. degree, the student must:

• Pass the M.A. Exam
• File the necessary paperwork for conferral of degree with Graduate Division.

For the M.A. exam, the student revises one seminar paper written while in the program and submits the revised paper before the start of the spring quarter in their second year of study.

The requirements for passing the M.A. exam are as follows:

• The revised paper must present a substantive and original argument;
• It must reflect substantial revision from the original paper, demonstrating additional research and/or reconceptualization and responsiveness to feedback;
• It must demonstrate a command of the relevant literature;
• It must present adequate evidence to support its claims;
• It must be clearly written in an appropriate academic style; and
• It must be formatted according to MLA or Chicago Manual of Style guidelines with proper citation and bibliography.

This paper is evaluated by a three-person M.A. committee, which consists of the student’s primary advisor as chair and two additional department faculty members appointed by the Program Director in consultation with the student and the advisor. The committee unanimously decides whether the student has passed the M.A. exam and if they are eligible to proceed toward the Ph.D., taking into holistic account the exam (revised paper) results, input from the core Film and Media Studies faculty during the First-Year Review, and the student’s progress during the second year of course work. There are four possible determinations:

• Positive: The student earns the M.A. and qualifies to continue toward the Ph.D. exams.
• Cautionary: The student earns the M.A. and qualifies to continue toward the Ph.D. exams but with areas for improvement communicated in writing to the student and advisor. This occurs when the student’s holistic performance and promise outweigh a borderline exam or vice versa.
• M.A. Only: The student earns the M.A. but is disqualified from continuing toward the Ph.D. exams. This occurs when the student’s holistic performance and promise do not outweigh a borderline exam.
• Negative: The exam is unacceptable. The student does not earn the M.A. and is disqualified from continuing toward the Ph.D. exams.

Students may revise and resubmit the M.A. paper one additional time in case of a failure to pass.

Language Requirement

Students will consult with the program director and their principal advisor(s) to determine whether they must demonstrate or develop proficiency in a second language for their research. 1 If the program director and principal advisor(s) determine that proficiency in a second language is required, the student must demonstrate this proficiency prior to advancing to candidacy. In the event a student does not need a second language to conduct doctoral research, they are not required to demonstrate proficiency in a second language.

If determined to be required, the language requirement may be satisfied by one of the following means:

• By passing the Film and Media Studies translation exam. A request must be made to the Film and Media Studies staff within the first two weeks of the quarter the student wishes to take the exam.
• By completing, with a grade of B or better, a language course at the 2C level or equivalent, with the exception of Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which must be completed at the 3C level or equivalent.
• By attaining a proficiency level of 2C on the Russian Exemption Exam or a proficiency level of 3C on the Chinese Exemption Exam offered by UCI's Academic Testing Center.
• By petitioning the program. Grounds for a petition might include the student’s being a native speaker in a language other than English or having completed an equivalent language requirement at a different institution. The granting of this petition remains at the discretion of the Graduate Director, although students dissatisfied with this determination may request the petition be considered by the full faculty. Students who have completed the language requirement at a different institution need to submit transcripts with the petition. Students inquire with the Graduate Coordinator to complete a petition.

1 Examples of when a second language would likely be necessary include Spanish proficiency for the study of Spanish-language media, Mandarin proficiency for study of media in Mainland China, or the relevant language for a project on non-English language transnational/diasporic media.

Preliminary Examination

By the end of their second year, students work with their advisor to plan their Examination fields for the following year. No later than the end of winter in the third year of study, students establish a three-person Qualifying Exam Committee, at least 51 percent of whose members, including the Dissertation Advisor, must be core faculty in the Department of Film and Media Studies.

The student receives one standardized bibliography and selects two specialty field bibliographies on which they are examined. In the fall and winter quarters of the third year, the student will enroll in FLM&MDA 296 and complete reading the works on these three bibliographies. The three exam areas should serve to help the student define general areas of specialized competence that aid them in establishing a broad base for the dissertation and in developing college-level courses. Students may not enroll in FLM&MDA 296 until all their other course requirements (with the exception of FLM&MDA 298 ) have been completed.

The Qualifying Examination is administered by the Qualifying Exam Committee and includes both a written and an oral component. The written component consists of at least one question for each exam bibliography for which the student has completed readings. Students write at least one essay for each respective exam. Faculty may offer a range of questions for each bibliography, giving the student a choice of which question(s) to answer. The written component is offered as a series of three remote exams to be completed within three respective 24-hour periods; questions and responses are delivered electronically. The oral component of the exam takes place in conjunction with the Prospectus Defense during the spring quarter of the student’s third year.

Dissertation Prospectus and Advancement to Ph.D. Candidacy

The student will enroll in FLM&MDA 298 and complete a prospectus that identifies the scope, approach, and rationale for their proposed dissertation. The student presents an oral defense of the prospectus to the Qualifying Exam Committee. When the prospectus has been unanimously approved by the Qualifying Exam Committee, the student is advanced to doctoral candidacy. Students should have taken their preliminary examination, defended their dissertation prospectus, and advanced to doctoral candidacy no later than the end of spring quarter of their third year. If a student exceeds the three-year normative time to candidacy, they must petition by spring quarter of their third year for an exception, presenting an approved plan for timely progress to candidacy.

If a student does not pass the qualifying examination, consistent with UCI policy (Academic Senate Regulation 467) the student will be allowed one repeat attempt of the examination. This repeat examination will occur during the quarter following the initial examination.

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2023-2024 Catalogue

A PDF of the entire 2023-2024 catalogue.

The degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Cinema and Media Studies is administered through the Graduate School. The PhD program is tailored to the individual student’s particular needs and interests. The overall course of study will be designed by the student, the student’s designated adviser and, following the screening procedure, the student’s qualifying exam committee chair (see Screening Procedure under Media Production and Practice Courses).

Degree Requirements

Each PhD candidate must complete 68 units beyond the bachelor’s degree, 43 of which must be at the 500 level or higher. (Up to 30 units may be transferred from graduate work completed at other institutions.) Dissertation units are not counted toward the 68-unit total. The required units will include seven to 12 courses in cinematic arts and 8 to 16 units in the minor area. The minor will be chosen by the student in close consultation with the adviser and will be in an academic field that supports the student’s dissertation topic. Each student must complete the following course work toward the 68-unit total. 

These courses should be taken before the screening procedure.

• CTCS 500 Seminar in Film Theory Units: 4
• CTCS 506 Critical Studies Colloquium/Professional Seminar Units: 2
• CTCS 510 Case Studies in National Media and/or Regional Media Units: 4
• CTCS 587 Seminar in Television Theory Units: 4

Media Production and Practice Courses

Each candidate for the PhD must complete one of the following 4-unit courses with a grade of C or better. If the student enters the program with a master’s degree in cinematic arts and possesses production experience, the student may request a waiver of this requirement. The waiver requires passing a written examination and submission of films/videos to the production faculty for review. This course should be taken before the screening procedure.

• CTIN 534L Experiments in Interactivity I Units: 4
• CTPR 507 Production I Units: 4
• IML 501L Digital Media Authorship and the Archive Units: 4
• IML 502 Techniques of Information Visualization Units: 4
• IML 575 Graduate Media Arts Research Lab Units: 2, 3, 4 (4 units only)

Two of the following:

• CTCS 673 Topics in Theory Units: 4
• CTCS 677 Cultural Theory Units: 4
• CTCS 678 Seminar in Film Theory and Medium Specificity Units: 4
• CTCS 679 Seminar in Genre and/or Narrative Theory Units: 4
• CTCS 688 Moving Image Histories: Methods and Approaches Units: 4

Screening Procedure

The Graduate School requires that programs administer an examination or other procedure at a predetermined point in the student’s studies as a prerequisite to continuation in the doctoral program. This procedure is designed to review the student’s suitability for continuing in the chosen PhD program. The School of Cinematic Arts has determined that this procedure will occur no later than the end of the student’s third semester of graduate course work at USC beyond the master’s degree. The screening procedure process will include the following steps:

• If the faculty has determined during the admissions process that a comprehensive examination will be required as part of the screening procedure, an examination will be administered as appropriate. If the examination is passed to the faculty’s satisfaction, the student may proceed to the next step in the screening procedure process. If the student fails to pass the examination, the faculty will determine if the student will be allowed to retake the examination the following semester before proceeding to the next step in the screening procedure process.
• The student will be interviewed and his or her progress in the program will be reviewed by the faculty to determine if the student will be approved for additional course work. If approved to continue, a qualifying exam committee chair will be selected by the student, with the approval of the faculty, who will serve as the student’s adviser. It is strongly recommended that full-time study be pursued following the successful completion of the screening procedure.

Qualifying Exam Committee

Following a successful screening procedure, the student, in consultation with the qualifying exam committee chair and the Cinema and Media Studies faculty, will formally establish a five-member qualifying exam committee. The composition of the qualifying exam committee will be as specified by the Graduate School. For the PhD in Cinema and Media Studies, the committee is ordinarily composed of four Cinema and Media Studies faculty members and an outside member from the candidate’s minor area.

Foreign Language Requirement

The Cinema and Media Studies faculty will advise each student as to whether or not a foreign language is required. This requirement is determined by the student’s dissertation topic. The requirement must be met at least 60 days before the qualifying examination.

Dissertation Proposal Presentation

Working closely with the qualifying exam committee chair, the student will prepare to present his or her dissertation proposal to the full faculty. This will be a formal written proposal that will include a statement of the proposed topic, four fields for examination derived from the general dissertation topic area (including a field from the minor area), a detailed bibliography, and an appropriate and comprehensive screening list of film/television titles. Formal presentation of the dissertation proposal will occur no later than the end of the semester prior to taking the qualifying examinations. The qualifying exam committee must approve the dissertation topic. Once the dissertation topic has been approved, the student will complete the Request to Take the PhD Qualifying Examination form available from the program coordinator.

Qualifying Examinations

Written and oral examinations for the PhD are given twice a year, in November and April. Questions for the written portion of the examination will be drafted by members of the qualifying exam committee who will also grade the examination. The qualifying examination comprises four examinations administered one each day for four days during a five-day period.

The oral examination will be scheduled within 30 days after the written examination. All qualifying exam committee members must be present for the oral portion of the qualifying examination.

Admission to Candidacy

A student is eligible for admission to candidacy for the PhD degree after: (1) passing the screening procedure; (2) presenting the dissertation proposal and having it approved; (3) satisfying the language requirement, if applicable; (4) completing at least 24 units in residence; and (5) passing the written and oral portions of the qualifying examination. Admission to candidacy is by action of the Graduate School.

Dissertation Committee

The dissertation committee is composed as specified by regulations of the Graduate School. A dissertation based on original investigation and showing technical mastery of a special field, capacity for research and scholarly ability must be submitted.

Registration for dissertation units, CTCS 794a    and CTCS 794b   , in the two semesters following admission to candidacy is the minimum requirement. These units cannot be applied toward the required 68 unit total. The student must register for CTCS 794a   , CTCS 794b   , CTCS 794c   , CTCS 794d   , CTCS 794z    each semester after admission to candidacy until the degree requirements are completed. No more than 8 units of credit can be earned in CTCS 794a   , CTCS 794b   , CTCS 794c   , CTCS 794d   , CTCS 794z   .

Defense of Dissertation

An oral defense of the dissertation is required of each PhD candidate. The dissertation committee will decide whether the examination is to take place after completion of the preliminary draft or the final draft of the dissertation. The oral defense must be passed at least one week before graduation.

The following policies apply to each student admitted to the PhD program.

Residency Requirements

At least one year of full-time graduate study (24 units excluding registration for CTCS 794a   , CTCS 794b   , CTCS 794c   , CTCS 794d   , CTCS 794z   ) must be completed in residence on the main USC campus. The residency requirement may not be interrupted by study elsewhere. Residency must be completed prior to the qualifying examination.

Grade Point Average

An overall GPA of 3.0 is required for all graduate work. Courses in which a grade of C- (1.7) or lower is earned will not apply toward a graduate degree.

Leaves of Absence

A leave of absence may be granted under exceptional circumstances by petitioning the semester before the leave is to be taken. Refer to “Leave of Absence” in the Graduate and Professional Education section.

Changes of Committee

Changes in either the qualifying exam or dissertation committee must be requested on a form available from the Graduate School Website.

Completion of All Requirements

Everything involved in approving the dissertation must be completed at least one week before graduation. Approval by the dissertation committee, the Office of Academic Records and Registrar, and the thesis editor must be reported and submitted to the Graduate School by the date of graduation.

Time Limits

The maximum time limit for completing all requirements for the PhD degree is eight years from the first course at USC applied toward the degree. Students who have completed an applicable master’s degree at USC or elsewhere within five years from the proposed enrollment in a PhD program must complete the PhD in six years. Extension of these time limits will be made only for compelling reasons upon petition by the student. When petitions are granted, students will be required to make additional CTCS 794a   , CTCS 794b   , CTCS 794c   , CTCS 794d   , CTCS 794z    registrations. Course work more than 10 years old is automatically invalidated and cannot be applied toward the degree.

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UCLA Graduate Programs

Graduate Program: Film & Television

UCLA's Graduate Program in Film & Television offers the following degree(s):

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

With questions not answered here or on the program’s site (above), please contact the program directly.

Film & Television Graduate Program at UCLA 103E East Melnitz Box 951622 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1622

Visit the Film, Television, & Digital Media Department’s faculty roster

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Visit the registrar's site for the Film, Television, & Digital Media Department’s course descriptions

• Admission Requirements
• Program Statistics

(310) 206-8441

[email protected]

MAJOR CODE: FILM & TELEVISION

Graduate Program

The Department of Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara offers M.A./Ph.D and Ph.D.-only degree programs.  The program is designed to be:

• Deeply rooted in the discipline of Film and Media Studies and critical thinking
• Strongly interdisciplinary, drawing on the talents and training of faculty in those companion departments where interest in the study of the modern media arts and industry is emerging and flourishing
• International in its range of focus, allowing for the comparative study of diverse national cinemas and media institutions and practices within a global framework
• Innovative in its research methods and its teaching
• Innovative in its Ph.D. design

In addition to departmental requirements for graduate admission, applicants must fulfill University requirements found in the UCSB General Catalog ( General Requirements for Graduate Degrees ) 

To be considered for admission to the M.A./Ph.D. and Ph.D.-only degree programs in Film and Media Studies, a student must show a strong aptitude for scholarly work and demonstrate intellectual maturity. Students who are admitted will be required to attain a basic level of competence in the discipline in conjunction with their specific program of study. Many of the students admitted to the program will have achieved such a base level of competence by having completed an undergraduate major in film and media studies or taken film and media studies courses while majoring in a closely related humanities, arts, or social science discipline (such as literature, dramatic arts, philosophy, history, or women’s studies) with an emphasis on critical thinking and writing.

Applications to both the M.A./Ph.D and Ph.D.-only programs are accepted during the fall only. The application deadline for all applicants is December 1, when the department will begin screening applications for a limited number of competitive openings and funding opportunities.

Admission to the M.A./Ph.D. and Ph.D.-only programs is based on six application components (for detailed information on all components see the Graduate Division website: How to Apply .

• On-line Application : A $120 ($140 for international applicants) non-refundable application fee must be paid by Visa or MasterCard, check, or money order before the application will be processed.
• Official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended must be uploaded to the online application. A 3.0 GPA for the bachelor’s degree is a campus-wide minimum requirement for UCSB graduate study.
• A Statement of Purpose describing the applicant’s reasons for wishing to earn a Ph.D. in Film and Media Studies, a Statement of Personal Achievements/Contributions, and a resume or CV must be submitted electronically.
• A writing sample that demonstrates a high level of ability to write theory, criticism, or historical narrative must be submitted online under “Supplemental Documents”. It should be 15-20 pages of a coherent, complete essay, and does not have to be about film or media.
• Three letters of recommendation must be sent electronically along with your application.
• Either the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam scores or the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) scores must be submitted by international students whose native language is not English. A minimum TOEFL score of 600 paper / 100 internet is required prior to admission. The minimum IELTS score for consideration is an overall score of 7 or higher. GRE scores are not required, please do not include.

UCSB does not admit students conditionally in order to learn English prior to beginning an academic program; an excellent command of written and spoken English is required prior to enrollment.

Detailed procedures about the ELPE (English Language Proficiency Exam), Minimum Proficiency Requirements in Spoken and Written English, and the TA Language Evaluation Exam are outlined under English for Multilingual Students (EMS) Requirement on the Graduate Division Admitted International Students page .

For further clarification and elaboration, please see the Graduate Division Admissions page .

Information and Questions:  [email protected]

Director of Graduate Studies: Naoki Yamamoto

For more information contact our Graduate Program Advisor   805-893-8535

Graduate Program Department of Film and Media Studies Social Sciences and Media Studies Building University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4010 [email protected] fax: 805-893-8630

Graduate Student Fees and Fee Remission

Tuition, fees, and other charges are subject to change without notice by the Regents of the University of California.

Click here for 2023-2024 student fees and expenses

Graduate Program Department of Film and Media Studies University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4010 [email protected] phone: 805-893-8535

Graduate Degree Programs (M.A./PH.D and PH.D.-ONLY)

The M.A./Ph.D. and Ph.D.-only curriculum is comprised of two parts: a set of six core courses together with eleven (or five for the Ph.D.-only) supplemental/elective courses designed to make the program strongly disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and international. The graduate core courses focus on fundamental areas of competence in history, theory, analysis, and cultural studies. TA Practicum units are earned in addition to these core and elective courses. ( Click for graduate courses. )

The six critical studies core courses are designed for in-depth study at the graduate level and are entirely separate from undergraduate course offerings. The core consists of the following six courses: 220 Critical Analysis; 230 The Philosophy of History; 231 Media Historiographies; 240 Film Theory; 241 Television and New Media Theory; and 250 Cultural Theory.

In lieu of a single research and methods course, the core curriculum distributes methodological training across a series of courses involved with concrete research topics in order to offer a working sense of how one approaches a media object of study from a variety of perspectives.

The curriculum has a unique design that encourages students to acquire professional experience in teaching, presenting research, as well as (through an innovative M.A. exam process and Ph.D. area exam process) developing a research plan for the dissertation.

The department offers a wide range of graduate electives. Under certain circumstances—if the topic is crucial to the student’s research or a course will not be offered when needed—credit is also available for two courses in the department’s upper-division undergraduate program (using the undergraduate course number). Furthermore, there are numerous opportunities to take graduate courses in other departments. With the approval of the student’s mentor, the department’s Director of Graduate Studies, and the department’s Chair, up to five elective courses in the first three years of the M.A./Ph.D. may be taken in other departments; and up to three elective courses in the first two years of the Ph.D.-only.

In addition to the core curriculum and elective courses, there is a foreign language proficiency requirement. Other types of requirements are described below (in I. and II.).

Policy on Independent Studies Courses. Department policy is that only a total of TWO 596 courses can be taken as part of the 11 electives for the M.A./Ph.D. or as part of the 5 electives for the Ph.D.-only. Beyond the elective courses, students may take whatever they choose, including more 596’s. When a student is “abroad” doing research, he or she may arrange 596’s with the approval of the student’s mentor, the Director of Graduate Studies and the Chair. The two-rule will also apply to 596’s, or similar independent study or directed reading courses, offered by faculty in OTHER departments on campus.

I. M.A./Ph.D. REQUIREMENTS

A. master of arts – film and media studies.

The department does NOT offer a terminal M.A. program. All applicants are admitted to a single M.A./Ph.D. (or Ph.D.-only) program. The M.A. degree in Film and Media Studies is treated as a valuable stage on the path to the doctorate. Although it is understood that some students may choose not to continue beyond the M.A., and that others may not be permitted to do so, the aim of the program is to provide students with research training leading to the doctoral degree.

The expected time for the M.A. is two years. Students who lack a background in the discipline may be required to complete one or more additional upper-division undergraduate courses in Film and Media Studies prior to conferral of the M.A. degree.

In the first two years, the student must complete six graduate core curriculum courses and five graduate elective courses for a total of eleven courses (out of the seventeen required for the Ph.D. degree).

By the end of the second year, the student must pass an oral M.A. exam administered by the student’s M.A. Committee, based on two research papers written and revised by the student during the first two years of the program. M.A. committees are comprised of 3 members, of which 2 including the chair must be regular Senate faculty members of the Department of Film and Media Studies.

For more specific policies related to the M.A. exam, please see the Graduate Program Handbook .

B. Doctor of Philosophy – Film and Media Studies

The expected time to complete the Ph.D. is three years following the successful completion of the M.A. The student must, sometime between the end of his or her M.A. program and the first year of the Ph.D., investigate potential locations for off-campus research. In the first year of the Ph.D., the student must a) complete six graduate courses, some or all of which will contribute to the development of the student’s emerging research program. By the end of the first year of the Ph.D. (i.e., the third year of the M.A./Ph.D.), each student will have taken and passed a total of seventeen courses.

Foreign Language Requirement

All candidates for the Ph.D. degree must demonstrate reading proficiency in a second language before receiving their degree. The standard is reading knowledge, and the required level of proficiency will be determined by the dissertation chair, and approved by the departmental graduate committee. This is a general requirement for the Ph.D. degree; thus any language courses that a student takes must be in addition to the required seventeen Film and Media Studies core and elective courses for the MA/Ph.D. degree or the required eleven Film and Media Studies core and elective courses for the Ph.D.-only degree. (Units taken to fulfill this requirement do not count towards the degree). Students can complete this requirement in the following ways:

1) Completion of a language course at the intermediate level (4-6) with a minimum grade of B+; or,

2) Completion of an upper-division literature course conducted in the foreign language with a minimum grade of B+; or,

3) Completion of a foreign language reading course for graduate students with a minimum grade of B+; or,

4) Passing a Foreign Language Evaluation Exam at reading proficiency level as administered and determined by the respective language department (see below for relevant contacts); or,

5) Alternatives such as  petitioning  for  fulfillment  based on previous  coursework and/or language proficiency; Fulbright study; successfully passing or completing a Foreign  Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS); online courses from an approved institution; or other options as determined by your faculty advisor by petition to Graduate Committee.

Students whose native language is not English will have the opportunity to satisfy the requirement with their native language, except in cases where additional language learning is necessary for the specific dissertation research, as determined by the dissertation committee chair and Graduate Committee. 

If expertise in a specific foreign language is necessary or desirable for the purpose of conducting research for a Ph.D. dissertation, a student’s Ph.D. Committee may require competency in that foreign language. This foreign language may, but need not, be the same language that is offered to fulfill the general requirement.

Language Evaluation Exams

Students may take Language Evaluation Exams in the respective departments of their language choice. Below is the contact information for five languages on campus that offer placement exams:

Dr. Valentina Padula evaluates the language levels of anyone above level 3. Please contact Dr. Vallentina Padula at [email protected] to schedule an appointment for a placement interview. 

Dr. Jean Marie Schultz evaluates the language levels of anyone above level 3. Please contact Dr. Jean Marie Schultz at [email protected] to schedule an appointment for a placement interview.

Two types of exams are offered, the Spanish Placement Exam for second language learners and the Spanish Fluency Evaluation for native/heritage speakers.  The placement exam is offered in the department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies M-F when classes are in session and the fluency evaluation is typically offered 2 days per week, dependent upon scheduling. Please contact Laura Marques-Pascual at [email protected].

The Portuguese placement exam is offered in the department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies by appointment. Please contact the language coordinator, Laura Marques-Pascual at [email protected] to schedule an appointment.

The German language evaluation exam is in two parts, an untimed written exam administered in the advising office of the department of Germanic and Slavic Studies and an oral exam completed after the written exam and scheduled by appointment. Please contact Dr. Evelyn Reder at [email protected] to schedule an appointment.

Formation of Ph.D. Committee and Prospectus.

A Ph.D. committee must have four or five members. At least three members must be regular Senate faculty in the Department of Film and Media Studies. At least one member must be from outside the Department. Affliliated faculty, for this purpose, are considered to be outside the home department. A fifth member is optional. The prospectus must consist of an original topic, contributing new knowledge to the field and offer a solid blueprint for the dissertation research. It should include an extensive rationale for the project, a discussion of methodology, a survey of relevant literature, a bibliography (including reference to relevant film and media works), a descriptive table of contents, and a firm, realistic timeline. The prospectus should be from 3750 – 5000 words in length (15 – 20 pages) not including the bibliography.

Timeline for Ph.D. Committee and Ph.D. Qualifying Exam.

The Ph.D. Qualifying Exam consists of written and oral portions. By the end of week four of Spring quarter of the third year of the M.A./Ph.D., a student must form a dissertation committee by the end of week ten of Spring quarter, he or she must choose three areas of specialization, together with appropriate reading lists as well as film and media works, relating to the dissertation topic and prospectus developed in consultation with the committee; by the end of week three of the fall quarter of the fourth year, the student must pass a written examination administered by the doctoral committee covering the three areas of specialization, and by the end of week seven pass an oral defense of the of the written exams and prospectus. Upon successful completion of the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam, the student will file for Advancement to Candidacy.

Ph.D. Written Exam.

The exam will focus on broad questions and the important texts within the three chosen areas of specialization. It consists of a take-home exam, administered over the course of three consecutive days, beginning Monday or Tuesday. Prior to the exam, the student will arrange the time for pick up and drop off of the questions and responses with the student’s Dissertation Committee Chair and the Graduate Program Assistant. Questions will be given out day by day and the student writes a response over a 24-hour period. The typewritten response will be twelve to twenty double-spaced pages in a 12-point font for each question. A choice of two questions for each area will be given, from which the student chooses one. Each student may choose the order of his or her area exams.

Ph.D. Qualifying Oral Exam.

The oral portion of the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam takes place over a two-hour period and covers the student’s Written Exam and dissertation prospectus. The format of the exam—that is, the allocation of time to presentation by the student, questions from the Committee Chair and members, and group discussion—is determined by the Dissertation Committee Chair in consultation with committee members. The student may be asked about Written Exam questions (answered or unanswered) and any matters related to the three areas of study of the prospectus.

Following the end of the Oral Exam, the designation of Pass, Pass with Conditions, or Fail will be given to each of the three Written Exam questions and the prospectus. 

Since faculty are employed on a nine-month year, they are normally unavailable for teaching, mentoring, or consultation responsibilities during the summer.

Ph.D. Dissertation Defense.

Upon completion of the writing of the dissertation based on original research, the student will defend the work orally before the dissertation committee at a forum open to the public. Submission of the completed dissertation to the entire dissertation committee must be made at least one month in advance of the defense date. See  Graduate Program Handbook  for more details on the Dissertation and Defense.

II. PH.D.-ONLY REQUIREMENTS

The Ph.D.-only degree is for those students who hold an M.A. or M.F.A. degree in Film and Media Studies or a closely-related discipline. Forty-four (44) units of coursework are required (eleven 4-unit courses), including the six graduate core courses. In addition, there is a foreign language proficiency requirement that must be satisfied before advancement to candidacy (see above for details on both requirements). Expected time for advancement to Ph.D. candidacy is seven quarters (two years plus one quarter).

The procedures governing the Ph.D Committee, Prospectus, Written Exam, Oral Exam, and Oral Dissertation Defense are indicated above (but occur one year sooner than in the M.A./Ph.D.).

Exam Policy Guidelines

The guidelines for the m.a. exam are as follows:.

• Each candidate for the M.A. degree will nominate a M.A. Exam Committee Chair and select the members of the Committee.
• Committees are comprised of three faculty members, two of whom, including the chair of the committee, must be Department of Film and Media Studies graduate faculty and Academic Senate members. Affiliated faculty and non-affiliated faculty from other departments may serve on the committee with prior approval from the Department Chair and Graduate Studies Director.
• Committees must be determined, and Master’s Form I submitted to the Department’s Graduate Program Advisor, by Friday of the fourth week of Winter quarter of the second year. Form I can be found under “Forms and Petitions” on the Graduate Division website www.graddiv.ucsb.edu. [Do not submit form to Graduate Division.]
• Candidates for the M.A. will work with the exam committee to select two papers by the student that will provide the subject of the exam. It is expected that both papers will be substantially revised and polished to approximate “publishable standard” prior to the exam in consultation with their chair and committee .
• It is the responsibility of the student to communicate with committee members, whether individually or as a group, prior to the exam to determine the date of the oral exam and the focus and direction of revisions.
• Candidates must provide the committee members with the revised papers that will be the subject of evaluation for the Master’s exam no later than two weeks prior to the exam date .
• The duration of the exam will be no longer than two hours. The exam has two parts: an initial formal presentation by the student of approximately 20-30 minutes to be followed by questions from the committee and responses by the student.
• Candidates will be expected to discuss the subject matter of each paper and its context within the field. The student will not read aloud his or her papers as part of the exam, nor simply repeat ideas in the papers, since it is assumed that the essays will have been read in advance by committee members. The student’s presentation should reflect on the larger issues raised by the two papers, discuss them in the context of research in the field, and address the possibilities for further research.
• All of the candidates must have completed their exams by the end of the fourth week of Spring quarter of their second year.
• The student will be informed of the results of his or her exam at the end of the exam. There are three outcomes: Pass, Fail, and Revisions Required. A student who does not pass the exam or who is required to further revise essays, must resubmit papers to the committee within six weeks of the date of the exam.
• Students who complete the M.A. work and pass the oral exam with sufficient distinction will be invited to continue working toward the Ph.D.

The guidelines for the Ph.D. exam are as follows:

Written qualifying examination  , the written qualifying examination will be administered by the student’s doctoral committee. ph.d. written exams will conform to the following standards:.

• The exam should be structured to test the student’s knowledge, research skills, problem solving skills and their ability to do academic work. The content of the questions is designed to combine general Film and Media Studies disciplinary foundations and emphases, ad the student’s systematic area of study. The questions will be coordinated and reviewed by the chair of the committee before being given to the student. 
• 3 days, 3 exams, answer 1 of 2 questions per day. Student should be given 24 hours to answer each day’s questions.
• Students may refer to all resources that will assist with their work during the allotted time period for each question, and the department will provide special assistance, as needed, for disabled students. 
• Questions will to be given in advance.
• The typewritten response will be twelve to twenty double-spaced pages in a 12-point font for each question. To aid in preparation for the examination, the student in consultation with the dissertation committee will develop reading lists for each of the three areas. The reading lists are primarily a guide for study, and should not be interpreted as a catalogue of required knowledge. Consult with the chair of your committee for additional suggested reading.

The written qualifying examination will normally be administered in the fall quarter of the 3rd year for Ph.D.-only students, or fall quarter of the 4th year for MA/Ph.D. students. Following administration of the examination, the faculty will evaluate the student’s performance in each section. An unsatisfactory section of the examination may be repeated once, in the same quarter, or the quarter immediately following the receipt of the written evaluation.

Oral qualifying examination  , having successfully completed the diagnostic interview, written comprehensive examination and dissertation prospectus, the student’s doctoral committee will conduct an oral qualifying examination. graduate division regulations require that three consecutive quarters of residence must be completed prior to taking the oral qualifying exam. thus, the oral exam will normally be taken in the 4th, 5th, 6th quarters of residence. the general objective of this examination is to ensure that the student possesses the full knowledge and competence required to carry out his or her dissertation research. thus, the examination will emphasize (but not necessarily be limited to) the systematic and technical areas relevant to the student’s proposed dissertation research. following the examination, the committee members shall vote “pass”, “pass with conditions” or “fail” on the student’s level of preparation. a majority of passing votes will be required for advancement to candidacy. this examination is usually open only to voting committee members. .

Rev. 09/17/20

213 Autobiographical Screenwriting

Explores the creative process in autobiographical screenplay construction through writing exercises as well as film viewing. Seeks innovative means of character and story development including but not limited to Internet personas and autobiographical tourism. Offered concurrently with Film Studies 113AU.

220 Critical Analysis and Method

Examines a range of methodologies and critical approaches to the study of film and media, with the specific topics chosen by the instructor.

222AA-ZZ Special Topics in Film Analysis

Close examination of an element of film style–such as, sound, color, or camera movement–and its impact on interpretation.

223 Black Film Criticism

Explores the social, cultural, aesthetic and economic contexts of black critical writing on film over the past century. Studies the black critique of racial representation in Hollywood and other cinemas, the black independent cinemas, and black spectatorship.

226 National Cinemas

Close analysis of theories of nation, nationalism, and national cinema, with a focus on the contentious relations between culture, history, media capital and the state. Topics include evolving genres, styles, movements and institutions; local lifeworlds and cultural difference within a post-national context; and the spectral nature of contemporary national formations. Offered concurrently with Film Studies 187AA-ZZ.

230 Philosophy of Film History

Studies works and concepts in philosophy of history that have informed the researching and writing of film and media history. Will also consider the ways in which film and media texts have extended debates about and concepts of historiographic practice.

231 Media Historiographies

Comparative analysis of various historical accounts of cinema, television and digital media that have shaped the field of film and media studies. Emphasis on issues and debates that have dominated efforts to write rigorous, methodologically explicit histories of different media.

232AA-ZZ Special Topics in Film and Media History

Close examination of a topic in film and/or media history.

234 History, Memory and Media

Explores how visual and acoustic media have influenced the writing of public histories and the formation of collective memories, and the possibilities and limitations of representing historical events in both fiction and nonfiction audio-visual forms.

240 Film Theory

Examines the history and rhetoric of thinking about the ontology, epistemology, ideology, and aesthetics of film.

241 Television and Digital Media Theory

Explores important theoretical writings concerning electronic and digital media. Course readings will define the unique properties of these mediums, consider their ontological status, and discuss how they differ from one another and other cultural forms.

242LA Film Theory and Practice in Latin America

Studies the history, works, ideologies, and concepts in film theory produced in Latin America with emphasis on the global and regional flow of ideas. Course readings include foundational texts, key sources of influence, as well as the screening of significant works.

243AA-ZZ Special Topics in Critical Thinkers

Explores in depth the work of one particular thinker relevant to the field of media and cultural studies, for example, Freud, Barthes, Benjamin and others.

247 Feminism and Media Theory

An intellectual history of feminist film and television theory from the 1970s to the present. Course readings are discussed in relation to gender representations in various screenings. Areas covered include psychoanalysis, structuralism, poststructuralism, queer theory, and cultural studies.

249 Postcolonial Media Theory

Studies colonial ideologies and representations, and postcolonial challenges and negotiations, with emphasis on concepts such as imperialism, Eurocentrism, Orientalism, Third Cinema, hybridity, voice and identity. Interrogates the institutions, frameworks and processes involved in the production of knowledge.

250 Cultural Theory

Explores key ideas, issues, and developments in cultural studies and critical theory through close readings of primary texts. Possible approaches include the Frankfurt School, the Birmingham School, Freudianism/Lacanianism, semiotics/structuralism, and postmodernism/post-structuralism.

251 Theory and Practice of Popular Culture

Surveys contemporary approaches to the study of popular culture. Readings include theorists who have critically engaged the Frankfurt School, who have written before and beyond the Birmingham School, or who have taken a comparative international perspective. May be offered concurrently with Film Studies 190PC.

252PM Political Media: Social Media Activism and Platforms

Explores aspects of film and media studies’ evolution in the wake of the influential (and elastic) digital humanities (DH) turn during the early 2000s. Propelled in large measure by the advent of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, WeChat, Tumblr, and other social media platforms, citizen journalism, hashtag activism, remix and meme cultures, digital media technologies in the 21st century require new epistemologies to understand some new modes and codes of interactive media production, consumption, and circulation. Thus, we will interrogate humanistic approaches to video game studies contemporary media studies that have expanded to include software, code, and platform studies that too often bifurcates DH into oppositional camps of so-called “makers” and “talkers.” In this vein our seminar will also explore political economies of social media activism and diffusion among diverse population blocs (local and global) and modern political movements/organizations such as MoveOn.org, Obama for America, Netroots Nation, American Crossroads, the Tea Party, Wikileaks, Black Lives Matter, the Woman’s March, among others. As we approach 2020, a consequential electoral cycle in U.S. politics, this seminar is particular timely.

262AA-ZZ Special Topics in Film and/or Media Globalization

Close examination of a topic in the globalization of film and/or media.

267 Media Industries

This course examines the business strategies, political economy, regulatory dimensions and cultural products of contemporary media industries. A focus on the dynamics of globalization, convergence and new technologies grounds our exploration of the interconnected industrial, economic and cultural/artistic aspects of film, television, and digital media.

268 Paradigms of Globalization

Analysis of various theories of globalization, with specific focus on ‘global media.’ Interrogates the ways in which transnational networks and flows of capital, information, technology, people, representations, aspirations and actions are constitutive of contemporary life.

295I Professional Internship

501 teaching assistant practicum, 593 programming and curation.

Graduate students from any department are eligible to enroll in this one- or two-unit course. The course is offered in the fall and winter quarters: in the fall, we will discuss the basics of curation and individual programs; in winter, we will focus on larger questions of series programming and seriality. In each quarter, students will examine broader issues related to curation, including the construction of cultural value, economics of prestige, audiences and publics, the questions of pleasure. Students will have the opportunity to propose programs for the Pollock Theater and related Carsey-Wolf Center research events. The course aims to foster the skills needed to create effective public and academic events through class discussions of methodological issues. If students want to take the course for elective credit toward the Film and Media Studies Ph.D., they must register for 2 units in each of the two terms.

594AA-ZZ Special Topics in Film and Media

595aa-zz group studies, 596aa-zz directed reading and research, 597 ma orals and phd exam preparation, 598 preparation for dissertation prospectus, 599 dissertation research and writingcritical, graduate faqs (frequently asked questions), fall 2024 application portal opens on september 1, 2023 fall 2024 graduate application deadline: december 1, 2023, do you have a terminal master’s program.

We do not have a terminal master’s program.  Our two programs are either an MA/PhD or PhD program.

Do you admit students in any quarter other than Fall?

Should i contact the faculty i’m interested in working with before i send in my application.

The Graduate Admissions Committee makes final admissions decisions, not individual faculty. Please wait for contact from faculty after you have submitted your application, which means you should clearly share your connections within your application to your faculty of interest’s research. Our website provides information on our faculty, including their CVs and current research projects.  Please review our faculty and include in your Statement of Purpose how faculty of ours align with your research interests and goals. If you are admitted, our program is small enough that you will have the opportunity to work closely with numerous faculty members. You also will have plenty of opportunities to meet with and talk to individual faculty once you are admitted and before you have to make a decision about joining our program.

How long does it take to graduate with a PhD?

If you enter with a bachelor’s degree, it is a 6-year program, with most students receiving their M.A. degree at the end of the second year.  For students entering with a master’s degree, it is a 5-year program.

I’m an international applicant – do I need to take the TOEFL?

It depends.  If you have received a degree from an English-only university, then the TOEFL requirement is usually waived, but it may need to be confirmed that it is on the approved list for acceptable English-speaking universities. Applicants who receive a degree in the U.S. do not need to take the TOEFL. Applicants who have not received a degree in the U.S. or at an un-approved English-only university must take the TOEFL.

Do you need official transcripts?  Is there anything I should mail to the department during the application process?

Unofficial transcripts can be uploaded to your application.  Please be sure to black out the first five digits of your social security number if it is present on your transcript.  If you are admitted into our program, the Graduate Division will require official transcripts after you have signed the SIR (Statement of Intent to Register). We no longer require that any paper documents be sent to our office, including transcripts.  If paper documents are sent to our office, they will be shredded.  It is the applicant’s responsibility to upload all required materials to the application system online by the deadline.

How long should my Statement of Purpose, Contribution Statement, and Writing Sample be?

The lengths for the Statement of Purpose and Personal Contributions/Achievements should be 2 pages each, with 12-point font size.  A writing sample is required, 15 – 20 pages in length. The CV is a separate document from the Statement of Purpose, Contribution Statement, and Writing Sample. 

My bachelor’s (or master’s) degree is not in Film and Media; will the Admissions Committee consider my application?

The Department is interested in applications from individuals with a variety of backgrounds. Individuals are considered if they have well-developed research interests that align with Film or Media Studies.

Do you accept international students?  What about funding?

Yes, we do admit international students.  Funding for international students is the same as domestic student funding with respect to out-of-state tuition costs and is paid for by the department and the university.

I can’t afford the application fee.  Is there any fee waiver program?

Yes, the Graduate Division has a first-come, first-served fee waiver program for qualified U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Be sure to apply for the fee waiver, located within the online application ( UCSB Online Application ), as soon as possible because there is a limited amount of fee waiver funds available.

What kind of funding do you offer, if any?

Students admitted into our program receive full funding during their time in the program when in good academic standing. Funding includes:  tuition, out-of-state tuition (including international students), health insurance, campus-based fees, and guaranteed 50%-time employment during the academic year (Fall, Winter, and Spring), which results in a monthly paycheck.  Academic good-standing is required.

How do I apply for a fellowship?

Applicants do not self-nominate for recruitment fellowship opportunities at UCSB.  The university provides recruitment fellowships for which the department’s Graduate Admissions Committee nominates based on the pool of applicants.  If you are nominated and approved for a fellowship, the Graduate Program Director,  Dr. Naoki Yamamoto , will let you know.

Please contact our Graduate Advisor, at [email protected] for email questions or to schedule a time for consultation or advising via Zoom.

Graduate Schedule

M.A. Committee must be constitued and form submitted by end of 4th week of Winter.

M.A. Oral Exam taken by end of 4th week of Spring.

Dissertation Committee must be constituted and form submitted by end of 4th week of Spring.

Dissertation topic and exam areas must be chosen by Spring.

Reading lists formulated by 10th week of Spring.

Language Requirement met by end of Spring.

All coursework completed by end of Spring

Prospectus submitted by 1st day of Fall.

Qualifying Exams taken by end of 3rd week of Fall.

Prospectus Defense completed by 7th week of Fall.

Ph.D. (5-year) Completed by end of Spring.

Ph.D. (6-year) Completed by end of Spring.

PhD Program

The Media Arts and Practice PhD program offers a rigorous and creative environment for scholarly innovation as students explore the intersections of cinema, design, emerging media and critical thinking while defining new forms of cinematic experience, research and scholarship for the 21st century.

Core to the program is its transdisciplinary ethos, its open curriculum and its commitment to the union of critical thinking and making. After completing foundational coursework, students design their own curricula, drawing on expertise within all of the divisions and research labs within the School of Cinematic Arts, and in other schools across the USC campus. The areas of research investigated by MA+P PhD students are broad, and currently include attention to these core themes: interactive architecture; media activism; affect; wearables; world building; database documentary; embodiment and tangible interfaces; sustainability and technology; technology and ethics; critical and creative code; sound; design and speculative fiction; games and interactivity; digital historiography; neuro-cinematics; expanded and spatialized cinema; multimodal scholarship; performativity; pervasive/locative media; and immersive journalism.

• View Degree Requirements in the USC Catalogue
• Application Instructions
• Current PhD Student Directory
• PhD Alumni Directory

Program Objectives

• Knowledge of the history, theory and evolution of 20th and 21st century media art, critical theory and digital scholarship in the humanities context.
• Understanding of the diverse types of practices within the broad concept of media art, including new media, electronic art, internet art, media installation, immersive media, pervasive and locative media, ambient storytelling, media activism and social media.
• Understanding of arts-based research practices, and the development of the ability to articulate an appropriate research methodology for a given research question.
• Development of diverse media production skills appropriate to specific research projects, including collaboration, project planning, budgeting and scoping, and skills in visual storytelling, design fiction, audio design, tangible media and other emerging forms of media production.
• Ability to articulate ideas and concepts using written, oral, visual and interactive communication skills and an appreciation of emerging forms of textuality and digital scholarship that facilitate the sharing of ideas within scholarly networks.
• Understanding of disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and the formation of new fields of inquiry and objects of study.
• Understanding of the legal and ethical rights and responsibilities associated in working with digital media.
• Appreciation of core cultural themes related to contemporary digital media, including access, surveillance and privacy, participation and global citizenship.
• Ability to unite theory and practice in the creation of a dissertation project that includes a clear and appropriate research methodology; that embodies concepts or communicates ideas through interaction with the project; and that exemplifies innovative scholarly research and communication.

• Graduate Programs
• Departments

Film and Media Studies

The graduate program in Film and Media Studies is designed to be coherently structured, interdisciplinary, and international. The program emphasizes the study of film and media history, theory, analysis, aesthetics, and criticism from a humanistic perspective, within the context of global media culture. Students are encouraged to incorporate intensive site-specific study as part of their dissertation research. Eighteen core faculty and fifteen affiliated faculty members span a wide range of areas and specializations. In addition, several major scholarly publication projects are based in the department.

Department of Film and Media Studies University of California, Santa Barbara 2433 Social Sciences and Media Studies Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4010 (USA)

Website  http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/

Email  [email protected]

Department Phone Number (805) 893-8535

• December 1, 2023 (by 11:59 PM PST)

Requirements

• Online application : https://www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/eapp
• Statement of Purpose, Personal History and Diversity Statement, and Resume or CV (submitted in the online application)
• Three Letters of Recommendation (submitted online)
• Official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended (submitted online)
• TOEFL scores 600 Paper-Based Test (PBT), 100 Internet-Based Test (IBT) or IELTS (International English Language Testing System) Overall Band Score of 7 or higher (if applicable)
• English Language Exam Scores (if applicable): TOEFL Internet-Based Test (IBT) total score of 100, or TOEFL Paper-Based Test (PBT) total score of 600, or IELTS Overall Band score of 7, or Duolingo English Test total score of 120, or higher
• A Writing Sample must be submitted in the online application and should demonstrate excellent written ability in an address to film and media studies or a related field that relies on analogous critical, historical and theoretical methods. It should be a coherent, completed essay with references that is 15-20 double-spaced pages in length.
• Final/Official transcripts will be required for all applicants who are admitted and have indicated their intent to enroll at UC Santa Barbara by submitting a Statement of Intent to Register (SIR). UC Santa Barbara reserves the right to require official transcripts at any time during the admissions process, and rescind any offer of admission made if discrepancies between uploaded and official transcript(s) are found.

Environment and Society; Feminist Studies; Global Studies; Technology and Society (All Ph.D. only)

Department of Film & Media UC Berkeley

Film and media at berkeley.

From the beginning of Film Studies as an academic discipline in the United States, the film culture in and around the University of California, Berkeley, has played a significant role in the development of the field. Already in 1955, at the time when film journals, societies, and festivals first began to acknowledge film (especially film made outside the confines of Hollywood studios) as a medium of artistic expression worthy of critical study and interpretation, the Berkeley-based University of California Press made an important contribution with the founding of the journal Film Quarterly.

Pauline Kael began her career as film critic for the New Yorker in Berkeley from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s; she was also manager of the Berkeley Cinema Guild, the first repertory cinema in America. The Pacific Film Archive began screening films in 1966, specializing in experimental and documentary films and foreign art cinema (even more than forty years later, the PFA continues to provide central programming for film courses and a home for special film-related events).

During the period of rapid expansion in the academic study of film nationwide, Berkeley film culture continued to make its mark. In the early 1970s, three major film journals were founded in Berkeley: Camera Obscura (1972 to present), Women and Film (1972-75), and Jump Cut (1974 to present), which opened film studies to the intellectual currents of structuralism, semiology, feminism, and Marxism. At the same time, the University of California Press rose to the forefront of publishing scholarship on cinema. This rich intellectual environment provided the context and rationale for a formal program in Film at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1976, UC Berkeley launched the Film Group Major in response to demands by undergraduates to be able to major in Film. William Nestrick, an associate professor of English, was the founder and Head Advisor of the Film Group Major, and directed the program until 1991 (in his honor, our screening room, 142 Dwinelle Hall, is called the “Nestrick Room”). In consultation with Bertrand Augst (Comparative Literature) and Seymour Chatman (Rhetoric), Nestrick organized a program leading to a B.A. in Film, administered through Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies (UGIS), drawing primarily on film courses that were already being offered by faculty in the Departments of African-American Studies, Comparative Literature, English, French, Italian, Rhetoric, and Scandinavian. Marilyn Fabe, a new Ph.D. in English, taught the core introductory courses. Later, as new humanities faculty members interested in teaching film came to Berkeley, they were added to the Group Major faculty. In addition to the regular, already existing film faculty, a distinguished visiting professor or lecturer was hired yearly, chosen by the chair in consultation with the Film faculty. Visiting faculty in the early years included Stanley Cavell, Raymond Durgnat, Richard Peña, Bill Nichols, Kay Kalinak, Russell Merritt, B. Ruby Rich, and Scott Simmon.

The curriculum in the group Film major included required courses in film history, film theory, film genre, and auteur studies—a rigorous curriculum that is still the core of our undergraduate program. It was the intent from the beginning of the program to make the Film B.A. a demanding major that required not only a systematic study of all aspects of film, but also the knowledge of a second foreign language, in keeping with the faculty’s expertise in international cinema. The Program’s emphasis rested on the study of film theory, film analysis, and film history; an introduction to film production (“The Language of Film”) was added in 1993, followed by a course on screenwriting. In the meantime, as the digital revolution lowered the cost of film production, the border between film studies and film production became more fluid.

Ph.D. and D.E. in Film Studies

In 1991, the rapidly expanding program moved out of UGIS into a more regular Humanities setting, and the establishment of a graduate program in film studies was envisioned. Because of its intellectual and personnel ties, the program found a home within the multidisciplinary and theoretically open Department of Rhetoric. In the 1990s, several film faculty members were hired who have shaped the program in defining ways, and a number of affiliated faculty members also joined the program. Film also made a point of drawing on the vibrant local filmmaking scene by hiring filmmakers to teach avant-garde and documentary cinema courses. The Film Program was given permission to admit graduate students specializing in film in 1996, offering them a Concentration in Film as part of the Rhetoric Ph.D. program. This arrangement lasted from 1996 until 2011, when the new Department of Film & Media (established in 2010) was given final approval by the University of California to offer its own Ph.D. During these fifteen years, graduate study in Film benefited from the interdisciplinary approaches encouraged by the Rhetoric Department, and the program gained the distinctive intellectual profile for which it is known today: internationally comparative, methodologically innovative, and theoretically motivated. As the Ph.D. moves into its new home in the Department of Film & Media, these founding intellectual commitments remain, even as new fields of study emerge in digital and installation media.

Early in the development of its Ph.D. concentration in Rhetoric, Film began attracting graduate students from various departments who wanted to add Film Studies as a minor field (a Designated Emphasis) to their Ph.D. The Ph.D. in Film has in turn profited from the wide variety of perspectives that students from other departments have brought to it. The D.E. was approved in 1997 and started in 1998. The combination of Ph.D. and D.E. students has led to robust course enrollments over the years, and has contributed to making film at Berkeley an exciting and steadily growing program known among graduate studies across campus.

Acknowledgments

Our transition from an undergraduate program to the Department of Film & Media would not have been possible without the active support of the former Dean of UGIS, Donald McQuade, and the former Deans of Arts and Humanities Tony Newcomb and Ralph Hexter, as well as the present Dean Janet Broughton. The Directors of the Film Studies Program during its transformation were Professors Tony Kaes (1991-1997), Kaja Silverman (1997-2001), Linda Williams (2001-2006), and Mark Sandberg (2007-2010). 

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Division of Cinema & Media Studies

The Cinema & Media Studies Division offers foundational education in the cultural, artistic, political and commercial contexts of media creation, production, circulation and consumption. Students of this pioneering program develop a deep understanding of how technology, business, art, politics and history shape and respond to media at regional, national and global scales. Training at this historic department has taken its graduates to key positions at leading studios, universities, and media organizations in the US and around the world.

Our Cinema and Media Studies BA, MA and PhD program fall under the CIP code: CIP code 50.0601: Film/Cinema/Media Studies.

The Division is known for the varied expertise of its faculty, the program’s interdisciplinary affiliations, and its wealth of institutional resources:

• Faculty areas of specialization include global media, Hollywood industry and practices, gender and sexuality in media, television history and theory, African American cinema, Latinx and Latin American media, Asian American media, cinemas of South Asia, East Asia and South East Asia, critical theories of race, transgender and queer media, documentary history and theory, sports media, gaming media, digital humanities, interactive media, avant garde and experimental film, postcolonial and decolonial theory, media historiography, industry studies, archival practices, media of the Global South and (post)socialist media.
• Faculty members hold affiliations across diverse departments within USC including the departments of American Studies and Ethnicity, Communication, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Gender and Sexuality, History, Media Arts + Practice, and Visual Studies, among others.
• Resources for research in film and media on campus include the Cinematic Arts Library, which holds multiple donor collections, the Warner Bros. Archives, the Hugh M. Hefner Collection, the Shoah Foundation Archive, and more. The Greater Los Angeles area is known worldwide for its media archives, theaters, museums, among other art and research centers.

CAMS Grad Discusses Inspiration Behind Design of "Spotlight" The CAMS Undergraduate Journal of USC Taylor Crawford Alumni Profile Read More

The Chair of Cinema & Media Studies Discusses the Program and the Field Priya Jaikumar Faculty Profile Watch Video

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A Bachelor of Arts in Cinema & Media Studies offers an education in the cultural, historical, and narrative constructs of both new and traditional media. As a result, students develop the academic foundation necessary to excel in an industry that is constantly evolving and graduate with the broad tools and knowledge necessary to work in a variety of fields.

Master of Arts

A Master of Arts in Cinema & Media Studies offers a comprehensive examination of the cultural, artistic, and commercial contexts of media creation, consumption, and scholarship. Graduates from the MA in Cinema & Media Studies develop a sophisticated understanding of how creative expression, technology, business, politics, history and ideology are interlinked within American and international media trends. MA alumni have embarked on successful careers in the film and media industries, higher education, non-profits, curating, criticism and archiving.

Doctor of Philosophy

Established in 1959 as the first PhD program of its kind, the Doctor of Philosophy in Cinema & Media Studies remains at the forefront of scholarly work in the cinematic arts. Students tailor their curriculum to their own creative and scholarly interests under the guidance of SCA's world-renowned faculty. Past PhD recipients have published award-winning books and essays, secured tenured positions at the most prestigious universities in the world, and have become influential public intellectuals in a variety of fields.

Contact Information

The Division of Cinema & Media Studies USC School of Cinematic Arts Program Coordinator University Park, SCA 319 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2211 Phone: 213.740.3334 [email protected]

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The UCI Department of Film and Media Studies provides students with a strong liberal arts background by combining theory and practice, giving our majors the tools necessary to navigate the complex film, broadcast, and digital media landscape. Led by award-winning faculty who are leaders in areas like TV and broadcast media, gaming, and new media, students gain skills in theoretical, visual, historical, and cultural analysis and broad knowledge of the history of moving image studies, broadcast policy, popular culture, and social media. Students are trained to actively read and explore audio-visual media through both theoretical and practical approaches. They strengthen their writing through active engagement with all aspects of cinematic, broadcast, and digital culture.

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History. theory. practice..

Film and Media Studies focuses on the histories, theories, aesthetics, and cultural meanings of film, television, video games, digital platforms, and other media.

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“I really believe that FMS gave me a strong historical, analytical, and cultural foundation for working in the industry. All the work I did in my undergrad helped me construct a well-rounded understanding of the evolution of film, both where it has been and where it is going. What FMS did for me was foster a passion for film and TV. When you are passionate then it becomes easy to go above and beyond to accomplish what you want to do.”

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Film and Video Studies Graduate Programs in California

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USC School of Cinematic Arts

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• • Rating 4.33 out of 5   3 reviews

Master's Student: Still in midst of going so experiences can change, but the school has a lot of resources and definitely wants to boost it's students into working in the industry. ... Read 3 reviews

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3 Niche users give it an average review of 4.3 stars.

Featured Review: Master's Student says Still in midst of going so experiences can change, but the school has a lot of resources and definitely wants to boost it's students into working in the industry. .

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UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture

University of California - Los Angeles •

• • Rating 4 out of 5   1 review

Master's Student: Its a very good program that really encourages students to explore their artistic capabilities. The instructors are very experienced and are very good at teaching the students. The program is great, but could also use some improvements in the facilities, as well as overall teaching etiquette. Some instructors would be late to class, while expecting students to stay longer. Others would show little, to no enthusiasm about certain things or events. ... Read 1 review

University of California - Los Angeles ,

1 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars.

Featured Review: Master's Student says Its a very good program that really encourages students to explore their artistic capabilities. The instructors are very experienced and are very good at teaching the students. The program is great,... .

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UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television

• • Rating 5 out of 5   7 reviews

Other: The UCLA TFT Professional Program in screenwriting was exactly what I was looking for! Best teachers and lectures! ... Read 7 reviews

7 Niche users give it an average review of 5 stars.

Featured Review: Other says The UCLA TFT Professional Program in screenwriting was exactly what I was looking for! Best teachers and lectures! .

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School of Film and Television - Loyola Marymount University

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Dodge College of Film and Media Arts

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College of Letters and Sciences - National University

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SAN DIEGO, CA ,

American Film Institute Conservatory

• • Rating 5 out of 5   1 review

Master's Student: I had a great time and met lots of good people. I am excited to use the education I received here to do the work that I love. ... Read 1 review

1 Niche users give it an average review of 5 stars.

Featured Review: Master's Student says I had a great time and met lots of good people. I am excited to use the education I received here to do the work that I love. .

University of La Verne

LA VERNE, CA

• • Rating 4.49 out of 5   65

Savannah College of Art and Design

SAVANNAH, GA

• • Rating 4.46 out of 5   74

Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences

University of Pittsburgh •

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Hot Docs’ ‘The Strike,’ About the Fight Against Solitary Confinement in California, Debuts Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

By Addie Morfoot

Addie Morfoot

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• Hulu’s Belisa Balaban on ‘Lean-In’ Docs, Industry Contraction and the Streamer’s New Bon Jovi Series 6 hours ago
• Hot Docs’ ‘The Strike,’ About the Fight Against Solitary Confinement in California, Debuts Trailer (EXCLUSIVE) 7 hours ago
• Director Dawn Porter Says She’s a ‘Bit Perplexed’ Why Her Luther Vandross Documentary Hasn’t Sold Ahead of Hot Docs Premiere 1 day ago

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In “The Strike,” directors Joebill Munoz and Lucas Guilkey chronicle a 2013 prison hunger strike that changed imprisonment policies across the U.S.

The doc tells the story of America’s supermax prison Pelican Bay, which opened in 1989 and was designed specifically for mass-scale solitary confinement. For decades, the California prison held mostly Black and Brown men alone in tiny cells without windows for years or sometimes decades based on questionable evidence. In 2013, 30,000 California prisoners went on hunger strike in an attempt to end indefinite solitary confinement and regain access to the general prison population.

Variety has been granted exclusive access to the trailer (below) for “The Strike,” which will have its world premiere in Hot Docs Film Festival ’s Art of Resistance section.

“First thing you notice about Pelican Bay?,” a former inmate says in the trailer. “It’s quiet.” Variety spoke to Munoz and Guilkey about “The Strike” ahead of the film’s Hot Docs premiere on Sunday. How did this project come about? Guilkey: In 2013, I volunteered to make an online video to raise awareness about the strike. I met the families of the hunger strikers, mostly women from Los Angeles who saw themselves as the voices of their brothers, fathers, uncles and sons, and used every bit of their savings to make the 12-hour drive to Pelican Bay. After meeting family members of the strikers, I said, “This story deserves to be a feature documentary.” I met Joebill in grad school and in 2019 we started filming.

In the doc, we meet inmates who were in solitary confinement for many years but we are never told why they are in prison in the first place. Why did you decide not to include that information?

Guilkey: The reason people were sent into solitary confinement did not have anything to do with the crime that had them sent to prison. As journalists we want to provide the context – social, historical, political, personal – for everything that’s happening. But we also want to honor the fact that people are not defined by their worst moments in their lives, which is a strong ethic in the formerly incarcerated people community. Ultimately, we were interested in this question of, is the system committing a crime? Is the system committing a human rights violation? And that’s the fundamental question of the film.

You included interviews with not just the prisoners but also the people responsible for putting them in solitary confinement. Was including both sides always in the cards?

Munoz: Yes. We set out to try and tell, not a definitive story about the California hunger strikes and solitary confinement because that would require volumes of books, but as close to that as we could. As journalists we are curious to know the logic and the inspiration behind California’s decision to build this prison for solitary confinement and fill it with thousands of people. What was that process like? So the people to best speak to that were the people who created it.

Guilkey: We had built these connections with people who were (close to them), so as the men started being released from solitary and eventually from prison we were able to gain access and do those interviews.

You filmed inside Pelican Bay. How did you get that access?

Munoz: Pelican Bay these days is like a museum. It’s nearly empty. So we went in there and they were like, “Film whatever you want.” It was a real mind blowing experience for us.

How did you finance the film?

Munoz: Independent funders and grants. The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund was really helpful. We also went to pitch forums. It was a lot of cobbling together funds.

Did you participate in the Hot Docs Pitch Forum?

Munoz: We didn’t do the Forum. This is our first time at Hot Docs.

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Featured Stories , Rehabilitation

‘The 50’ film screened with CDCR

On April 17 and 18, The 50 was screened separately at the Crest Theater in Sacramento and then at California State Prison, Solano.

The documentary focuses on 50 people serving life sentences at California State Prison, Solano, who seized the opportunity to become among the nation’s first incarcerated Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Counselors.

The documentary chronicles how the first participants of the Occupational Mentor Certification Program (OMCP) navigate their own traumas and harness those experiences to emerge as society’s most adept healers.

Members of the original OMCP group attended both screenings of the film, along with officials and staff from CDCR.

Video by Quinn Sheppard, Associate Governmental Program Analyst Office of Public and Employee Communications

Visit “The 50” website to learn more about the documentary.

Visit Division of Rehabilitative Programs website to learn more about OMCP.

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Ramadan items donated for CIW residents

The Muslim community at California Institution for Women (CIW) observed the holy month of Ramadan this year thanks to outside organizations.

Equine therapy benefits CCWF staff, residents

Rebel Farms recently provided equine therapy for Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) staff and the incarcerated population.

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On March 20, Centinela State Prison’s Physical Education Department and Mastery Prison Ministry offered a Home Run Derby on A, B, and D Facilities.

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The challengers cast on intimacy scenes and training for the film, zendaya, mike faist, and josh o'connor get real about working on luca guadanino's sexy sports drama..

TAGGED AS: Drama , interviews , movies , romance , sports

Director Luca Guadagnino is already earning some of the best reviews of his career for his latest film, Challengers , and that’s thanks in large part to the three talented young leads at its core. Current It Girl Zendaya stars in the sexy drama as former tennis star Tashi, whose plan to get her struggling champion husband ( West Side Story breakout star Mike Faist ) back on track involves setting up a match between him and another washed up pro ( The Crown’ s Josh O’Connor )… who just happens to be her former lover.

Ahead of its release, Zendaya, Faist, and O’Connor sat down with Jacqueline Coley to talk about working on Challengers , sharing what it was like to film the intimacy scenes, describing the training involved, and digging into Zendaya’s role as producer.

Jacqueline Coley for Rotten Tomatoes: You called this “ Codependency: The Movie. “

Zendaya: Yes.

RT: I want you to explain that a little better.

Zendaya: Well, you’ve seen it. So I’m sure it resonated. [ laughs ] Yeah, “ Codependency: The Movie ” — I say that because all these characters are searching for something out of life that they can’t get on their own and ultimately ties them to each other. And I think that can be dangerous, it can be toxic, it can be many things, and we watch that kind of play out in their life. We watch them avoid dealing with their own pain, dealing with their — for lack of a better word — bulls–t. And in order to cover for that, they use each other, and they lean on each other or seek qualities out of each other that they don’t possess naturally themselves. That’s where the codependency stuff starts going. I really don’t think they can just be alone.

(Photo by ©MGM)

RT: I would love for y’all — and I’ll start with you, Josh — to expand on how tennis is part of the bigger themes in this movie. It’s kind of the perfect setting for it.

Josh O’Connor: Yeah, it’s so good. It’s like the perfect metaphor for their relationship. I also think, yeah, the dialogue… the way the dialogue’s written, the way Luca directed it, feels like some of those scenes — you know, me and Z, or Z and Mike — are just so back-and-forth. And what was interesting, we’ve talked about a few times, tennis players that have talked about being on the court before have talked about being very isolated on one side of the court, and it’s quite a lonely profession. And there were moments in some of these scenes where you feel so isolated and you feel very removed, and there’s different moments in this film where [Mike Faist’s character] Art feels very alone, or [Zendaya’s character] Tashi feels very alone or [my character] Patrick feels very alone, and then really, at the end, I feel like they’re all just reaching for each other and trying to be brought back together. So yeah, it was the perfect setting. It wouldn’t work with baseball.

Watch the video for the full interview with Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor.

Challengers (2024) opens in theaters on April 26, 2024.

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Higher Resolution Brain Mapping Tech Wins Big at Research Expo

• Katherine Connor - [email protected]

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University of California San Diego electrical and computer engineering PhD student Andrew Bourhis won the top prize at the 42nd annual Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo for his work to integrate thin film transistors into easier-to-use flexible electrode arrays, which could enable much more precise mapping of human brain activity. He was selected from among more than 160 graduate students from all six Jacobs School of Engineering departments who participated in Research Expo this year. 

Research Expo is unique in that graduate students are judged not just on the technical merits of their research, but also on their ability to effectively communicate its impact to a non-technical audience.  More than 110 judges participated this year; most judges are industry professionals, many of whom are also alumni or members of the Jacobs School’s Corporate Affiliates Program. 

In addition to the $1,500 grand prize, which is called the Lea Rudee Outstanding Poster Award, judges vote on a series of other awards that celebrate research projects from across the Jacobs School. Judges vote to select one student presenter in each of the Jacobs School’s six academic departments to receive a $750 Best Poster Award. All attendees vote to select a $500 People’s Choice Award recipient. And new this year was a Transdisciplinary Collaboration Award with a $1,000 prize. All recipients are detailed below. 

The annual event for alumni, industry partners and faculty to connect, collaborate and meet top-tier graduate students, Research Expo provides students an opportunity to practice communicating the broader significance of their work to a wide audience.

“It is essential as a successful engineer to understand and appreciate the larger context of your work,” said Albert P. Pisano, Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering and Special Advisor to the Chancellor. “It’s one thing to be able to say ‘I made this widget,’ but it’s another to be understanding of how that improves the lives of people across the country and around the world. And that’s the primary function of engineering – we relieve needs by providing the necessary materials, systems and devices.”

Improving flexible neural interfaces

One of the goals for Bourhis’ flexible neural interfaces with built-in transistors is to provide much more granular detail on the real-time activity of a subject’s brain during surgery, restorative or therapeutic long term brain computer interface (BCI) implants. For surgery, this could enable more precise mapping of the source of epileptic activity and could also guide the removal of pathological tissue through a process called functional mapping. For therapeutic BCI, the technology could also be used to stimulate very specific regions of the brain to prevent an epileptic seizure. For restorative BCI, it could detect movement intention to allow amputees to control a prosthetic limb. 

Typical clinical electrode arrays used today must pass wires through the scalp to connect to bulky bedside instrumentation. Having transistors built into the electrode arrays reduces the need for these bulky external wires, which keep patients tethered to a hospital bed, often uncomfortable and prone to developing infection. Reducing the number of wires that connect these electrode arrays to electronics would also enable order-of-magnitude increases in the number of sensors researchers could record from, which would allow for vast improvements in the spatial resolution of the sensor arrays themselves. 

“The goal of my research is to develop thin film technologies to improve the spatiotemporal resolution of neural interfaces,” said Bourhis, a sixth year PhD student working in the lab of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Shadi Dayeh and co-advised by Professor Ian Galton. “The brain has nearly 100 billion neurons, and recording from even a few hundred of them can enable patients to control robotic arms to feed themselves, or play online chess using only their thoughts. We’re trying to build a technology that can one day scale up to millions of electrodes and simultaneously scale down each electrode to the size of individual neurons. But in order to do that you really need to integrate transistors into the flexible arrays, and at the same time, you need to make sure the technology is safe and can survive being implanted for years without degrading.”

While it is already possible to create nanometer-sized transistors in silicon, the brittle nature of that material makes it mostly incompatible with use on the brain, and often requires bulky encapsulation to protect against biofluid. To create a natively flexible and long-term stable interface, Bourhis and researchers in his lab were inspired by the flexible high-definition display field to develop transistors made out of IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) as a semiconductor material instead of silicon. IGZO has excellent electrical characteristics and can be processed at lower temperatures, meaning it can be built off of flexible plastic substrates. 

"I've been so fortunate to work with such talented colleagues who all work tirelessly for the betterment of society,” said Bourhis. “It's my dream that this research will one day help transform the lives of people currently living with incurable diseases or disabilities."

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Explaining the Why, not just the What

Being able to explain this larger context to people who are not technical experts is becoming an increasingly important skill. The new Transdisciplinary Collaboration Award was designed to help hone that skill. The brainchild of Jacobs School alumnus and longstanding Research Expo judge Sam Knight, the award is designed to encourage pairs of students – one engineering graduate student poster presenter and one non-engineering student – to work together to craft an oral presentation and poster that clearly explain the impact and significance of the work to a non-technical audience. The student pairs met several times in the weeks leading up to Research Expo to iterate on poster design and practice the oral presentation. 

“ Communicating effectively with customers in their language and context is a unique skill that not all engineers can do well, and the skills of ‘communicators’ bridge that gap,” said Knight, who donated the funds to support this $1,000 award. “I spent much of my career in that role, understanding technology and customers and translating between the two. The opportunity to collaborate with communicators outside your field, someone who can help translate great engineering ideas into the language of a diverse audience, will serve any engineer well in their future careers.”

2024 Research Expo Award Winners:

Bioengineering—Shu and K.C. Chien Best Poster

Mapping the Local Functional Consequences of Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation

Student: Noah Mehringer

Advisor: Elliot McVeigh

Computer Science and Engineering Best Poster

SemVecNet: Online Vector Map Generation through Sensor-Configuration-Agnostic Semantic Mapping

Students: Narayanan Elavathur Ranganatha, Shashank Venkatramani, Jing-Yan Liao

Advisor: Henrik Christensen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Best Poster

Monolithic Integration of High-Resolution Display Technology in Thin-Film Neural Interfaces

Student: Andrew Bourhis

Advisor: Shadi Dayeh, Ian Galton

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering—Katie Osterday Best Poster

Stratified Wakes Past an Inclined 6:1 prolate spheroid: Dynamics and TKE Budget

Student: Sanidhya Jain

Advisor: Sutanu Sarkar

NanoEngineering Best Poster

Bowls Aren’t Just for Cereal: Nanobowl Drug Delivery For Lung Cancer Treatment

Student: Torus Washington II

Advisor: Ratnesh Lal

Structural Engineering Best Poster

Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) Model of UC San Diego Shake Table

Student: Andres Rodriguez

Advisor: Jose Restrepo

People’s Choice Award

Scalable and Modular Distributed Avionics System: Evaluation of a Modular Distributed Data Acquisition System for Liquid Cryogenic Bi-Propellant Rockets

Student: Darrell Chua

Advisor: Karcher Morris

Transdisciplinary Collaboration Award

FishSense Lite: A Citizen Science Approach for Global Fish Population Data

Student: Kyle Hu; Collaborator:  Kayla Bacon

Advisor: Ryan Kastner

A full list of student presenters and poster titles is available here. 

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