Introduction to film as art form and how films create meaning. Basic film terminology; fundamental principles of film form, film narrative, and film history. Examination of film technique and style over past one hundred years. Social and economic functions of film within broader institutional, economic, and cultural contexts.

Comics has become one of the most globally popular art forms of the twenty-first century, but it also has a rich history that stretches back to the eighteenth century, and arguably much earlier. This course will introduce students to the unique formal properties of comics and will survey the history of comics across national traditions, including texts drawn from the American, Franco-Belgian, and Japanese traditions. We will read across a range of genres and cultural registers--including newspaper strips, superhero comics, Underground comix, manga, the graphic memoir, and alternative comics. You will learn to analyze and write about the form and history of the medium.

Comparative analysis of forms, themes, and the politics of representation in film and video by and/or about LGBT people.

An advanced composition course which emphasizes constructing written arguments accommodated to real audiences.

Focuses on the writing of technical papers and reports.

Examines African-American literature from its beginnings to the early twentieth century, including genres ranging from slave narratives, pamphlets, essays, and oratory, to poetry and fiction. Our emphasis is on the interaction between literature and literary forms, on the one hand, and historical and political developments in the push toward emancipation, on the other.