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.

Focuses on the writing of technical papers and reports.

Would you like to know more about J.R.R. Tolkien and the mythology behind The Lord of the Rings? This course in advanced composition takes you behind the scenes of Middle-earth to Oxford, England, where Tolkien lived, studied, taught, and wrote. You will get a chance to visit the halls of Merton and Exeter College in Oxford University, conduct research at the Bodleian Library where many of Tolkien's manuscripts are housed, and hold writing workshops over meals in the same cozy inns frequented by Tolkien and his colleagues. This course satisfies both the University's Fundamental Studies requirement in Professional Writing and the heart's desire to follow in the footsteps of one of the 20th century's most influential world-builders and myth-makers.