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Humanities and Media and Cultural StudiesFaculty Steering Committee: Leola Johnson (Chair, Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies), John Kim (Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies), A. Kiarina Kordela (German and Russian Studies), Clay Steinman (Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies), J. Andrew Overman (Classics), Khaldoun Samman (Sociology), Jim von Geldern (German and Russian Studies and International Studies), and Jane Rhodes (American Studies). Part Time Faculty: Jenny Lion, Howard Sinker Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies brings together traditional and contemporary approaches to close analysis of cultural texts and their relation to social power. The department offers an innovative fourteen-course major, including a six-course focus that students develop with their advisor, and a five-course minor in media studies. Both include opportunities for students to combine theory and practice. The Humanities have been traditionally defined by the great texts, themes, and accomplishments of the Western tradition. They have sought to cultivate appreciation of the human enterprise and the genius of human creativity. Humanities courses traditionally look at a particular stream of Western civilization, with a focus on pivotal periods of development—the classical world, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment—and on certain themes in the tradition, such as art and architectural forms, myths and narratives, ideas of freedom, virtue, and citizenship, and the encounter of human and divine. Cultural Studies has developed in response to what critics have seen as exclusions and gaps in programs in the traditional humanities. It has broadened categories of cultural analysis to include multiple traditions and has taken a more critical stance towards artifacts by adding concerns such as the following: —Attention to systems of meaning and attendant issues of power, particularly in terms of class, gender, nation, race, and sexualities. —Critique of the dominant tradition from perspectives associated with social outsiders, including critique of cultural evaluation connected to social privilege. —Explicitly political and social analysis of canonized texts. —Analysis of commercial culture and of its institutional determinants, and of signs and local expressions of culture that traditional humanists do not consider texts of art. Media Studies examines the forces that shape media texts and those that govern their meanings in global culture and provides students with experience producing digital, print, and video texts that investigate and represent that culture in journalistic and alternative forms, such as newspaper and broadcast reporting, political documentary, and experimental video. Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies faculty include media and film studies professors assigned to the department as well as professors in disciplines in the divisions of humanities and social sciences and other interdisciplinary departments who teach cultural studies, film studies, humanities, and media studies. Faculty are engaged in active research programs that may offer opportunities for student assistance or collaboration. The major is designed to give students familiarity with a cultural heritage with a breadth of geographic and historical experience. It provides a working knowledge of the methods of historians and critics of culture, the ability to explicate a specific body of culture in depth, and opportunities to appreciate culture and to produce original work. The minor concentrates on media studies and offers opportunities for critical research as well as for pre-professional experience in journalism. Students in the department have found opportunities for internships with arts and other nonprofit organizations and with media companies. Graduates have found employment in the media, in government, and in social and cultural institutions as well as opportunities for further study in doctoral programs and professional schools. General Distribution Requirement Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies courses numbered 110, 121, 122, 145, 232, 247, 248, 249, 256, 263, 270, 315, 331, 334, 354, 356, 367, 410, 411, and 444 count toward the requirement in humanities. Courses numbered 114, 126, 272, 355, 357, and 376 count toward the requirement in social science. Course 128 meets the distribution requirement in the fine arts. General Education Requirements Courses that meet the general education requirements in writing, quantitative thinking, internationalism and multiculturalism will be posted on the Registrar’s web page in advance of registration for each semester. Additional information regarding the general distribution requirement and the general education requirements can be found in the graduation requirements section of this catalog. Major Requirements Students choose their own humanities and media and cultural studies advisor, who should be closely involved in the focus section of the major plan. Advisors also assist majors as they decide which of the many available courses would best meet their foundation requirements. In all, students take a progression of fourteen courses that integrate as well as differentiate humanities and cultural studies approaches, beginning with introductory exposure to a range of critical views and culminating in a senior capstone seminar. The introductory course, Texts and Power: Foundations of Cultural Studies (Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies 110), covers the history of cultural analysis, broadly defined, from traditional to contemporary approaches, providing students with a foundation in major writings and acquainting students with issues of continuing debate. Completion of or enrollment in 110 is required for admission into the major program. Students also establish a broad foundation of cultural knowledge by taking one course from ancient times to 1700 and one course from 1700 to the present, as well as two courses investigating relations of class, gender, nation, race, and sexualities and two courses in the theory and philosophy of culture at the 200-level or above. In addition, all students are required to complete a six-course focus, concentrating on one textual form, period, or theme. In the capstone seminar, students working on an independent project in line with the theme of the seminar share their scholarship, integrating what they have learned in the major, emphasizing knowledge gained in their focus area. The capstone experience involves close analysis of cultural artifacts that examine at a higher level issues first raised in the introductory course. The department plans to offer two seminars every year, at least one in media studies, enabling students to select the seminar most relevant to their intellectual development. In exceptional cases, students with sufficient preparation may take the seminar prior to their senior year. Foundation Courses A list of courses that satisfy the foundation requirements is available at http: //www.macalester.edu/hmcs/foundationcourses.html. Other related courses in appropriate departments may be used at the discretion of an advisor subject to the approval of the department chair. To qualify for Foundations I and II, courses must approach broad topics or multiple forms in the humanities comparatively or use methods drawn from cultural studies. For Foundation III, courses must be listed or cross-listed in American Studies or WGSS. For Foundation IV, courses must be at the 200-level or above and include theoretical readings relevant to projects in humanities, media studies, or cultural studies. Focus Plans The six-course focus, united by a common theme, is the central part of the humanities and media and cultural studies major, and its name appears on each major’s transcript. In the focus, students build on the introductory and foundation courses, combining a broad knowledge and a sophisticated set of analytical tools for a thorough look at one aspect of culture. Students work with their advisor to select an established focus area such as film studies or media studies (details available at http://www.macalester.edu/hmcs/focus.html)or to design a focus on one theme, such as comparative literature, critical theory, postcolonial studies, or pre-modern cultures. The department encourages students to think creatively in designing innovative yet coherent concentrations responsive to their intellectual interests, putting together a focus with the help of an advisor, whose own courses might be a significant element. Focus areas may not significantly overlap already existing majors or minors. Minor Requirements A minor in media studies requires Media Institutions (Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies 126) or Global Media Industries (Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies 202), plus four other courses in media studies approved by the department chair. One course must include study of media outside the United States, and no more than two of the courses may focus on film. Honors Program The humanities and media and cultural studies department participates in the honors program. Eligibility requirements, application procedures, and specific project expectations are available at http://www.macalester.edu/hmcs/honors.html. Under normal circumstances, students must begin the application process no later than spring registration of their junior year, to enable a full year of work on the project. Topics Courses 194, 294, 394, 494 Recent examples include: Environmental Issues and the Media; Politics of Difference; Cultural Studies of the U.S./Mexican Border; Art & Ideas in French Culture: Female Artistic Expression and Feminism in France. To be announced at registration. (4 credits)
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