In the two-year MA in Film and Media Studies program, students take courses that establish
the key academic methods in the fields of film and media studies, with the opportunity
to personalize their degree with a choice of electives. In the second year, students
work with faculty to write their master’s thesis. At the end of the MA program, students
present an oral defense of their thesis.
This program is unique because it is a research-based master’s degree where students
develop an original thesis with strong support from faculty. Faculty have mentored
student theses on such topics as film and television theory, politics and film, women
in film, American cinema, Asian cinema, media historiography, film archiving and preservation,
archival and primary research, transnational cinema and new media studies. Graduates
of the program have continued on to pursue the following: teaching positions in community
colleges and high schools, enrollment in Ph.D. programs, film criticism and journalism,
film festival programming, film archiving and preservation.
Students have the opportunity to apply for conference funding and research support,
which can be connected to the workshop of their MA thesis. In addition, students can
apply for competitive research assistantships.
- Dr. Leah Aldridge: Areas of Research Interest: Representation, Race, Gender and Genre; Culture Industry,
Distribution and Circulation; Diaspora, Globalization and Cultural Exchange; Documentary,
Independent, and Experimental Forms and Circuits; brands of cinematic Blackness
- Dr. Emily Carman: Areas of Research Interest: Amerian and Classic Hollywood cinema; media historiography;
film genres (film noir and the Western); moving image archive studies; film censorship;
gender and stardrom; media industry studies
- Dr. Nam Lee: Areas of Research Interest: Korean and East Asian Cinema; film authorship in global
contexts; women's filmmaking and feminist film ethics; the "feminine" in cinematic
form; sociological aproaches to film and media; aging and late voice; motherhood and
maternal subjectivity; ethcs of care as a cinematic and socio-political practice
- Dr. Erica Aguero: Areas of Research Interest: film, television and digital media, with a particular focus on how contemporary media
intersects with culture and society, including gender, race, class and sexuality
- Dr. Jacob Bohrod: Areas of Research Interest: The boundary between emerging media and film studies; virtual reality; interactive
media; critical theory; documentary
Dr. Federico PacchioniAreas of Research Interest: Italian Film History, Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini,
Contemporary Italian Cinema, Italian-American Cinema, Puppetry Across Media, Intermediality
and Collaboration
pacchioni@chapman.edu
