Media and Cultural Studies

Spooky World

Major

The Media and Cultural Studies major provides an interdisciplinary examination of film, video, television, multimedia, visual and digital cultures, with a primary emphasis on history and theory and a secondary focus on creative intervention in media environments through production.

Media and Cultural Studies focuses an interdisciplinary lens on the analysis of the dynamic relationship between media and society with special emphasis on race, gender, class, sexuality, and ethnicity as well as political economy and globalization. Media literacies are essential for the making of engaged global citizens, capable of moving flexibly between the applied and the critical, the professional and the scholarly, the empirical and the theoretical. Our students critically engage in major debates about social and environmental justice within both global and local contexts. We also learn through practicing creative interventions in media ecologies--for example, creative, documentary, and ethnographic moving and still image-making; multimedia and digital production; critical fabulation and speculative fiction; and journalism.

Major Requirements

  • Lower-division requirements (5 lower-division courses; at least 20 units)
    1. MCS 001 Students are required to take MCS 001 and must receive a “C-/above” in this course to declare MCS as their major. The department will consider grade petitions on a case-by-case basis.
       
    2. Any 3 of the following 5 courses: ART 004/MCS 004, MCS 005, MCS 010, MCS 020, AHS 020/MCS 023
       
    3. One additional course (at least 4 units) from the following: ART 006/MCS006, MCS 009/MUS 007, MCS 015, CPLT 021/MCS021, AST 022/ JPN 022/ MCS 022, GER 045/MCS 042, MCS 043/RUSN 045, ITAL 045/MCS 044, FREN 045/MCS 045, MCS 046/SPN 046, AST 047/KOR 047/MCS 047, AST 064/ MCS 049/VNM 064, CRWT 066/MCS 066/ TFDP 066
  • Upper-division requirements (minimum 9 upper-division courses; at least 36 units)
    1. 6 upper division MCS courses (strongly recommended to be taken with MCS faculty) chosen from (24 units total)
      MCS 102, ANTH 103/MCS 103, ENGL 104/ MCS 104, MCS 105, MCS 106, MCS 107, MCS 110 (E-Z), MCS 111, GSST 112/LGBS 112/MCS 112, CPLT 134/GER 134/JPN 134/MCS 114, MCS 115, GER 118 (E-Z)/MCS 118 (E-Z), MCS120, MCS 122, GSST 124/MCS 123/ SEAS 175, MCS 124, LNST 125 (E-Z)/ MCS 125 (E-Z)/SPN 125 (E-Z), CPLT 126/ GER 126/MCS 126, GSST 166/ MCS 127, MCS 128, MCS 129, MCS 130, ART 131/ MCS 131, MCS 132, MCS 134, ART 135/ MCS 135, ART 136/MCS 136, AHS 136/ MCS 137, AHS 137/MCS 138, MCS 139/ SOC 139, MCS 140, ENGL 144 (E-Z)/ MCS 144 (E-Z), ENGL145 (E-Z)/MCS 145 (E-Z), ENGL 146 (E-Z)/MCS 146 (E-Z), MCS 148, ART 150/MCS 150, DNCE 171 (E-Z)/MCS 151 (E-Z), DNCE 171G/ MCS 151G, DNCE 171J/MCS 151J, DNCE 171M/ MCS 151M, DNCE 172 (E-Z)/MCS 152 (E-Z), DNCE 173 (E-Z)/MCS 153 (E- Z), MCS 154, MCS 156 (E-Z), DNCE 161/ MCS 161, DNCE 162/MCS 162, ART 161/ MCS 163, MCS 164, MCS 167, MCS 168, MCS169, MCS 171, MCS 172, MCS 173 (E-Z), MCS 174 (E-Z), MCS 177, MCS 178, MCS 179, MCS 180, MCS 181, MCS 184, MCS 185, MCS 186, MCS 188
       
    2. Two additional courses outside of MCS chosen from (8 units total)
      AHS 182, AHS 188, ANTH 121, , ANTH 163, ANTH 180A, CPLT 110, CPLT 143/ FREN 143, CRWT 151, CRWT 155, CRWT 174, DNCE 131, DNCE 132, DNCE 134, DNCE 135, ENGL 102, ENGL 121 (E-Z), ENGL 122 (E-Z)/LGBS 122 (E-Z), ENGL 142 (E-Z), ETST 170/WRLT 170, ETST 175/GSST 175, HIST 191X, LNST 168/ANTH 168/ETST 148, MUS 126/ ANTH 177/GSST 126, MUS 140/HISA 139, MUS 153/LGBS 153, PHIL 111 POSC 146, SOC 154, SOC 168, SOC 169, SPN 102A, SPN 102B, TFDP 115, TFDP 122, TFDP 160, TFDP 177, TFDP 191W
       
    3. One production course chosen from (4 units total)
      ART 140, ART 145, ART 146 (E-Z), ART 155/MCS 155, ART 167, ART 168, ART 169 (E-Z), ART 175, CS 134, TFDP 101, TFDP 102, TFDP 109, TFDP 132, TFDP 133, TFDP 135, TFDP 138, TFDP 144, TFDP 145, TFDP 155, TFDP 156A, TFDP 156B, TFDP 157, TFDP 166A, TFDP 166B, TFDP 166C, TFDP 167, TFDP 168, TFDP 169
       
    4. No more than four units of MCS 190 or MCS 193 and a total of four units of MCS 198-I may be applied towards the minimum requirement. No more than four units of MCS 190 and a total of four units of MCS 198I may be applied towards the minimum requirement.