Film, Media, and Digital Studies

The Film, Media, and Digital Studies department cultivates a deep understanding of the digital, screen, and media landscapes that shape contemporary life. 

A FMDS student is just as likely to study gender roles in Stardew Valley as to use computational text analysis to identify the author of an anonymous medieval manuscript. Or just as likely to analyze the representation of AI in Hollywood movies as to code a program that writes its own poetry.

The program is structured around three central pillars: 

(1) creativity, encompassing digital art, digital storytelling, filmmaking and media production, and game design; 

(2) culture and history, which considers the social and cultural history of technology and explores the expressive potential of the internet and media of all kinds; and 

(3) methodology, in which we quantitatively or qualitatively narrate, represent, analyze, map, and critique text, audio, video, and data through a humanistic perspective using digital tools and media.