Calling Action to New Classes in 2014

Published: April 02, 2014 | Read Time: 2 minutes

With a constant desire for students to obtain the most current and contemporary in education, the Office of the Provost and the Department of English is introducing a brand new minor, film and screen studies, which will be debuted Fall 2014.

This interdisciplinary minor will feature classes within the departments of English, foreign language and philosophy, and theatre and dance, and will give students the opportunity to stay abreast of one the most popular, pervasive and possibly most important liberal art form today—film—according to Dr. Kyle Bishop, department chair of English.

“Everyone spends majority of their time in front of a screen consuming a variety of media. While everyone knows how to watch visual narratives, people don't naturally understand how to create them ‘well,’” explained Bishop.

Bishop continued on to say that “the goal of the program is to help students become more sophisticated consumers of visual entertainment and art, teaching them to closely read and analyze such texts.”

A number of new courses were created for this program, such as English 2023: screen aesthetics, a course to teach about the fundamental features of film, television, video games, and Internet video. Beginning Fall 2015, U.S. narrative film (English 3150) will be offered, which will survey key films from the U.S. from the 1910s until today.

Bishop commented that if the minor proves successful, additional courses will be forthcoming. 

But this minor isn’t just for those wanting to become movie directors. Bishop stated that this new minor would benefit a student within any discipline, giving them the necessary critical thinking and analysis skills for almost any kind of job.

 “This minor will enhance an educator's ability to teach a variety of contemporary texts, increase a business person's ability to communicate through short films or presentations, help an advertiser craft more effective commercials, and give a scientist ideas on how to make findings clear through visual explanation,” explained Bishop.

Bishop then directly stated that a minor in film and screen studies would definitely help students get accepted into a film making producing graduate program or receive an internship in the film, television, or video game industries.

Jacob Anderson, a sophomore English major from Las Vegas, told the University Journal that he will minor in film and screen studies to help give him an edge on future employment opportunities.

“Considering that the movie industry is the largest entertainment business in the United States, a lot of literature is adapted into screenplays, which are then adapted into movies and films,” Anderson said. “So I saw it as a chance to expand my knowledge of literature as well as the adaptation process.”

In addition to the new film and screen studies minor being introduced to campus, the Department of Communications will launch two classes in the upcoming semesters. A sport media course will be taught summer 2014 and, in conjunction with the Department of English, a technical writing certificate will soon be offered.

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