Screen Studies, B.A.
Curriculum
The screen studies major requires 13 courses, combining a core of gateway courses with film history, advanced research topics, production work, and a capstone. For a course to count toward the major, a grade of C or higher is required.
In your first two years, you’ll complete the gateway courses, explore the production and screening facilities, connect with faculty around shared interests, and begin building the critical vocabulary of the field. We encourage screen studies students to consider study abroad early — the program is well designed for a junior-year semester away.
In your junior and senior years, you move into advanced research topics and production courses, strengthen your networks — your classmates are your future colleagues — and prepare your capstone. You’ll also be building toward professional life: internship applications, festival submissions, graduate program research, and the portfolio materials that represent your work to the world.
Gateway Courses
Five required courses
Every Screen studies major begins with the same foundation:
- Foundations of Screen Studies (Screen Studies 101) — the intellectual entry point to the major; required before declaring
- Introduction to Digital Filmmaking (Screen Studies 107) — hands-on production from the start
- Introduction to Screenwriting (Screen Studies 108) — beats, arcs, structure, and the writing of an original screenplay
- Film Theory (Screen Studies 231) — the major frameworks and structural principles that define cinema as a media form
Screen history
Two courses — one in U.S. history, one in international history
Students choose one course in U.S. screen history — either History of U.S. Film Until 1960 or History of U.S. Film Since 1960 — and one in international cinema. This requirement ensures that every screen studies graduate has a grounded understanding of the field across national traditions and time periods.
Research topics
Four courses, at least two at the 200 level
Upper-level research courses go deep on specific aspects of screen media: genre, authorship, documentary, film noir, television, gender, South Asian cinema, and more. At least two must be 200-level screen studies courses. The range here reflects the genuine breadth of the faculty’s expertise and the program’s commitment to taking all forms of screen media seriously.
Advanced Production
One course
Every major completes at least one advanced production course — narrative fiction, documentary, genre, experimental, or advanced topics — developing the craft and collaborative practice that distinguish screen studies at Clark from programs that treat production as an afterthought.
Minor in screen studies
The screen studies minor offers students whose primary major lies elsewhere a rigorous grounding in the history, theory, and practice of moving-image media. Six courses are required.
You’ll begin with two core courses — Foundations of Screen Studies and Introduction to Digital Filmmaking — which together establish the critical vocabulary and hands-on production skills that anchor the program. Two screen history courses follow, one in United States film history and one in international cinema, with at least one of the two covering the period before 1960. This pairing ensures that minor students develop genuine historical range across national traditions.
The minor is completed with two 200-level courses chosen from advanced production, critical theory, or specialized topics — options that include documentary production, experimental film, critical perspectives on television, and gender and film, among others.
