Screen Studies

As one of five programs in the OSU Department of English, the Screen Studies program offers a curriculum dedicated to the study of screen-based media, encompassing film, television, and digital media. Courses in Screen Studies provide students with practical knowledge about the film and television industries and emphasize the critical analysis of moving-image content, spanning from classical film to YouTube videos. The program is dedicated to understanding the social and political significance of global visual media. Students gain a comprehensive understanding of the historical and contemporary practices of media production, distribution, and exhibition – essential for the pursuit of a career in the creative media industries.

Lead by a dedicated and distinguished faculty, Screen Studies offers courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Undergraduate students may elect the Screen Option as part of their Bachelor’s degree in English, or they might choose to supplement their major course of study with a Minor in Screen Studies. Screen Studies is complementary to many other majors, including American Studies, Art History, Business, History, Secondary Education, Sociology, Strategic Communication, and Theatre.

Graduate students may pursue either the Master’s degree or the Ph.D. in English with emphasis in Screen Studies. The Screen Studies program is committed to the training and mentoring of graduate students in preparation for the academy or as a valuable credential for a professional career in the creative media industries.

Recent or ongoing theses and dissertations by graduate students in the Screen Studies program include:

Film schools and neoliberal film production
Native American representation and labor activism in classical Hollywood cinema
Embodiments of exhaustion in contemporary global art cinema
Media archaeology and tool-building in video art communities
The material cultures of Baz Luhrmann’s film and TV production

Graduate students teach courses in the popular undergraduate Screen Studies track. Teaching assistantships and other forms of support (including tuition waivers) are available; they are awarded on a competitive basis.

Requirements

OSU undergraduate English majors may elect to pursue the Screen Option, which provides students with a broad knowledge of film history, theory, genre, international cinema, and television studies. For further information on the Screen Option, contact Clarissa Bonner, undergraduate advisor for the English Department.

The course of study for an M.A. in English with a concentration in Screen Studies includes 30 hours of coursework. Students are required to take an introduction to graduate study and an introduction to the teaching of composition; six hours are for the writing of a thesis. The remaining coursework is determined by the student in conjunction with his or her advisor and/or advisory committee.

More information about the MA Degree Requirements

The course of study for a Ph.D. in English with a concentration in Screen Studies includes 60 hours of coursework (at least 40 credits of coursework, 15-20 dissertation hours). Students are required to take an introduction to graduate study and an introduction to the teaching of composition (unless they have already done so as part of our M.A. program); 15-20 hours are for the writing of a dissertation. The remaining coursework is determined by the student in conjunction with his or her advisor and/or advisory committee. Students take comprehensive exams after completing their coursework.

More information about the PhD Degree Requirements

Faculty

Jeff Menne, Professor, Department Head, and Director of Screen Studies (Ph.D. Vanderbilt), specializes in postwar American film and media, both Hollywood and the avant-garde. He is the author of two books (Francis Ford Coppola and Post-Fordist Cinema: Hollywood Auteurs and the Corporate Counterculture) and co-editor of a third (Film and the American Presidency). He is the associate editor of JCMS, and has published articles in numerous journals and anthologies. He teaches graduate courses on New Hollywood, Film and Media Avant-Gardes, and Critical Theory.

Stacy Takacs, Professor of American Studies (Ph.D. Indiana), is an associate of the Screen Studies Program. Her research focuses on the history of television and its role in the mediation of power relations, especially with regard to globalization and US militarism. She is the author of two books (Terrorism TV: Popular Entertainment in Post-9/11 America and Interrogating Popular Culture) and co-editor of a third (American Militarism on the Small Screen). She is also co-editor of the War on Screen book series from University of Kansas Press and has published articles in numerous journals and anthologies. She teaches graduate courses on TV Criticism, TV History, and Media Convergence.

Graig Uhlin, Associate Professor (Ph.D. New York University), researches at the intersection of film studies and the environmental humanities, with a focus on the role of non-human nature within modernist and avant-garde film practices. He has published essays addressing writing film history under the Anthropocene, ecocinema and affect theory, cinematic depictions of monkeywrenching or ecological sabotage, and vegetal metaphors in film theory. He teaches courses in film and media theory, international cinema (especially French film), and the environmental humanities.

Courses

Find out about course offerings at the Course Offerings Page.

Community and Film Series

The Screen Studies program is also home to a lively film series, Exciterbulb, which is strictly devoted to screening avant-garde films and videos in their original formats. In conjunction with the series we regularly bring in avant-garde film and video artists to screen and talk about their work. Our graduate students are thus in a relatively unique position to work on avant-garde media and to cross the theory/practice divide by engaging in conversations with artists such as Michelle Citron, Ken Jacobs, Mary Beth Reed, and Phil Solomon.

The OSU Film Society is the official student organization of the Oklahoma State University Screen Studies Program. CRASS meets monthly during Spring and Fall semesters and is dedicated to unearthing obscure and hard-to-find narrative films, while providing a forum for informal discussion and cooperative research within OSU's Screen Studies community.