I  COURSE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CERTIFICATE

Fifteen units are required for the Graduate Certificate in Film & Media Studies. Six of those hours may also count towards the Ph.D. requirements. In employing this overlap, students who earn the Graduate Certificate in Film & Media Studies with their Ph.D. may complete a total of eighty-one units rather than the seventy-two units required for the Ph.D. alone. Students should check with their doctoral home unit regarding home unit requirements in relation to the certificate. Students in the Graduate Certificate Program must fulfill all requirements of the Ph.D. expected by their respective home departments and the Graduate School in order to receive the Certificate.

Of the total number of fifteen graduate units that comprise the Graduate Certificate Program in Film and Media Studies, three core courses totaling nine hours of credit are required of all Ph.D. students accepted into the program:

CORE COURSES (9 units):

  • LS 53 501 Advanced Moving Image Analysis and Criticism (Spring 2010]
  • LS 53 421 Film Historiography
    or
    LS 53 502 Seminar in History of Film and/or Electronic Media (rotating topics)
  • One of the following theory courses is required as part of the core:
    • LS 53 419 Theories of Mass Media
    • LS53 420 Film Theory (offered every Spring semester)
    • LS 53 450 American Film Genres
    • LS53 466 Feminist Film Theory [future course]
    • Any 400 or 500 level course in film or electronic media theory.

FMS Certificate students also have two electives (six units) that may be taken at the 400 or 500 level and developed in an advising plan subject to approval of the FMS advisor and of the Director of Graduate Studies of the student’s home unit:

TWO ELECTIVES (6 units):

  • Elective in Film & Media LS53 400 level or higher
  • Elective in Film & Media LS53 400 level or higher

ELECTIVE: courses originating in FMS or crosslisted with FMS, or offered in another unit and approved by the student’s FMS advisor.

Electives offerings Spring 2010 include: FMS 430: Clown Princes; 458: Major Directors: Herzog, Schnabel and Greenaway, 505: Topics in Asian Cinema.

A student may choose to take one Independent Study of three units (FMS 500) with an FMS faculty member as an elective. This study should relate to a specialized topic mutually agreed upon by the student, his/her FMS study advisor and the Chair of the Graduate Certificate Program. Although students are expected to benefit from elective courses offered by Film & Media Studies core and affiliated faculty, they may take other, film-related courses as may be offered by other departments and by faculty not affiliated with FMS. To be included in the graduate certificate coursework, classes that fall within this category require approval by the student’s advisor in Film & Media Studies and her or his home unit Director of Graduate Studies.

II SELECTION OF CANDIDATES AND ADMISSION CRITERIA

It is recommended that students apply to the Film and Media Studies Certificate Program before the end of their second year of Ph.D. study. Entering Ph.D. students in Graduate Arts & Sciences departments will follow the standard application and advising procedures of their major departments. Students should use the Graduate School Application to indicate their interest in the Certificate if they wish to be considered for acceptance in the program simultaneous with their entry into Graduate School.

All applications to the certificate program will require a letter from the student describing her/his interest in film and media studies and relevant intellectual background, a support letter from the DGS of the Ph.D. home program, a second letter of recommendation, and at least one writing sample.

The Graduate Certificate Committee of the Program in Film and Media Studies reviews applications, with recommendations for admission to the program forwarded to the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences for final approval. The review process by the Graduate Certificate Committee includes the initial curriculum plan, which the student develops in consultation with the director of Film & Media Studies (who serves as chair of the Graduate Certificate Committee) and the DGS of the student’s home department.

III GRADUATE CERTIFICATE ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS

Enrollment, matriculation, and granting of certificates will be implemented according to existing guidelines of the Graduate School. All students will be assigned a specific advisor in FMS who will work with the student and the DGS of the student’s home department in helping the student work towards a successful completion of the certificate. The Graduate Certificate Committee of Film and Media Studies sets criteria for entrance, reviews applications, makes admission decisions, and conducts yearly evaluations of the academic progress of all certificate students. That evaluation will examine the major papers written by the student during the course of the year in their film and media courses as well as a evaluation letters completed by professors who taught the student in his/her Film and Media Studies courses. If successfully completed, the Certificate in Film and Media Studies is granted to a student concurrent with awarding of the Ph.D.

IV TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES

Graduate certificate students in Film & Media Studies are encouraged but not required to complete at least one semester as a teaching assistant to an undergraduate course within the FMS Program. Advanced FMS graduate certificate students, especially those who are writing a dissertation with film or electronic media content, have the intention of teaching film and media studies in their academic career, and already have significant teaching experience, will be encouraged to develop a lower level undergraduate course in the Program in Film and Media Studies that they might teach on their own during the regular or summer terms. We would encourage the development of a course that might be crosslisted between their home unit and FMS, and all graduate certificate students who teach in film and media studies will be under the mentorship of a FMS faculty member.

V FACULTY

Todd Decker (Assistant Professor, Music)
Robert Hegel (Distinguished Professor, Comp. Lit./Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures).
Lutz Koepnick (Professor, German/ Comp. Lit /Film and Media Studies).
Jennifer Kapczynski (Assistant Professor, German/Film and Media Studies)
William Paul (Professor, Film and Media Studies/PAD),
Stephan Schindler (Professor, German/Film and Media Studies)
Philip Sewell (Assistant Professor, Film and Media Studies/PAD)
Gaylyn Studlar (Professor, Film and Media Studies/PAD)
Hunter Vaughan (Lecturer, Film and Media Studies)
Julia Walker (Associate Professor, English/PAD)
Shuli Chen (post-doctorate fellow, Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures/Film and Media Studies)

The Program in Film and Media Studies is now accepting applications for the Graduate Certificate Program in Film & Media Studies. If you are a currently enrolled Ph.D. student at WUSTL interested in applying or you are considering applying to a Ph.D. program at WUSTL and have questions regarding this certificate, please contact Prof. Gaylyn Studlar, Director of the Program in Film and Media Studies, at gstudlar@artsci.wustl.edu or contact fms@artsci.wustl.edu or the main FMS office at (314) 935-4056 for an appointment.