Current Courses

Current MA Courses

The Media Studies Graduate Program courses are best thought of as subject areas under which more particular courses are devised, based on current student and faculty goals and work. Form & Genre, for example, can mean an Interactive Narrative Lab one semester, and an exploration of the Gnostic tradition in Technology another. Media and Politics could cover political campaigns, the changing relationship of government to the fourth estate, the state of citizen media, or all three.

Courses are limited to 12 students, and meet once a week for two hours. Each class is supplemented by a practicum, supervised lab, or conference hour where the instructor supports students in their own research pursuits as they intersect with the general topic area of the course. These practicums are in the spirit of English "supervisions" or "tutorials," and are driven as much by the goals of the students as those of the instructors.

In addition to our own courses, you will also have access to the full range of courses in all Queens College graduate programs, as well as the newly formed CUNY Media and Digital Studies Consortium, which offers relevant courses in theory, practice, art, technology, media literacy, digital games, and data visualization from the other colleges and universities in the CUNY system. To register for one of those courses, students need to obtain permission and a "course equivalent" from the Director of the Program, and then apply for a CUNY ePermit by following these instructions.

The full course listings are below. Students may take a particular course more than once if it is covering a different topic within that subject area. All students are required to take Media and Social Justice and Capitalism and Media, among other program requirements.

Fall 2025 Courses

QC Media Studies MA Program Courses

MEDST 758 (CUNY ID 54374) Film Theory and Analysis through the Cinema of David Lynch

Mondays 6p-8p - with optional screenings prior! G-200. Prof Amy Herzog

This course will provide an intensive introduction to film theory and methods of analysis through the cinematic oeuvre of David Lynch. Major films and television series will be read alongside key theoretical concepts and methodologies (including auteurism, genre, psychoanalysis, film philosophy, sound studies, performance, close analysis, and industry studies). We will consider Lynch’s complex artistic vision, which extends through his various formal practices (including painting, sculpture, photography, puppetry, and transcendental meditation) in dialogue with scholarship, interviews, and production documents.

Optional film screenings from 4-6pm (those who can’t attend the group screening will need to view films before class). Seminar from 6-8pm. Open to graduate students from multiple disciplines.

MEDST 791 - Thesis Lab - Wednesdays 6-8 . Queens College G-200. Prof Rushkoff

This course will prepare and support students at any stage of the thesis process—from early conception and the development of a research question through literature review, chapter organization, and writing. We will also consider and support the development of arts and praxis theses, from concept and influences to iteration and production. Each session will begin with discussion and critique of thesis projects in progress or near completion, move on to the development or review of a specific research or organizational skill, and conclude with a session of exploration and ideation for new students, who will also be introduced to media and arts research methodologies.

MEDST 758 Form & Genre: Performing Arts in Times of Repression - Wednesdays 2:30-4:30p at Queens College, King Hall TV Studio. Prof Yin Mei Critchell

Seminar and praxis of creative and political media and performance in times of repression, from the Cultural Revolution in China to present day America. Students will learn the history of the arts in various periods of cultural repression, the tactics artists have used to challenge or hide from existing systems of power, and techniques for maintaining the emotional, political, and cultural integrity of one’s work in an oppressive or coercive environment. Students will read texts, watch movies, write papers, and develop short performance pieces.

MEDST 702 - Media and Capitalism (required) - Tuesday 6p-8p, 25 Broadway, 7th floor - Manhattan (Bowling Green/WallSt). Prof Shinjoung Yeo

This seminar offers an introduction to global capitalism and its relation to media and cultural industries. It examines the evolving capitalist system in which media and culture have been commodified and commercialized and become a central component of capitalism’s profit-making. Drawing on a critical political economy, the class covers the historical developments of media and cultural industries, the processes of commodification, public policy, geopolitics, and social and political struggle. By understanding changing global capitalist dynamics, it seeks to locate the sites of struggles and resistance to pursue human dignity and social transformation.

Hybrid Undergrad/MA Courses at Queens College

Drawing and Experimental Media - MEDST 758. Monday 1:40p-4:30p. Hybrid with undergraduates. Prof Zoë Beloff

This class will focus on personal and collective storytelling centered on the urban experience and the politics of daily life. It is open to both graduate and undergraduate who wish to expand their creative potential and take their work in new directions. Participants will create short graphic novels and animated movies anchored in real life events. In addition to hands on projects, there will be screenings and seminars. No prior experience or drawing skills required. It is all about enthusiastic participation.

Non-fiction Forms - MEDST 758 Thursday 1:40-4:30, Queens College. Prof Ash Marinaccio
Nonfiction Forms is the study of strategies of nonfiction theatre, photography, film, television, memoir, and video. Includes examination of essential theories of documentary storytelling, ethics, and production.

Film Theory - MEDST 758 Wednesday 1:40-4:30, Queens College. Prof Brandon Arroyo

A conventional overview of canonical film theory topics, stressing the historical context from which each theory emerged. Graduate students are expected to lead a class presentation on a particular theoretical reading. There will also be a shorter presentation applying film theory to another medium. And the final project is a video essay where you're explaining and applying a film theory to a movie we haven't watched in class.

Brooklyn College Graduate Media Studies (taught in Manhattan)

TREM 7701 – Intro to Media Studies. Tuesday 6:30-8:30 pm, 25 Broadway 7th Floor, Manhattan

Instructor: Katherine Fry

Survey course introducing the academic field of media studies, including a history of the field, major perspectives and theories. Students will learn how to compose a research question, search the academic literature, and complete a literature review in a media topic of their choice.

TREM 7713 – Media History, Law and Regulation. Monday evening 6:30-8:30 pm. 25 Broadway 7th Floor, Manhattan. Instructor: Ian Rosenberg

In-depth industrial and cultural historical overview of the development of electronic/digital media. Historical and legal approaches and methods. Emphasis on media laws and First Amendment issues over time.

TREM 7716 – Media Literacy Seminar – Wednesday evening 6:30-8:30 pm.25 Broadway 7th Floor, Manhattan

Instructor: Katherine Fry

Historical development and current practices of the media literacy movement nationally and internationally; current principles and topics among media literacy education advocates across traditions and perspectives. Students will engage with leaders and practitioners of media literacy, and will create media literacy learning tools needs for specific community populations.

TREM 7945 – Research Methods – Monday evening. 6:30-8:30 pm. Online. Instructor: Wiebke Riele-Agha

Survey of quantitative and qualitative media and audience research methods, including data analytics, content analysis, survey analysis, focus groups, ethnography. Students complete original research, data collection, and written report.

Spring 2025 Courses

Media Archeology and Tech/Media/Democracy are our primary and recommended two course offerings this semester.

MEDST 759 - Studies in Communication - "Tech, Media and Democracy"

Mondays, 6p-830p. 25 Broadway, hybrid, and other campuses. Douglas Rushkoff

A unique collaboration of several NYC grad programs, this course brings together students from media studies, design, performance, and technical disciplines to explore and understand various threats to an information ecosystem that nurtures democracy. Students have the opportunity to work with peers in journalism, engineering, media studies, design & technology programs at Cornell Tech, NYU, Columbia, CUNY and The New School, with the goal of developing ideas and tools that can help equip citizens with the knowledge and information required to address the many challenges that face society, and to pursue opportunities to create a healthy information ecosystem. The course will include discussion, a range of expert guest lecturers, and culminate in collaborative projects.

The Queens College section of this course will meet by itself from 6p-7p, as a seminar covering topics in propaganda, media manipulation, marketing, and dis/mis/mal-information in the digital age. Then, from 7p-8:30p, we will participate in the larger group with the other colleges. The larger meeting may occur in person or online, which will determine whether the seminar meets in person.

MEDST 701 - Media Archeology

Wednesdays, G-200, Queens College, 6p-8p. Noah Tsika

This introduction to media historiography surveys material approaches to media history, locating media artifacts within broader cultural contexts, and mapping established and emergent audiovisual archives. Designed with an international focus, this course engages a range of historical strategies, from traditional chronologies to new theoretical and experimental methodologies, including ecological perspectives and alternative histories of obsolete technologies, abandoned sites, and neglected practices.

MEDST 797 - Special Problems - "Site Specific Performance"

Taught by Meghan Healy and Aniko Szucs. Framing meetings with instructors online. Rehearsals and development meetings will be scheduled by the participants. Times to be arranged based on availability.

The development of a site specific performance under the light supervision of two drama professors, who will create the framing for project development. The students in MA/MediaStudies section of the course would develop an activist performance or protest. It can either be performed along with other groups projects at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum (on QC campus) in May or June - or it can be a site specific activist performance or guerrilla theater action that is filmed and shown at the museum. Appropriate for those involved in activist performance, site specific theater or dance, or studies in performance, space, and community.

MEDST 758 - Form & Genre - "Socially Engaged Archives in Theory and Practice"

Mondays, 6:30-950p Graduate Center. Chloë Bass and Alexandra Juhasz.

How do we approach problems that we encounter in the world? How does our work connect to our immediate world and beyond? What is the relationship between our material and creative practices? How can each of these practices inform one another? Bringing together MA, MFA, and PhD students from Social Practice CUNY, Queens College, Brooklyn College, the CUNY Graduate Center and beyond, this course will look at contemporary socially engaged art through both a theoretical and a practical lens. Students can expect to apply their knowledge to their existing individual research and community-based project work (if part of the SPCUNY cohort), or to develop early ideas for research and creative work in the fields of socially engaged and community-based art making. This class provides opportunities for social practice artists to develop archives of supporting materials, experiment with different mediums and ideas and give feedback. In a supportive community of practice, we will experiment with tools, approaches and materials to strengthen our creative practice. From this work, we will develop a collective community mapping project, and, Individually, each student will create weekly zines to document their journey throughout the class. This course will include off-site visits to connect with socially engaged art practitioners and organizations throughout New York City.

MEDST 790 - Thesis

BROOKLYN COLLEGE COURSES - TREM - all taught at 25 Broadway

TREM 7945X – “Communication Research Methods”

Mondays, 6:30-9:00 pm, fully online. Wiebke Reile-Agha

This course teaches you the steps in conducting scholarly research in communication: conception of topic, formulation of research questions, literature searches, data collection and analysis across media and communication practices. You will learn basic research concepts and procedures, and will carry out your own complete original research in answer to your own communication-related question. The course is cross-listed with the undergraduate research methods course.

TREM 7712X – “The Digital Environment”

Tuesdays, 6:30-9:00 pm, in person, 25 Broadway, lower Manhattan. Katherine Fry

Exploration of a range of theories, issues, and ideas around development of communication and mediated forms, technologies and practices, with a focus on the emerging digital media-sphere. We will dig into Media Ecology in particular. We’ll explore the myriad issues and problems pertinent to our contemporary era of changing media across contexts, examining specifically how media create environments, and how our current digital media environment shapes industries, politics, culture, the economy, law, and individual consciousness. The course culminates in your own exploratory project.

TREM 7714X – Critical Analysis of Media

Thursdays, 6:30-9:00 pm, in person, 25 Broadway, lower Manhattan. Francesca Lopez

A survey of critical theories and approaches to media texts and practice, tracing the roots of critical thinking about media and popular culture. The focus of the course is the interplay of media and culture. Both terms, media and culture, are complex and varied in meaning. The interplay between them is even more complex. We will explore the ways different critical approaches examine this interplay, looking specifically at various morphing genres and audiences. The critical/theoretical approaches include Marxism, Frankfurt School, Political Economy, Cultural Studies, Feminist Media theory, Media Ecology, Race and Ethnic Representation, and Postmodernism. We’ll apply the critical framework in analysis of media, particularly, but not exclusively, to digital media.

Fall 2024 Courses

703 - Media and Social Justice - Amy Herzog

Wednesday, 6p-8p, G-Building 200, Queens College

Seminar examines political, economic and sociological approaches to media as agents of historical change and social transformation within struggles over race, class, and gender, topics include the digitization of society and how information technology and networks work within digital capitalism, and the significance of contemporary media within abiding struggles over injustice, exploitation, and social justice. (Required.)

758 - Form & Genre: Inner Technology of Knowing - Yin Mei Critchell

Wednesday, 2:30p-4:30p, Rathaus Studio 101 B, Queens College

Western media and science have alienated people from their lived experience. This is politically, sexually, and socially disempowering. Yet our bodies are the primary site of the creative process. Digital technologies have further complicated this situation. In an age of AI, the somatic experience becomes our primary means of distinguishing human achievement from synthetic production. This course will retrieve more integrated approaches to wisdom, movement, and sense making and combine them with modern research and insights, in order to help students develop their own internally informed creative processes. Topics covered will include the I-Ching, shamanism, Laban movement analysis, and Somatic theories.

752 - Media Theory - Douglas Rushkoff

Thursday, 6p-8p, 25 Broadway, Manhattan

The emergence of interactive technologies has profoundly altered our relationship to media, art, and society from the position of passive spectators to that of active players - at least potentially. For longer than we might imagine, cultural theorists have foreseen these shifts, feared them, fought for them, celebrated them, and, clearly, misunderstood them. In this seminar, we will explore the thread of interactivity in cultural media as well as the opportunities and perils posed by the associated rise of mass interpretation, authorship, and bottom-up organization. This course will provide an introduction to the main theoretical frameworks for understanding media, (McLuhan, Foucault, Deleuze, Hall, Harraway, hooks, etc.) with a particular focus on new media and interactivity. After broad exposure to a range of theorists and approaches, students will learn to “plug in” their own issues and concerns into existing frameworks, as well as develop their own original theoretical frameworks.

790 - Thesis - required of all students. You must propose your thesis to a faculty member who you want to supervise your work.

791 - Thesis Research - the first semester of thesis work for students who wish to dedicated two semesters of supervised work to the thesis.

788 - Cooperative Education Placement - get credit for a job/internship/project in the real world.

797 - Independent Study, under the supervision of a professor.

Brooklyn College, Media Studies Courses

TREM 7713X Media and Communication History and Regulation

Monday 6p-8p, 25 Broadway, New York, NY

- Ian Rosenberg, Asst Chief Counsel, ABC, Inc.

In-depth industrial, historical and legal approaches and methods to U.S. media policy and regulation.

TREM 7716X Seminar in Media Literacy, Katherine Fry, PhD

Tuesday 6p-8p, 25 Broadway, New York, NY

Development of, and current practices in, the media literacy movement nationally and internationally; understanding the principles of dynamic media literacy. Students will engage with practitioners of media literacy; will assess needs and issues in the community, and will create media literacy learning tools to address them.

TREM 7701X Introduction to Media Studies - Katherine Fry, PhD

Wednesday 6p-8p, 25 Broadway, New York, NY

Introduction to the history and literature of media scholarship, methods of inquiry, topical issues in the field.

Brooklyn PIMA courses
Performance and Interactive Media Arts website here.

PIMA 7010: Collaborative performance intensive: A series of 9 performances created collaboratively and performed in class, and a 10th with a longer rehearsal period that is performed publicly at the end of term. In person, BC campus; Tuesday evenings, 3cr. Jannone/McCoy

PIMA 7741: Introduction to interactive media programming - basics of dynamic digital media, and an intensive introduction to the Max/MSP language (http://cycling74.com). Hybrid online, semi-synchronous. Wednesdays 10AM-2PM; 7 in-person synchronous meetings on BC campus. 3cr. Jannone

PIMA 7210: History & Theory of collaborative, experimental, and activist performance practices. Graduate Center for Worker Education, 25 Broadway, Manhattan. Wednesdays 5-8 PM. 3cr. Ayana Evans.

PIMA 7322: Performance Art I, Experimental Ensemble. Collaborative devising using the Viewpoints method, performance at end-of-term Thursday or Friday TBD. 2cr (can also be taken for 3cr). Erwin Maas.

QC Undergraduate Courses with MA sections

A few professors have undergraduate courses for which they are able to take on a few MA students at a more advanced level, with special permission. I am working on getting descriptions for these courses. You can find out more about them by contacting the professor. They are:

MEDST 758 Non-Fiction Forms

Thursday 1:40 - 4:30

Ash Marinaccio

Nonfiction Forms is the study of strategies of nonfiction theatre, photography, film, television, memoir, and video. Includes examination of essential theories of documentary storytelling, ethics, and production.

MEDST 758 Film Theory

Wednesday 1:40-5:30

Brandon Arroyo

MEDST 745 Advertising, Consumption, and Culture

Wednesday 9:10am - 12:05pm

Mara Einstein

Advertising, Consumption, & Culture takes a critical approach to looking at advertising, and more broadly marketing, to analyze the impact of capitalism and consumer culture on society more broadly. This is a reading and writing intensive course where we will examine topics like the therapeutic ethos, brand cults, McDonaldization, infantilization, and neoliberalism and apply them to influencers, purpose washing, and multilevel marketing, among others.

Spring 2024 Courses

MEDST 702 Media and Capitalism – 36701 – required to graduate

Prof Shinjoung Yeo – Wednesdays 6p-8p – G Building Room 200

MEDST 705. Race, Migration & Media – 36700

Professor Sara Hinojos – Mondays, 6p-8p, G-200

The course examines how media represents issues about and concerning migration and migrants in the US. Not only will the course focus on how migrant communities are constructed (via gender, race, and ethnicity) in film, television, newspapers, and scholarly readings, but also how these communities creatively use various media in the US. With an interdisciplinary approach combining sociology, media, and cultural studies, we will explore how media practices and representations inform the everyday lives of migrants.

MEDST 758 Interactive Narrative Lab – 36699

Prof Douglas Rushkoff – Wednesdays 2p-4p – G Building 004

This hybrid seminar/lab considers the impact of interactivity on traditional narrative structure, and explores new methods for conveying narrative in non-linear, digital, and augmented forms of art, entertainment, and communications. How can we create the experiences of reversal, recognition, and catharsis in interactive contexts – and do we want to? What are the social and political biases implicit in particular narrative structures, and how are they changing in new media landscapes? Each class meeting is broken up into two parts. The first is a seminar discussion either examining an aspect of traditional narrative and the way it is threatened or rendered obsolete in an interactive context or exploring theory and examples of interactive narrative. The second half of each session takes the form of workshop exercises and short projects through which alternative narrative forms specifically suited for an interactive environment are conceived, prototyped and evaluated. Students also work on longer-term experiments in interactive narrative, developing rule sets through which narratives may emerge, or prototyping non-narrative work.

MEDST 758 POETICS AND POLITICS OF SPACE – 36408

Prof Meghan Healey – Tuesdays 6-8PM – RATHAUS DANCE STUDIO 101B

In this course we will fuse exercises delving the practice of scenography (stage design) with theoretical readings/discussions about how to create space (internal, external, physical, spiritual, metaphysical, imaginary, and real) in your creative work. How can space welcome or reject? How do performers create character within their physical space? We will address how scenographers can address issues of cultural appropriation, land acknowledgement, sustainability, community, and inclusive design through grassroots practice.

The course will incorporate mask work, journaling, visual research and drawing/modelmaking with the goal of helping students create their own aesthetic manifesto to help guide themselves and their collaborators in future projects.

MDST 758: Workshop in Drama – Playwriting – 51957

Professor Ira Hauptman – Mondays, 1:40-4:30 PM, RA 219

This is a playwriting workshop. It’s been said that playwriting can’t be taught, but it can be learned. We will focus on close examination of students’ plays-in-progress as the first stage of a development process that will help create a producible full-length script. Students will also sharpen critical skills that will help them understand and articulate the fundamentals of dramatic writing. Through scene study, students will learn exposition, dramatic structure, rhythm, character development, subtext and stage language. The course’s main objective is to help students tell the stories that they want to tell. No playwriting experience is necessary.

Also: Thesis and Cooperative Education Placement can be taken with permission.

BROOKLYN COLLEGE COURSES – in Manhattan (available to QC students through CUNYpass)

TREM 7712 — The Digital Environment

K Fry

Examination of the relationship between digital media and society within the contexts of social and cultural theory. Emphasis on perspectives of cultural studies and media ecology. Analysis of changes in industry, audience, content, everyday practices and consciousness.

This is a course where the readings, discussions, and projects are wide ranging — to fit the intellectual and creative curiosities of each student. It will be taught on Wed. evenings at 25 Broadway in Manhattan.

TREM 7714 — Critical Analysis of Media

C Wiebe

Textual and analytical approaches the scholarly study of media. Survey of the most significant Marxist, structuralist, semiotic and formalist readings of media over the past one hundred years.

This course will meet on Tuesday evenings at 25 Broadway in Manhattan.

TREM 7776 — Art of Documentary

I Patkanian

In-depth analysis of critically acclaimed documentaries across various distribution platforms. Principles and techniques of nonfiction storytelling. Lectures, screening and discussion about authorship, evidence, ethics and responsibility. Structure and formal techniques.

This course will meet Thursday evenings at 25 Broadway in Manhattan.

TREM 7797X – Special Topics

Technology, Media, and Democracy – Spring, 2024

Instructor for Brooklyn College/CUNY: Katherine G. Fry, PhD (TREM) – katfry@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Mondays, 7-8:30 pm, plus discussion session (TBD) – (both online and in person)

Brief Description:

A unique collaboration of several NYC grad programs, the Technology, Media and Democracycourse brings together students from media studies, design, performance, and technical disciplines to explore and understand various threats to an information ecosystem that nurtures democracy. Students have the opportunity to work with peers in journalism, engineering, media studies, design & technology programs at Cornell Tech, NYU, Columbia, CUNY and The New School with the goal of developing ideas and tools that can help equip citizens with the knowledge and information required to address the many challenges that face society, and to pursue opportunities to create a healthy information ecosystem. Through discussion, a range of expert guest lecturers, and a collaborative project, we will take on topics such as:

The importance of our information ecosystem to our democracy, and the key fundamentals of this ecosystem that make it problematic and challenging;
Some of the key ailments of our information ecosystem (including misinformation, media manipulation, and harassment), and the challenges in addressing these at scale;
How media, propaganda, and misinformation directly affect the functions of democracy, such as elections;
Frameworks to imagine the internet of the future, and what we can do to create a healthier environment where democracy can flourish;
How the voices of vulnerable populations of people- such as minorities, immigrants, and the poor-fare in our information and media landscape.

Please contact Prof. Fry with any questions about course logistics or content.

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