Courses

Modern feature-length screenplays demand a specific architecture. In this class students will enter with an idea for a film, and during the first eight sessions build a coherent treatment; that is, a summary of the events and major emotional arcs of the film's three acts. In the final four sessions students will begin and complete the first act of their feature-length screenplay.

Tech Arts: Post Production delivers a practical introduction to the post production process, a vital part of filmmaking. The course will look at the process of moving efficiently from production to post production, the techniques of non-linear editing and ultimately the process of professionally finishing a film for modern distribution. Students will learn foundational post terminology, how to create the best workflow for your film, how to manage data/footage in the edit room, and offline and online editing. Additionally, the class will cover other key steps in the post production process including audio syncing, transcoding, exporting and mastering. The hands-on lessons and exercises will be conducted using the industry-standard Non-Linear Editing System, Davinci Resolve, and will serve as a primer for other professional systems, including Adobe Premiere and Davinci Resolve. Each lecture will consist of hands-on demonstrations and self-paced practice using content created by the students and/ or content provided by the program.

The seminar zero in on the relationship between Hollywood and the Chinese film industry as a case study to tease out a cluster of issues concerning the politics, economy, and culture of transnational entertainment and media practices. The course aims to introduce students to foundational texts as well as the most updated research topics and approaches concerning Chinese cinema and media. Seminar participants are encouraged to utilize the research tools learned in the class to explore their own research topics and facilitate their own research projects.

Documentaries are increasingly proliferating across small and large screens around the world. They circulate as market commodities, forms of entertainment, and vehicles for social change. In this seminar we will compare different national and regional contexts of contemporary documentary production, including projects created within the media industries of Mexico, Peru, India, China, Cambodia, and Israel. We will also examine how documentaries resonate locally, but can still transcend geographic borders and engage viewers across the globe. Crucial to our course will be the close analysis of how documentaries actively address civil rights struggles, oppressive government regimes, cultural trends, environmental crises, and progressive social movements to create more inclusive, equitable communities. So, too, will we examine emerging technologies (such as VR/AR), strategies of international co-production, star-studded film festivals, as well as the global reach and impact of mega studios such as Netflix and Wanda. This course fulfills the Global Core requirement.

This lecture course examines the social, cultural, and legal history of witchcraft, magic, and the occult throughout European history. We will examine the values and attitudes that have influenced beliefs about witchcraft and the supernatural, both historically and in the present day, using both primary and secondary sources. This course will pay specific attention to the role of gender and sexuality in the history of witchcraft, as the vast majority of individuals charged in the witch hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were indeed women. We will also study accusations of witchcraft, breaking down the power dynamics and assumptions at play behind the witch trials, and the impacts of these trials on gender relations in European society. This class will track the intersections of magic and science throughout the early-modern period, and the reconciliation of belief systems during the Enlightenment. We will carry our analysis into the modern period, touching on Victorian spiritualism and mysticism, McCarthyism in the United States, and contemporary goddess worship. We will conclude the semester with an investigation into the role of witchcraft in discussions of gender, race, and sexuality in popular culture.

This lecture course examines the social, cultural, and legal history of witchcraft, magic, and the occult throughout European history. We will examine the values and attitudes that have influenced beliefs about witchcraft and the supernatural, both historically and in the present day, using both primary and secondary sources. This course will pay specific attention to the role of gender and sexuality in the history of witchcraft, as the vast majority of individuals charged in the witch hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were indeed women. We will also study accusations of witchcraft, breaking down the power dynamics and assumptions at play behind the witch trials, and the impacts of these trials on gender relations in European society. This class will track the intersections of magic and science throughout the early-modern period, and the reconciliation of belief systems during the Enlightenment. We will carry our analysis into the modern period, touching on Victorian spiritualism and mysticism, McCarthyism in the United States, and contemporary goddess worship. We will conclude the semester with an investigation into the role of witchcraft in discussions of gender, race, and sexuality in popular culture.

Examines the shaping of European cultural identity through encounters with non-European cultures from 1500 to the post-colonial era. Novels, paintings, and films will be among the sources used to examine such topics as exoticism in the Enlightenment, slavery and European capitalism, Orientalism in art, ethnographic writings on the primitive, and tourism.

The history of human trafficking in the Atlantic world from the first European slaving expeditions in the late fifteenth century down to the final forced crossings in the era of the U.S. Civil War.  Themes include captive taking in West Africa and its impact on West African societies, the commercial organization of the Atlantic slave trade in Europe and the Americas, and the experience of capture, exile, commodification, and survival of those shipped to the Americas. 

Capitalism shapes every aspect of our daily lives. Thinkers on both the left and the right of the political spectrum agree that capitalism structures our economic, social, and political relationships. Yet, there is little agreement as to the definition of capitalism and its normative implications. The definition and interpretation of capitalism differs across time and space, always evolving in response to challenges, crises, and contradictions. The aim of this course is to provide students with analytical tools to think critically and historically about the concept of capitalism. By studying how philosophers, economists, and political theorists have defined and described the concept of capitalism throughout its history (from the early seventeenth century to the present), students will be provided with a set of terminologies and analytical frameworks that enable them to interrogate the various dimensions of capitalism. The readings in the course are selected to illustrate the fact that capitalism has always been controversial. We will read texts authored by both proponents and critics of capitalism. We will explore how various canonical figures have thought about private property, markets, money, economic growth, injustice, inequality, alienation, and socialism.

This lecture examines how the American presidency evolved into the most important job on earth. It examines how major events in US and world history shaped the presidency. How changes in technology and media augmented the power of the president and how the individuals who served in the office left their marks on the presidency. Each class will make connections between past presidents and the current events involving today's Commander-in-Chief. Some topics to be discussed: Presidency in the Age of Jackson; Teddy Roosevelt and Presidential Image Making; Presidency in the Roaring ‘20s; FDR and the New Deal; Kennedy and the Television Age; The Great Society and the Rise of the New Right; 1968: Apocalyptic Election; The Strange Career of Richard Nixon; Reagan's Post Modern Presidency; From Monica to The War on Terror.

This course charts the expansion of U.S. military power from a band of colonists to a globe-girdling colossus with over 2.1 million personnel, some 750 bases around the world, and an annual budget of approximately $754 billion — almost half of federal discretionary spending, and more than the next nine nations combined. It introduces students to the history of American military power; the economic, political, and technological rise of the military-industrial complex and national security state; the role of the armed services in international humanitarian work; and the changing role of the military in domestic and international politics. A three-point semester-long course, compressed into six weeks; visit bobneer.com for a complete syllabus.