Program Description

MU's English department offers an extensive range of courses in Film and Visual Studies. These courses have covered not only a wide range of subject matter (such as the western, film noir, Native American film and video, romanticism and visual culture, ethnographic film, and the documentary) but also a variety of approaches and perspectives. For example, Karen Piper draws on studio history as a way of approaching the Western; Noah Heringman’s research draws on visual culture to illuminate the commercial aspects and class dimensions of Romantic literary culture. Along with her other film interests, Nancy West regularly teaches courses on film adaptations of novels; Anand Prahlad explores film through the lens of racial and gender politics; and one of Joanna Hearne’s many interests is in the relationship between folklore and cinema.

Along with several other departments on campus, the English department participates in an interdisciplinary minor in Film Studies. The minor consists of 15 credit hours, six of which must be devoted to fulfilling basic requirements: Introduction to Film Analysis (FS 2810) and ONE of the following: Trends in World Cinema, Introduction to American Film, 1895-1950, Introduction to American Film, 1950 to the Present. The other nine credits may be fulfilled by selecting from a variety of courses, including “Crime Film and American Culture,” “Blackness and Gender in American Film,” “Nazi Aesthetics and Film,” “Screenwriting for Television and Film,”“Introduction to French Cinema,” and “History of German Cinema.” (A Film Studies major is also on the horizon, as are graduate courses at the MA and PhD level to be offered through the English department).

Faculty Overview

Faculty in the English department who teach film courses regularly are Joanna Hearne, Nancy West, Anand Prahlad, and Karen Piper. Faculty in other departments include Roger Cook (Chair of Film Studies and the German Department), Brad Prager (German), Carsten Strathausen (German and English), Valerie Kaussen (Romance Languages), Heather Carver (Theatre), and Eric Wilson (Theatre). Faculty in the English department who teach visual studies courses are Elizabeth Chang, Noah Heringman, and Nancy West. Faculty outside the department include Kristen Schwain (Art History), John Kline (Art History), and Keith Eggener (Art History).

Course Offerings

Our department also offers a range of courses in Visual Studies. Noah Heringman, one of our department’s Romanticists, teaches a graduate seminar on Romanticism and Visual Culture. Nancy West regularly teaches a course entitled “From Daguerreotype to Digital: Photography and the Written Word.” And Elizabeth Chang will soon be teaching courses on visuality and empire as well as on the construction of vision in nineteenth-century Britain.