COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING CMS.301 Introduction to Game Design Methods Prereq: None U (Spring) Undergraduate Subjects 5-0-7 units. HASS-A
CMS.100 Introduction to Media Studies Provides an introduction to the process of designing games and Prereq: None playful experiences. Familiarizes students with concepts, methods, U (Fall, Spring) techniques and tools used in the design of a wide variety of games. 3-3-6 units. HASS-H; CI-H Focuses on aspects of the process such as rapid prototyping, play testing, and design iteration using a player-centered approach. Oers an overview of the social, cultural, political, and economic Students work in project groups where they engage with a series impact of mediated communication on modern culture. Combines of conned exercises, practice communicating design ideas, and critical discussions with experiments working with dierent media. discuss their own and others work in a constructive manner. No prior Media covered include radio, television, lm, the printed word, programming experience required. Limited to 15. and digital technologies. Topics include the nature and function of M. Jakobsson, S. Verrilli media, core media institutions, and media in transition. Enrollment limited. CMS.306 Making Comics and Sequential Art Sta Subject meets with CMS.806 Prereq: None CMS.150[J] Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies U (Spring) Same subject as 24.912[J], 21H.106[J], 21L.008[J], 21W.741[J], 3-0-9 units. HASS-A WGS.190[J] Prereq: None Applied introduction to comics and sequential art production. Builds U (Spring) skills in how to develop storylines; develop and draw characters, 3-0-9 units. HASS-A, HASS-H; CI-H panels, and backgrounds; prepare for print production; and comprehend the basics of sequential language, composition, and See description under subject 24.912[J]. layout. Students engage with crucial personal and political issues M. Degra & D. Fox Harrell at stake across a range of comics genres: superhero, biographical, and countercultural. Addresses not just how we create comics, but CMS.300 Introduction to Videogame Theory why we create comics. Students taking graduate version complete Subject meets with CMS.841 additional assignments. Limited to 16. Prereq: None M. Cordero U (Fall) 3-3-6 units. HASS-H CMS.307 Critical Worldbuilding Subject meets with CMS.807 Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of videogames as texts Prereq: None through an examination of their cultural, educational, and social U (Fall) functions in contemporary settings. Students play and analyze 3-3-6 units. HASS-A videogames while reading current research and theory from a variety of sources in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and Studies the design and analysis of invented (or constructed) worlds industry. Assignments focus on game analysis in the context of the for narrative media, such as television, lms, comics, and literary theories discussed in class. Includes regular reading, writing, and texts. Provides the practical, historical and critical tools with which presentation exercises. No prior programming experience required. to understand the function and structure of imagined worlds. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Examines world-building strategies in the various media and genres Limited to 20. in order to develop a critical and creative repertoire. Participants M. Jakobsson create their own invented worlds. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 13. J. Diaz
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 3 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.308 The Visual Story: Graphic Novel, Type to Tablet CMS.313 Silent Film Subject meets with CMS.808 Subject meets with CMS.813 Prereq: None Prereq: None Acad Year 2021-2022: U (Spring) Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered Acad Year 2022-2023: U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A 3-3-6 units. HASS-H
Focuses on the interactions between graphic stories and media Examines how the key elements of today's lms - composition, technologies from the rotary press of the late 19th century to continuity editing, lighting, narrative structure - were originally contemporary touch screens, exploring the changing relations created. Studies the history of cinema, from its origins in the among narrative expression, reader experience and media form. late 19th century to the transition to sound in the late 1920s and Working with examples from Pulitzer's Yellow Kid and McKay's early 1930s. Students view a range of lms (both mainstream Little Nemo, through the classic comics (from DC superheroes to and experimental) from all over the world, with a particular focus EC horror) and graphic novels, to interactive and non-linear texts on US productions. Emphasis on how color, sound, and other (Cognitos Operation Ajax), examines such elements as graphic developments paved the way for today's technological innovations. design, interface, and form as well as the circulation and economies Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. of these various media-based texts. Students taking graduate H. Hendershot version complete additional assignments. J. Paradis CMS.314[J] Phantasmal Media: Computer-Based Art Theory and Practice CMS.309[J] Transmedia Storytelling: Modern Science Fiction Same subject as 21W.753[J] Same subject as 21W.763[J] Subject meets with CMS.814 Subject meets with CMS.809 Prereq: None Prereq: None U (Fall) U (Spring) Not oered regularly; consult department 3-2-7 units. HASS-A 3-0-9 units. HASS-A
See description under subject 21W.763[J]. Engages students in theory and practice of using computational H. Hendershot techniques for developing expressive digital media works. Surveys approaches to understanding human imaginative processes, such as CMS.311[J] Media in Weimar and Nazi Germany constructing concepts, metaphors, and narratives, and applies them Same subject as 21G.055[J] to producing and understanding socially, culturally, and critically Prereq: None meaningful works in digital media. Readings engage a variety of Acad Year 2021-2022: U (Fall) theoretical perspectives from cognitive linguistics, literary and Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered cultural theory, semiotics, digital media arts, and computer science. 2-2-8 units. HASS-H; CI-H Students produce interactive narratives, games, and related forms of soware art. Some programming and/or interactive web scripting See description under subject 21G.055[J]. Enrollment limited. experience (e.g., Flash, Javascript) is desirable. Students taking W. Uricchio the graduate version complete a project requiring more in-depth theoretical engagement. D. F. Harrell
CMS.333[J] Production of Educational Videos: Skills for Communicating Academic and Professional Content Same subject as ES.333[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) Not oered regularly; consult department 3-1-8 units. HASS-E; CI-H
See description under subject ES.333[J]. Limited to 12; preference to students in ESG. D. Custer
4 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.334[J] South Asian America: Transnational Media, Culture, CMS.339 Virtual Reality and Immersive Media Production and History Subject meets with CMS.839 Same subject as 21W.788[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Prereq: None U (Spring) Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Acad Year 2022-2023: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H Provides an overview of historical developments and current innovations in virtual reality (e.g., gear, soware, and storytelling See description under subject 21W.788[J]. Limited to 18. techniques) and looks into new trends in augmented, mixed and V. Bald holographic reality. Includes practical instruction and a step-by-step exploration of the fundamentals of virtual reality creation - from new CMS.335[J] Short Attention Span Documentary visual languages and grammars, to storyboarding, scripting, sound Same subject as 21W.790[J] design and editing, to new and innovative ways to capture, scan and Subject meets with 21W.890 reproduce 360-degree images. Students taking graduate version Prereq: None complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered S. Rodriguez Acad Year 2022-2023: U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A CMS.350[J] Topics and Methods in 21st-Century Journalism Same subject as 21W.737[J] See description under subject 21W.790[J]. Limited to 16. Subject meets with CMS.850 V. Bald Prereq: None U (Spring) CMS.336[J] Social Justice and The Documentary Film Not oered regularly; consult department Same subject as 21W.786[J] 3-0-9 units. HASS-H Subject meets with CMS.836 Prereq: None Gives a broad understanding of what it means to produce journalism U (Spring) today. Evaluates the limitations and strengths of specic types 3-0-9 units. HASS-A of media, ranging from New York Times stories to Twitter feeds. Provides students with tools to eectively communicate their own See description under subject 21W.786[J]. Limited to 18. work and research to non-specialist audiences. Students submit V. Bald assignments via an online portal, which mimics the style and substance of an online news source. Students taking graduate CMS.338 Innovation in Documentary: Technologies and version complete additional assignments. Limited to 12. Techniques S. Mnookin Subject meets with CMS.838 Prereq: CMS.100 or permission of instructor CMS.353[J] The New Latin American Novel (New) U (Fall) Same subject as 21G.072[J] 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Prereq: None Discusses emerging technologies and techniques available to media- U (Fall) makers (e.g., location-based technologies, transmedia storytelling, Not oered regularly; consult department crowdsourcing, and interactivity) and their implications on the lm 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H and television documentary. Studies the development of these tools See description under subject 21G.072[J]. Enrollment limited. and considers the many new directions in which they may take the P. Duong genre. Includes screenings, meetings with documentary makers, and an experimental component in which students can explore new approaches to documentary production. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. W. Uricchio
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 5 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.354[J] Japanese Literature and Cinema (New) CMS.361 Networked Social Movements: Media and Mobilization Same subject as 21G.065[J] Subject meets with CMS.861 Subject meets with 21G.593 Prereq: None Prereq: None U (Fall) U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H Provides an overview of social movement studies as a body of Surveys both cinematic and literary representations of diverse theoretical and empirical work, with an emphasis on understanding eras and aspects of Japanese culture such as the classical era, the the relationship between social movements and the media. Explores samurai age, wartime Japan and the atomic bombings, social change multiple methods of social movement investigation, including in the postwar period, and the appropriation of foreign cultural textual and media analysis, surveys, interviews, focus groups, themes, with an emphasis on the modern period. Directors include participant observation, and co-research. Covers recent innovations Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Teshigahara. Authors include Kobo Abe in social movement theory, as well as new data sources and tools for and Yukio Mishima. Films shown with subtitles in English. Taught in research and analysis. Includes short papers, a literature review, and English. Enrollment limited. a nal research project. Students taking graduate version complete Consult P. Roquet additional assignments. Limited to 16. S. Costanza-Chock CMS.356[J] Advertising and Media: Comparative Perspectives Same subject as 21G.036[J] CMS.362 Civic Media Collaborative Design Studio Subject meets with 21G.190, CMS.888 Subject meets with CMS.862 Prereq: None Prereq: One subject in CMS or MAS U (Spring) U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Can be repeated for credit. See description under subject 21G.036[J]. J. Wang Project-based studio focusing on collaborative design of civic media provides a service-learning opportunity for students interested in CMS.360 Introduction to Civic Media working with community organizations. Multidisciplinary teams Subject meets with CMS.860 create civic media projects based on real-world community needs. Prereq: None Covers co-design methods and best practices to include the U (Spring) user community in iterative stages of project ideation, design, 3-0-9 units. HASS-H implementation, testing, and evaluation. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 16. Examines civic media in comparative, transnational and historical Sta perspectives. Introduces various theoretical tools, research approaches, and project design methods. Students engage with multimedia texts on concepts such as citizen journalism, transmedia activism, media justice, and civic, public, radical, and tactical media. Case studies explore civic media across platforms (print, radio, broadcast, internet), contexts (from local to global, present-day to historical), and use (dialogic, contentious, hacktivist). As a nal project, students develop a case study or project proposal. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. Sta
6 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.374[J] Transmedia Art, Extraction, and Environmental CMS.376 History of Media and Technology Justice (New) Subject meets with CMS.876 Same subject as 4.376[J] Prereq: None Subject meets with CMS.877 U (Spring) Prereq: None 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H U (Fall) 2-3-7 units. HASS-A Surveys the interrelated histories of communications media and technological development, from the emergence of 19th-century Exploration of today's extractive economies and the role that forms of mass print media and telegraphy, to sound capture artists, media-makers, and transmedia producers play in shaping and image-based forms (e.g., lm, radio, and television), to the public perception, individual choices, and movement-building shi from analog to digital cultures. Examines how new forms of towards sustainability. Traces the contingent geological, material, communication exert social, political, and cultural influences in community, and toxic histories of extracted materials used the global context. Explores how technological innovation and throughout our built environment, as well as civic resistance and accelerating media aect social values and behaviors in the popular reform that could alter extraction practices. Scaolded workshops and global adoption of a media device. Includes two papers and with artists and media producers support students' production of a research project on aspects of media history. Students taking creative documentary and other media projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment graduate version complete additional assignments. limited. J. Paradis, J. Barry J. Paradis
CMS.375 Reading Climate Through Media CMS.400 Media Systems and Texts Subject meets with CMS.875 Prereq: One subject in Comparative Media Studies or permission of Prereq: None instructor U (Spring) U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H 3-0-9 units. HASS-H
Explores how climate is construed in the contemporary media in Explores theoretical, historical and critical approaches to order to gain a better understanding of how views of climate change the comparative study of media. Examines media from three are shaped and received in the public sphere. Studies the pathways perspectives: the historical evolution of particular media forms that take us from climate science to media content, from the big (media in transition); the migration of particular narratives across data of global scale to the particulars and narratives of the human dierent media forms (trans-media texts); and the ways in which experience. Surveys a variety of media forms--reports, articles, media texts and systems cross cultural and national boundaries comics, videos, lms, photography, poetry and ction--that reflect (global crossings). Instruction and practice in written and oral on the contemporary human challenges of dealing with a changing communication provided. natural environment of our own making. Emphasizes the role of J. Picker media in shaping public opinion, both in the US and globally, and its influence on public (and voter) perceptions on which a vast body CMS.405 Visual Design of regulation and funding for environmental management is based. Prereq: 21L.011 or CMS.100 Students work individually and in teams to produce a selection of U (Fall) the media forms studied. Students taking graduate version complete 3-0-9 units. HASS-H additional assignments. Limited to 20. J. Paradis Examines the process of making and sharing visual artifacts using a trans-cultural, trans-historical, constructionist approach. Explores the relationship between perceived reality and the narrative imagination, how an author's choice of medium and method constrains the work, how desire is integrated into the structure of a work, and how the cultural/economic opportunity for exhibition/ distribution aects the realization of a work. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided. Limited to 20. D. F. Harrell
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 7 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.407 Sound Studies CMS.587[J] Introduction to Education: Understanding and Prereq: None Evaluating Education U (Spring) Same subject as 11.125[J] Not oered regularly; consult department Prereq: None 3-0-9 units. HASS-H U (Spring) 3-6-3 units. HASS-S; CI-H Explores the ways in which humans experience the realm of sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge One of two introductory subjects on teaching and learning science from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. Examines how and mathematics in a variety of K-12 settings. Topics include student environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed misconceptions, formative assessment, standards and standardized cross-culturally. Describes the rise of telephony, architectural testing, multiple intelligences, and educational technology. Students acoustics, and sound recording, and the globalized travel of gain practical experience through weekly visits to schools, classroom these technologies. Addresses questions of ownership, property, discussions, selected readings, and activities to develop a critical authorship, and copyright in the age of digital le sharing. Particular and broad understanding of past and current forces that shape the focus on how the sound/noise boundary is imagined, created goals and processes of education, and explores the challenges and modeled across diverse sociocultural and scientic contexts. and opportunities of teaching. Students work collaboratively and Auditory examples--sound art, environmental recordings, music--will individually on papers, projects, and in-class presentations. Limited be provided and invited. Instruction and practice in written and oral to 25. communication provided. Limited to 20. E. Klopfer J. Picker CMS.590[J] Design and Development of Games for Learning CMS.586[J] Introduction to Education: Looking Forward and Same subject as 11.127[J] Looking Back on Education Subject meets with 11.252[J], CMS.863[J] Same subject as 11.124[J] Prereq: None Prereq: None U (Spring) U (Fall) 3-6-3 units. HASS-H 3-6-3 units. HASS-S; CI-H See description under subject 11.127[J]. One of two introductory subjects on teaching and learning science E. Klopfer and mathematics in a variety of K-12 settings. Topics include education and media, education reform, the history of education, CMS.591[J] Educational Theory and Practice I simulations, games, and the digital divide. Students gain practical Same subject as 11.129[J] experience through weekly visits to schools, classroom discussions, Prereq: None. Coreq: CMS.586[J] selected readings, and activities to develop a critical and broad U (Fall) understanding of past and current forces that shape the goals 3-0-9 units. HASS-S and processes of education, and explores the challenges and opportunities of teaching. Students work collaboratively and Concentrates on core set of skills and knowledge necessary individually on papers, projects, and in-class presentations. Limited for teaching in secondary schools. Topics include classroom to 25. management, student behavior and motivation, curriculum design, E. Klopfer educational reform, and the teaching profession. Classroom observation is a key component. Assignments include readings from educational literature, written reflections on classroom observations, practice teaching and constructing curriculum. The rst of the three- course sequence necessary to complete the Teacher Education Program. Limited to 15; preference to juniors and seniors. G. Schwanbeck
8 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.592[J] Educational Theory and Practice II CMS.595 Learning, Media, and Technology Same subject as 11.130[J] Subject meets with CMS.895 Prereq: CMS.591[J] Prereq: None U (IAP) U (Spring) 3-0-9 units 3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Concentrates on the theory and psychology associated with student Addresses new digital technologies that are transforming learning learning. Topics include educational theory, educational psychology, across the lifespan - from reading apps for toddlers, intelligent tutors and theories of learning. Students assume responsibility for full- for school children, and blended learning for college students, to time teaching of two or more classes at their designated school. MOOCs for adults and interest-based learning communities for Class sessions focus on debrieng and problem-solving. Second of a hobbyists. Focuses on how these technologies shape people's lives three-course sequence necessary to complete the Teacher Education and learning. Students explore how education technologies operate Program. in complex social-technical systems, and acquire analytic tools and G. Schwanbeck strategies that can be applied to other complex systems. They also rene their thinking about the opportunities, limits, and tradeos of CMS.593[J] Educational Theory and Practice III educational technology. Students taking graduate version complete Same subject as 11.131[J] additional assignments. Prereq: CMS.592[J] J. Reich U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S CMS.603 Independent Study Prereq: Permission of instructor Students continue their IAP student teaching through mid March. U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Topics include educational psychology, theories of learning, and Units arranged using technology and evaluating its eectiveness to enhance student Can be repeated for credit. learning. Assignments include readings from educational literature, written reflections on student teaching, presentations on class Opportunity for individual research in comparative media studies. topics and creating a project that supports student learning at the Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and school where the MIT student is teaching. This is the third of the supervision by a faculty member. three-course sequence necessary to complete the Teacher Education Sta Program. G. Schwanbeck CMS.604 Independent Study Prereq: Permission of instructor CMS.594 Education Technology Studio U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Subject meets with CMS.894 Units arranged [P/D/F] Prereq: Permission of instructor Can be repeated for credit. U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Opportunity for individual research in comparative media studies. Can be repeated for credit. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by a faculty member. Uses media and technology to develop new forms of learning Sta experiences for schools, workplace, and informal settings. Students participate in a range of projects that hone understanding and skills in learning science, instructional design, development, and evaluation. Topics vary but include developing new media and activities for massive open online courses, creating practice spaces for practitioners in the professions and humanities, and developing new approaches to assessment in complex learning environments. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor if project content diers. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. J. Reich
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 9 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.605 Media Internship CMS.609[J] The Word Made Digital Prereq: None Same subject as 21W.764[J] U (Fall, IAP, Spring) Subject meets with CMS.846 Units arranged Prereq: None Can be repeated for credit. Acad Year 2021-2022: U (Spring) Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered Part-time internships arranged in Boston and the wider Northeast 3-0-9 units. HASS-A for students wishing to develop professional experience in a media production organization or industry. Students work with a CMS See description under subject 21W.764[J]. Limited to 18. faculty advisor to produce a white paper on a research topic of N. Montfort interest based on their intern experience. Students planning to take this subject must contact the instructor before the end of the CMS.610 Media Industries and Systems: The Art, Science and preceding term. Business of Games Sta Subject meets with CMS.922 Prereq: Two CMS subjects or permission of instructor CMS.606 Media Internship U (Spring) Prereq: None Not oered regularly; consult department G (Fall, IAP, Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Units arranged Can be repeated for credit. Examines the interplay of art, science, law, and commerce in the production, marketing, distribution, and consumption of historic Part-time internships arranged in Boston and the wider Northeast and contemporary videogames. Students create prototypes and for students wishing to develop professional experience in a media develop marketing programs to illustrate the challenges of producing production organization or industry. Students work with a CMS/ videogames in a professional context. Combines perspectives on W faculty advisor to produce a white paper on a research topic of media industries and systems with an examination of the creative interest based on their intern experience. Students planning to process, development, and trends that shape content. Includes take this subject must contact the instructor before the end of the discussions with industry leaders in various areas. Students taking preceding term. graduate version complete additional assignments. Sta C. Weaver
CMS.608 Game Design CMS.611[J] Creating Video Games Subject meets with CMS.864 Same subject as 6.073[J] Prereq: One subject in Comparative Media Studies or permission of Prereq: 6.01, CMS.301, or CMS.608 instructor U (Spring) U (Fall) 3-3-6 units. HASS-A 3-3-6 units. HASS-A Introduces students to the complexities of working in small, Practical instruction in the design and analysis of non-digital games. multidisciplinary teams to develop video games. Covers creative Provides students the texts, tools, references, and historical context design and production methods, stressing design iteration and to analyze and compare game designs across a variety of genres. In regular testing across all aspects of game development (design, teams, students design, develop, and thoroughly test their original visual arts, music, ction, and programming). Assumes a familiarity games to better understand the interaction and evolution of game with current video games, and the ability to discuss games rules. Covers various genres and types of games, including sports, critically. Previous experience in audio design, visual arts, or project game shows, games of chance, card games, schoolyard games, management recommended. Limited to 24. board games, and role-playing games. Students taking the graduate P. Tan, S. Verrilli, R. Eberhardt, A. Grant version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. P. Tan, R. Eberhardt
10 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.614[J] Network Cultures CMS.617 Advanced Game Studio Same subject as 21W.791[J] Prereq: CMS.608 or CMS.611[J] Subject meets with CMS.867 U (Fall) Prereq: None 3-3-6 units. HASS-A U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H Students join the class in pre-formed teams, which work under the supervision of experienced mentors to complete a term-long game Focuses on the social and cultural aspects of networked life creation project. Covers management best practices for soware through internet-related technologies (including computers, mobile engineering teams; creative expression as a collaborative project; devices, entertainment technologies, and emerging media forms). developing and evaluating prototypes for potential viability, and Theories and readings focus on the cultural, social, economic, and translating them into a nal polished product; planning and running political aspects of internet use and design. Topics include online qualitative testing of design elements; and targeting and selecting communication and communities, social media, gender and race an appropriate audience for testing. Includes regular reviews and in network spaces, activism and hacking, networked publics, remix critiques to discuss progress, design, and work plan. Culminates culture and intellectual property. Instruction and practice in written with public presentation of games. Limited to 15. and oral communication provided. Students taking the graduate P. Tan, S. Verrilli version complete additional readings and assignments. T. L. Taylor CMS.618[J] Interactive Narrative Same subject as 21L.489[J], 21W.765[J] CMS.615 Games for Social Change Subject meets with CMS.845 Subject meets with CMS.815 Prereq: None Prereq: None U (Fall) U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A 3-0-9 units. HASS-H See description under subject 21W.765[J]. Examines how various movements have tried over time to create N. Montfort games that enable players to enact social change. Students collaborate in teams to design and prototype games for social CMS.619[J] Gender and Media Studies change and civic engagement. In a workshop setting, teams develop Same subject as WGS.111[J] games and showcase them at an end-of-term open house. Features Prereq: None guest speakers from academia and industry as well as the nonprot U (Fall) sector and the gaming community. Readings explore principals 3-0-9 units. HASS-H of game design and the social history of games. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. See description under subject WGS.111[J]. S. Osterweil K. Surkan
CMS.616[J] Games and Culture CMS.621 Fans and Fan Cultures Same subject as 21W.768[J], WGS.125[J] Prereq: None Subject meets with CMS.868 Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered Prereq: None Acad Year 2022-2023: U (Spring) U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H 3-0-9 units. HASS-S Examines media audiences - specically, fans - and the subcultures Examines the social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of that evolve around them. Examines the dierent historical, digital games. Topics include the culture of gameplay, gaming contemporary and transnational understandings of fans. Explores styles, communities, spectatorship and performance, gender products of fan culture, i.e., clubs, ction, "vids," activism, etc. and race within digital gaming, and the politics and economics Readings place these products within the context of various of production processes, including co-creation and intellectual disciplines. Students consider the concept of the "aca-fan" and property. Students taking graduate version complete additional reflect on their own "fannish" practices. Requires several short readings and assignments. papers. Students taking graduate version complete additional T. L. Taylor assignments. Limited to 20. Sta
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 11 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.627 Imagination, Computation, and Expression Studio CMS.631 Data Storytelling Studio Subject meets with CMS.827 Subject meets with CMS.831 Prereq: Permission of instructor Prereq: None U (Spring) Acad Year 2021-2022: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered Can be repeated for credit. 3-0-9 units. HASS-A
Aims to help students invent and analyze new forms of computer- Explores visualization methodologies to conceive and represent based art, gaming, social media, interactive narrative, and systems and data, e.g., nancial, media, economic, political, related technologies. Students participate in a range of new and etc. Covers basic methods for research, cleaning, and analysis ongoing projects that are designed to hone skills in research, of datasets. Introduces creative methods of data presentation development, design, and evaluation. Topics vary from year to year; and storytelling. Considers the emotional, aesthetic, ethical, and examples include cognitive science and articial intelligence-based practical eects of dierent presentation methods as well as how approaches to the arts; social aspects of game design; computing for to develop metrics for assessing impact. Work centers on readings, social empowerment; and game character, avatar, and online prole visualization exercises, and a nal project. Students taking graduate design. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor. version complete additional assignments. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Sta D. F. Harrell CMS.633 Digital Humanities: Topics, Techniques, and CMS.628 Advanced Identity Representation Technologies Subject meets with CMS.828 Subject meets with CMS.833 Prereq: Permission of instructor Prereq: None U (Spring) U (Spring) Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Can be repeated for credit. Examines theory and practice of using computational methods in the emerging eld of digital humanities. Develops an understanding of Studies and develops computational identity systems for games, key digital humanities concepts such as data representation, digital social media, virtual worlds, and computer-based artwork. An archives, information visualization, and user interaction through interdisciplinary set of readings (cognitive science, computer the study of contemporary research in conjunction with working on science, art, and sociology) looks at both the underlying technology real-world projects for scholarly, educational, and public needs. and the social/cultural aspects of identity. Includes topics such as Students create prototypes, write design papers, and conduct user developing improved characters, avatars, agents, social networking studies. Some programming and design experience is helpful but proles, and online accounts. Engages students in on-going research not required. Students taking graduate version complete additional projects. Explores how social categories are formed in digital media, assignments. including gender, class, and ethnicity, along with everyday social K. Fendt categories (such as those based on personality or shared media preferences). Experience required in one of the following: computer programming, graphic design, web development, interaction design, or social science research methods. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. D. F. Harrell
12 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.634 Designing Interactions CMS.701 Current Debates in Media Subject meets with 4.569[J], CMS.834[J] Subject meets with CMS.901 Prereq: None Prereq: CMS.100 U (Spring) U (Fall, Spring) Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H 3-3-6 units. HASS-E Can be repeated for credit. Addresses important, current debates in media with in-depth discussion of popular perceptions and policy implications. Students Explores the future of mobile interactions and pervasive computing, use multiple perspectives to analyze texts emanating from these taking into consideration design, technological, social and debates, and present their ndings through discussions and business aspects. Discusses theoretical works on human-computer reports. Explores emerging topics (e.g., piracy and IP regimes, interaction, mobile media and interaction design, and covers net neutrality, media eects, social media and social change, and research and design methods. Students work in multidisciplinary changing literacies) across media forms and from various historical, teams and participate in user-centric design projects aimed to study, transcultural, and methodological perspectives. Examines the imagine and prototype concepts illustrating the future of mobile framing of these issues, their ethical and policy implications, and applications and ubiquitous computing. Students taking graduate strategies for repositioning the debate. Instruction and practice in version complete additional assignments. Repeatable for credit with written and oral communication provided. Students taking graduate permission of instructor. Limited to 12. version complete additional assignments. F. Casalegno, T. Nagakura Sta
CMS.635 Designing Active Archives CMS.S60 Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies Subject meets with CMS.835 Prereq: Permission of instructor Prereq: None U (IAP; partial term) U (Fall) Units arranged 3-0-9 units. HASS-H Can be repeated for credit.
Investigates the digital archive as an emerging platform for Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular critical inquiry and creative engagement through analysis, curriculum. conceptualization, and experimentation with user-oriented design. Sta Readings provide theoretical, analytical, and practical perspectives on topics such as participatory digital culture, data curation, CMS.S61 Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies visualization, and the archive's role in activism. Students work Prereq: Permission of instructor throughout the term to develop a group project. Students taking U (Fall) graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. Units arranged K. Fendt Can be repeated for credit.
CMS.636 Extending the Museum Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular Subject meets with CMS.855 curriculum. Prereq: None Sta U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H CMS.S62 Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies Prereq: Permission of instructor Investigates the museum as a participatory public space and U (Spring) rethinks visitor engagement and museum education in light of Units arranged digital technologies, including extended reality (XR) technologies. Can be repeated for credit. Students develop concepts, models, and prototypes that integrate physical and digital spaces in novel ways in close collaboration Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular with partners at local museums. Readings provide theoretical, curriculum. critical, and analytical foundations for collaborative class projects. Sta Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. K. Fendt
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 13 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.S63 Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies CMS.URG Research in Comparative Media Studies Prereq: None Prereq: None Acad Year 2021-2022: U (Spring) U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered Units arranged Units arranged Can be repeated for credit. Can be repeated for credit. Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. curriculum. Sta Sta Graduate Subjects CMS.THT Comparative Media Studies Pre-Thesis Tutorial Prereq: Permission of advisor CMS.790 Media Theories and Methods I U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Prereq: Permission of instructor 1-0-5 units Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered Student works with an advisor to dene his/her thesis. By the end of Acad Year 2022-2023: G (Fall) the term, student must have a substantial outline and bibilography 3-3-6 units for thesis and must have selected a three-person thesis committee. An advanced introduction to core theoretical and methodological Advisor must approve outline and bibliography. issues in comparative media studies. Topics covered typically include Sta the nature of theory, the gathering and evaluation of evidence, the relationship of media to reality, formal approaches to media CMS.THU Undergraduate Thesis in Comparative Media Studies analysis, the ethnographic documentation of media audiences, Prereq: CMS.THT cultural hierarchy and taste, modes of production, models of U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) readership and spectatorship. Units arranged W. Uricchio Can be repeated for credit.
The CMS Undergraduate Thesis is a substantial research project or CMS.791 Media Theories and Methods II comparable exercise. A written thesis ranges in length from 35 to Prereq: CMS.790 50 pages. Digital projects are assessed on the quality of research G (Spring) and argumentation, as well as presentation, and must include a 3-3-6 units substantial written component. Student gives an oral presentation of An advanced introduction to core theoretical and methodological his/her thesis at the end of the term. Thesis is not required for CMS issues in comparative media studies. Topics covered typically include majors. globalization, propaganda and persuasion, social and political Sta eects of media change, political economy and the institutional analysis of media ownership, online communities, privacy and CMS.UR Research in Comparative Media Studies intellectual property, and the role of news and information within Prereq: None democratic cultures. U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) H. Hendershot Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.
Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Sta
14 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.796 Major Media Texts CMS.807 Critical Worldbuilding Prereq: Permission of instructor Subject meets with CMS.307 Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered Prereq: None Acad Year 2022-2023: G (Fall) G (Fall) 3-3-6 units 3-3-6 units
Intensive close study and analysis of historically signicant media Studies the design and analysis of invented (or constructed) worlds "texts" that have been considered landmarks or have sustained for narrative media, such as television, lms, comics, and literary extensive critical and scholarly discussion. Such texts may include texts. Provides the practical, historical and critical tools with which oral epic, story cycles, plays, novels, lms, opera, television drama to understand the function and structure of imagined worlds. and digital works. Emphasizes close reading from a variety of Examines world-building strategies in the various media and genres contextual and aesthetic perspectives. Syllabus varies each year, in order to develop a critical and creative repertoire. Participants and may be organized around works that have launched new modes create their own invented worlds. Students taking graduate version and genres, works that reflect upon their own media practices, or complete additional assignments. Limited to 13. on stories that migrate from one medium to another. At least one of J. Diaz the assigned texts is collaboratively taught, and visiting lectures and discussions are a regular feature of the subject. CMS.808 The Visual Story: Graphic Novel, Type to Tablet L. Parks Subject meets with CMS.308 Prereq: None CMS.801 Media in Transition G (Spring) Prereq: Permission of instructor Not oered regularly; consult department G (Fall) 3-0-9 units 3-0-9 units Focuses on the interactions between graphic stories and media Centers on historical eras in which the form and function of media technologies from the rotary press of the late 19th century to technologies were radically transformed. Includes consideration contemporary touch screens, exploring the changing relations of the "Gutenberg Revolution," the rise of modern mass media, among narrative expression, reader experience and media form. and the "digital revolution," among other case studies of media Working with examples from Pulitzers Yellow Kid and McKays Little transformation and cultural change. Readings in cultural and social Nemo, through the classic comics (from DC superheroes to EC horror) history and historiographic method. and graphic novels to interactive and non-linear texts (Cognitos E. Schiappa Operation Ajax), the course examines such elements as graphic design, interface and form as well as the circulation and economies CMS.806 Making Comics and Sequential Art of these various media-based texts. Subject meets with CMS.306 J. Paradis Prereq: None G (Spring) CMS.809 Transmedia Storytelling: Modern Science Fiction Not oered regularly; consult department Subject meets with 21W.763[J], CMS.309[J] 3-0-9 units Prereq: None G (Spring) Applied introduction to comics and sequential art production. Builds 3-2-7 units skills in how to develop storylines; develop and draw characters, panels, and backgrounds; prepare for print production; and Explores transmedia storytelling by investigating how science ction comprehend the basics of sequential language, composition, and stories are told across dierent media, such as the short story, layout. Students engage with crucial personal and political issues the novel, the screenplay, moving image, and games. Students at stake across a range of comics genres: superhero, biographical, consider issues of aesthetics, authorship, and genre, while also and countercultural. Addresses not just how we create comics, but contextualizing discussion within the broader framework of the why we create comics. Students taking graduate version complete political issues raised by lm, TV, and other kinds of science additional assignments. Limited to 16. ction texts. Students taking graduate version complete additional M. Cordero assignments. H. Hendershot
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 15 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.813 Silent Film CMS.815 Games for Social Change Subject meets with CMS.313 Subject meets with CMS.615 Prereq: None Prereq: None Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered G (Spring) Acad Year 2022-2023: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units 3-3-6 units Students will collaborate in teams to design and prototype games Examines how the key elements of today's lms - composition, for social change and civic engagement. Run as a workshop in continuity editing, lighting, narrative structure - were originally which student teams develop their games and showcase them at a created. Studies the history of cinema, from its origins in the semester-end open house. Features guest speakers from academia late 19th century to the transition to sound in the late 1920s and and industry as well as the non-prot sector and the gaming early 1930s. Students view a range of lms (both mainstream community. Readings will explore principals of game design, and the and experimental) from all over the world, with a particular focus social history of games. Graduate students will complete additional on US productions. Emphasis on how color, sound, and other assignments. developments paved the way for today's technological innovations. S. Osterweil Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. H. Hendershot CMS.821 Fans and Fan Cultures Prereq: None CMS.814 Phantasmal Media: Computer-Based Art Theory and Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered Practice Acad Year 2022-2023: G (Spring) Subject meets with 21W.753[J], CMS.314[J] 3-0-9 units Prereq: None G (Spring) Examines media audiences - specically, fans - and the subcultures Not oered regularly; consult department that evolve around them. Examines the dierent historical, 3-0-9 units contemporary and transnational understandings of fans. Explores products of fan culture, i.e., clubs, ction, "vids," activism, etc. Engages students in theory and practice of using computational Readings place these products within the context of various techniques for developing expressive digital media works. Surveys disciplines. Students consider the concept of the "aca-fan" and approaches to understanding human imaginative processes, such as reflect on their own "fannish" practices. Requires several short constructing concepts, metaphors, and narratives, and applies them papers. Students taking graduate version complete additional to producing and understanding socially, culturally, and critically assignments. Limited to 20. meaningful works in digital media. Readings engage a variety of Sta theoretical perspectives from cognitive linguistics, literary and cultural theory, semiotics, digital media arts, and computer science. CMS.827 Imagination, Computation, and Expression Studio Students produce interactive narratives, games, and related forms Subject meets with CMS.627 of soware art. Some programming and/or interactive web scripting Prereq: None experience (e.g., Flash, Javascript) is desirable. Students taking G (Spring) the graduate version complete a project requiring more in-depth 3-0-9 units theoretical engagement. Can be repeated for credit. D. F. Harrell Aims to help students invent and analyze new forms of computer- based art, gaming, social media, interactive narrative, and related technologies. Students participate in a range of new and ongoing projects that are designed to hone skills in research, development, design, and evaluation. Topics vary from year to year; examples include cognitive science and articial intelligence-based approaches to the arts; social aspects of game design; computing for social empowerment; and game character, avatar, and online prole design. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. D. F. Harrell
16 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.828 Advanced Identity Representation CMS.831 Data Storytelling Studio Subject meets with CMS.628 Subject meets with CMS.631 Prereq: Permission of instructor Prereq: None G (Spring) G (Spring) Not oered regularly; consult department Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit. Explores visualization methodologies to conceive and represent Studies and develops computational identity systems for games, systems and data, e.g., nancial, media, economic, political, social media, virtual worlds, and computer-based artwork. An etc. Covers basic methods for research, cleaning, and analysis interdisciplinary set of readings (cognitive science, computer of datasets. Introduces creative methods of data presentation science, art, and sociology) looks at both the underlying technology and storytelling. Considers the emotional, aesthetic, ethical, and and the social/cultural aspects of identity. Includes topics such as practical eects of dierent presentation methods as well as how developing improved characters, avatars, agents, social networking to develop metrics for assessing impact. Work centers on readings, proles, and online accounts. Engages students in on-going research visualization exercises, and a nal project. Students taking graduate projects. Explores how social categories are formed in digital media, version complete additional assignments. including gender, class, and ethnicity, along with everyday social Sta categories (such as those based on personality or shared media preferences). Experience required in one of the following: computer CMS.833 Digital Humanities: Topics, Techniques, and programming, graphic design, web development, interaction design, Technologies or social science research methods. Students taking graduate Subject meets with CMS.633 version complete additional assignments. Prereq: None D. F. Harrell G (Spring) 3-0-9 units CMS.830 Studies in Film Subject meets with 21L.706 Examines theory and practice of using computational methods in the Prereq: Permission of instructor emerging eld of digital humanities. Develops an understanding of G (Fall, Spring) key digital humanities concepts such as data representation, digital 3-3-6 units archives, information visualization, and user interaction through Can be repeated for credit. the study of contemporary research in conjunction with working on real-world projects for scholarly, educational, and public needs. Intensive study of lms from particular periods, genres, or directors, Students create prototypes, write design papers, and conduct user or lms focusing on specic formal or theoretical problems. Previous studies. Some programming and design experience is helpful but topics include The Contemporary Horror Film, Film Remixes, Film not required. Students taking graduate version complete additional Narrative, Heroic Cinema, and Color in Film. Students taking assignments. graduate version complete dierent assignments. May be repeated K. Fendt for credit with permission of instructor if content diers. Limited to 12. P. Donaldson, E. Brinkema
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 17 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.834[J] Designing Interactions CMS.836 Social Justice and The Documentary Film Same subject as 4.569[J] Subject meets with 21W.786[J], CMS.336[J] Subject meets with CMS.634 Prereq: None Prereq: None G (Spring) G (Spring) Not oered regularly; consult department Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units 3-3-6 units Can be repeated for credit. Explores the history and current state of social-issue documentary. Examines how cultural and political upheaval and technological Explores the future of mobile interactions and pervasive computing, change have converged at dierent moments to bring about new taking into consideration design, technological, social and waves of activist documentary lm production. Particular focus on business aspects. Discusses theoretical works on human-computer lms and other non-ction media of the present and recent past. interaction, mobile media and interaction design, and covers Students screen and analyze a series of key lms and work in groups research and design methods. Students work in multidisciplinary to produce their own short documentary using digital video and teams and participate in user-centric design projects aimed to study, computer-based editing. Students taking graduate version complete imagine and prototype concepts illustrating the future of mobile additional assignments. Limited to 18. applications and ubiquitous computing. Students taking graduate V. Bald version complete additional assignments. Repeatable for credit with permission of instructor. Limited to 12. CMS.837 Film, Music, and Social Change: Intersections of Media F. Casalegno, T. Nagakura and Society Subject meets with 21W.787 CMS.835 Desiging Active Archives Prereq: None Subject meets with CMS.635 G (Fall) Prereq: None Not oered regularly; consult department G (Fall) 3-0-9 units 3-0-9 units Examines lms from the 1950s onward that document music Investigates the digital archive as an emerging platform for subcultures and moments of social upheaval. Combines screening critical inquiry and creative engagement through analysis, lms about free jazz, glam rock, punk, reggae, hip-hop, and conceptualization, and experimentation with user-oriented design. other genres with an examination of critical/scholarly writings Readings provide theoretical, analytical, and practical perspectives to illuminate the connections between lm, popular music, and on topics such as participatory digital culture, data curation, processes of social change. Students critique each lm in terms visualization, and the archive's role in activism. Students work of the social, political, and cultural world it documents, and the throughout the term to develop a group project. Students taking historical context and eects of the lm's reception. Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. K. Fendt V. Bald
18 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.838 Innovation in Documentary: Technologies and CMS.841 Introduction to Videogame Theory Techniques Subject meets with CMS.300 Subject meets with CMS.338 Prereq: None Prereq: CMS.100 or permission of instructor G (Fall) Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered 3-3-6 units Acad Year 2022-2023: G (Fall) 3-0-9 units Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of videogames as texts through an examination of their cultural, educational, and social Discusses emerging technologies and techniques available to media- functions in contemporary settings. Students play and analyze makers (e.g., location-based technologies, transmedia storytelling, videogames while reading current research and theory from a crowdsourcing, and interactivity) and their implications on the lm variety of sources in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and and television documentary. Studies the development of these tools industry. Assignments focus on game analysis in the context of the and considers the many new directions in which they may take the theories discussed in class. Includes regular reading, writing, and genre. Includes screenings, meetings with documentary makers, presentation exercises. No prior programming experience required. and an experimental component in which students can explore new Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. approaches to documentary production. Students taking graduate Limited to 20. version complete additional assignments. M. Jakobsson W. Uricchio CMS.842 Playful and Social Interaction Design Exploration CMS.839 Virtual Reality and Immersive Media Production Prereq: None Subject meets with CMS.339 G (Spring) Prereq: Permission of instructor 3-0-9 units G (Spring) 3-0-9 units Explores the role of technology in relation to playful and social interaction. Deepens understanding of the potential and limitations Provides an overview of historical developments and current of iterative design and rapid prototyping used as research methods. innovations in virtual reality (e.g., gear, soware, and storytelling Familiarizes students with the theoretical foundations of interaction techniques) and looks into new trends in augmented, mixed and design and explorative design research, as well as practice methods holographic reality. Includes practical instruction and a step-by-step applied to working with physical and digital design materials. exploration of the fundamentals of virtual reality creation - from new M. Jakobsson visual languages and grammars, to storyboarding, scripting, sound design and editing, to new and innovative ways to capture, scan and CMS.844 Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities reproduce 360-degree images. Students taking graduate version Prereq: None complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. G (Spring) S. Rodriguez 3-1-8 units
CMS.840 Literature and Film Introduces programming through "free projects" in which students Subject meets with 21L.435 choose (or discover) the direction of their project through Prereq: Permission of instructor exploration. Covers the fundamentals of programming and how to G (Spring) develop a programming practice. Students complete analytical and Not oered regularly; consult department generative projects, using dierent media. Examines how to think 3-3-6 units with computation, how computation and media interact, and how Can be repeated for credit. computation can be understood as a part of culture. No background in programming required. Limited to 18. Investigates relationships between the two media, including lm N. Montfort adaptations as well as works linked by genre, topic, and style. Explores how artworks challenge and cross cultural, political, and aesthetic boundaries. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. K. Surkan
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 19 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.845 Interactive Narrative CMS.848 Apocalyptic Storytelling Subject meets with 21L.489[J], 21W.765[J], CMS.618[J] Subject meets with 21W.748 Prereq: Permission of instructor Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) G (Fall) 3-0-9 units 3-0-9 units
Provides a workshop environment for understanding interactive Focuses on the critical making of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic narrative (print and digital) through critical writing, narrative theory, and dystopian stories across various narrative media. Considers and creative practice. Covers important multisequential books, the long history of Western apocalypticism as well as the uses and hypertexts, and interactive ctions. Students write critically, and give abuses of apocalypticism across time. Examines a wide variety presentations, about specic works; write a short multisequential of influential texts in order to enhance students' creative and ction; and develop a digital narrative system, which involves theoretical repertoires. Students create their own apocalyptic stories signicant writing and either programming or the structuring of text. and present on selected texts. Investigates conventions such as Programming ability helpful. Graduate students complete additional plague, zombies, nuclear destruction, robot uprising, alien invasion, assignments. environmental collapse, and supernatural calamities. Considers N. Montfort questions of race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, trauma, memory, witness, and genocide. Intended for students with prior creative CMS.846 The Word Made Digital writing experience. Students taking graduate version complete Subject meets with 21W.764[J], CMS.609[J] additional assignments. Limited to 15. Prereq: None J. Diaz Acad Year 2021-2022: G (Spring) Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered CMS.850 Topics and Methods in 21st Century Journalism 3-0-9 units Subject meets with 21W.737[J], CMS.350[J] Prereq: None Considers the many uses of text, language, and writing in creative G (Spring) digital media. Focuses on non-narrative uses of text, such as in Not oered regularly; consult department information display, visual and lyrical settings, and human-legible 3-0-9 units computer code. Considers the use of text within the context of computing and dierent computing platforms. Draws on concepts Gives a broad understanding of what it means to produce journalism and approaches from poetics, the material history of texts, and today. Evaluates the limitations and strengths of specic types computer science. Assignments include individual and group writing of media, ranging from New York Times stories to Twitter feeds. projects, which involve reading and modifying computer programs. Provides students with tools to eectively communicate their own Previous programming experience and writing coursework helpful. work and research to non-specialist audiences. Students submit Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. assignments via an online portal, which mimics the style and Limited to 18. substance of an online news source. Students taking graduate N. Montfort version complete additional assignments. Limited to 12. S. Mnookin
20 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.855 Extending the Museum CMS.861 Networked Social Movements: Media and Mobilization Subject meets with CMS.636 Subject meets with CMS.361 Prereq: None Prereq: None G (Spring) G (Fall) 3-0-9 units 3-0-9 units
Investigates the museum as a participatory public space and Provides an overview of social movement studies as a body of rethinks visitor engagement and museum education in light of theoretical and empirical work, with an emphasis on understanding digital technologies, including extended reality (XR) technologies. the relationship between social movements and the media. Explores Students develop concepts, models, and prototypes that integrate multiple methods of social movement investigation, including physical and digital spaces in novel ways in close collaboration textual and media analysis, surveys, interviews, focus groups, with partners at local museums. Readings provide theoretical, participant observation, and co-research. Covers recent innovations critical, and analytical foundations for collaborative class projects. in social movement theory, as well as new data sources and tools for Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and research and analysis. Includes short papers, a literature review, and assignments. a nal research project. Students taking graduate version complete K. Fendt additional assignments. Limited to 16. S. Costanza-Chock CMS.860 Introduction to Civic Media Subject meets with CMS.360 CMS.862 Civic Media Collaborative Design Studio Prereq: None Subject meets with CMS.362 Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered Prereq: One subject in CMS or MAS Acad Year 2022-2023: G (Spring) G (Spring) 3-0-9 units 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit. Examines civic media in comparative, transnational and historical perspective. Introduces various theoretical tools, research Project-based studio focusing on collaborative design of civic media approaches, and project design methods. Students engage with provides a service-learning opportunity for students interested in multimedia texts on concepts such as citizen journalism, transmedia working with community organizations. Multidisciplinary teams activism, media justice, and civic, public, radical, and tactical media. create civic media projects based on real-world community needs. Case studies explore civic media across platforms (print, radio, Covers co-design methods and best practices to include the broadcast, internet), contexts (from local to global, present-day to user community in iterative stages of project ideation, design, historical), and use (dialogic, contentious, hacktivist). As a nal implementation, testing, and evaluation. Students taking graduate project, students develop a case study or project proposal. Students version complete additional assignments. Limited to 16. taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Sta Limited to20. Sta CMS.863[J] Design and Development of Games for Learning Same subject as 11.252[J] Subject meets with 11.127[J], CMS.590[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-6-3 units
See description under subject 11.252[J]. E. Klopfer
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 21 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.864 Game Design CMS.871 Media in Cultural Context Subject meets with CMS.608 Subject meets with 21L.715 Prereq: One subject in Comparative Media Studies or permission of Prereq: Permission of instructor instructor G (Spring) G (Fall) Not oered regularly; consult department 3-3-6 units 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit. Practical instruction in the design and analysis of non-digital games. Provides students the texts, tools, references, and historical context Seminar uses case studies to examine specic media or media to analyze and compare game designs across a variety of genres. In congurations and the larger social, cultural, economic, political, teams, students design, develop, and thoroughly test their original or technological contexts within which they operate. Organized games to better understand the interaction and evolution of game around recurring themes in media history, as well as specic genres, rules. Covers various genres and types of games, including sports, movements, media, or historical moments. Previously taught topics game shows, games of chance, card games, schoolyard games, include Gendered Genres: Horror and Maternal Melodramas; Comics, board games, and role-playing games. Students taking the graduate Cartoons, and Graphic Storytelling; and Exploring Children's Culture. version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. P. Tan, R. Eberhardt Approved for credit in Women's and Gender Studies when content meets the requirements for subjects in that program. Limited to 12. CMS.867 Network Cultures M. Marks Subject meets with 21W.791[J], CMS.614[J] Prereq: None CMS.875 Reading Climate Through Media G (Spring) Subject meets with CMS.375 3-0-9 units Prereq: None G (Spring) Focuses on the social and cultural aspects of networked life 3-0-9 units through internet-related technologies (including computers, mobile devices, entertainment technologies, and emerging media forms). Explores how climate is construed in the contemporary media in Theories and readings focus on the cultural, social, economic, and order to gain a better understanding of how views of climate change political aspects of internet use and design. Topics include online are shaped and received in the public sphere. Studies the pathways communication and communities, social media, gender and race that take us from climate science to media content, from the big in network spaces, activism and hacking, networked publics, remix data of global scale to the particulars and narratives of the human culture and intellectual property. Students taking the graduate experience. Surveys a variety of media forms--reports, articles, version complete additional readings and assignments. comics, videos, lms, photography, poetry and ction--that reflect T. L. Taylor on the contemporary human challenges of dealing with a changing natural environment of our own making. Emphasizes the role of CMS.868 Games and Culture media in shaping public opinion, both in the US and globally, and Subject meets with 21W.768[J], CMS.616[J], WGS.125[J] its influence on public (and voter) perceptions on which a vast body Prereq: None of regulation and funding for environmental management is based. G (Fall) Students work individually and in teams to produce a selection of 3-0-9 units the media forms studied. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. Examines the social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of J. Paradis digital games. Topics include the culture of gameplay, gaming styles, communities, spectatorship and performance, gender and race within digital gaming, and the politics and economics of production processes, including co-creation and intellectual property. Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. T. L. Taylor
22 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.876 History of Media and Technology CMS.888 Advertising and Media: Comparative Perspectives Subject meets with CMS.376 Subject meets with 21G.036[J], 21G.190, CMS.356[J] Prereq: None Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) G (Spring) 3-0-9 units 3-0-9 units
Surveys the interrelated histories of communications media and Compares modern and contemporary advertising culture in China, technological development, from the emergence of 19th-century the US, and other emerging markets. First half focuses on branding forms of mass print media and telegraphy, to sound capture in the old media environment; second half introduces the changing and image-based forms (e.g., lm, radio, and television), to the practice of advertising in the new media environment. Topics include shi from analog to digital cultures. Examines how new forms of branding and positioning, media planning, social media campaigns, communication exert social, political, and cultural influences in cause marketing 2.0, social TV, and mobility marketing. Required lab the global context. Explores how technological innovation and work includes interactive sessions in branding a team product for the accelerating media aect social values and behaviors in the popular US (or a European country) and China markets. Taught in English and and global adoption of a media device. Includes two papers and requires no knowledge of Chinese. Students taking graduate version a research project on aspects of media history. Students taking complete additional assignments. graduate version complete additional assignments. J. Wang J. Paradis CMS.894 Education Technology Studio CMS.877 Transmedia Art, Extraction, and Environmental Justice Subject meets with CMS.594 (New) Prereq: Permission of instructor Subject meets with 4.376[J], CMS.374[J] G (Fall) Prereq: None 3-0-9 units G (Fall) Can be repeated for credit. 2-3-7 units Uses media and technology to develop new forms of learning Exploration of today's extractive economies and the role that experiences for schools, workplace, and informal settings. Students artists, media-makers, and transmedia producers play in shaping participate in a range of projects that hone understanding and public perception, individual choices, and movement-building skills in learning science, instructional design, development, towards sustainability. Traces the contingent geological, material, and evaluation. Topics vary but include developing new media community, and toxic histories of extracted materials used and activities for massive open online courses, creating practice throughout our built environment, as well as civic resistance and spaces for practitioners in the professions and humanities, and reform that could alter extraction practices. Scaolded workshops developing new approaches to assessment in complex learning with artists and media producers support students' production of environments. May be repeated for credit with permission of creative documentary and other media projects. Students taking instructor if project content diers. Students taking graduate version graduate version complete additional assignments. complete additional assignments. J. Paradis, J. Barry J. Reich
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 23 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.895 Learning, Media, and Technology CMS.915 Understanding Television Subject meets with CMS.595 Subject meets with 21L.432 Prereq: None Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) G (Spring) 3-0-9 units 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit. Addresses new digital technologies that are transforming learning across the lifespan - from reading apps for toddlers, intelligent tutors A cultural approach to television's evolution as a technology and for school children, and blended learning for college students, to system of representation. Considers television as a system of MOOCs for adults and interest-based learning communities for storytelling and mythmaking, and as a cultural practice studied from hobbyists. Focuses on how these technologies shape people's lives anthropological, literary, and cinematic perspectives. Focuses on and learning. Students explore how education technologies operate prime-time commercial broadcasting, the medium's technological in complex social-technical systems, and acquire analytic tools and and economic history, and theoretical perspectives. Considerable strategies that can be applied to other complex systems. They also television viewing and readings in media theory and cultural rene their thinking about the opportunities, limits, and tradeos of interpretation are required. Previously taught topics include educational technology. Students taking graduate version complete American Television: A Cultural History. Students taking graduate additional assignments. version complete additional assignments. J. Reich D. Thorburn
CMS.901 Current Debates in Media CMS.920 Popular Culture and Narrative Subject meets with CMS.701 Subject meets with 21L.430 Prereq: None Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, Spring) Acad Year 2021-2022: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered 3-0-9 units Addresses important, current debates in media with in-depth Can be repeated for credit. discussion of popular perceptions and policy implications. Students use multiple perspectives to analyze texts emanating from these Examines relationships between popular culture and art, focusing debates, and present their ndings through discussions and on problems of evaluation and audience, and the uses of dierent reports. Explores emerging topics (e.g., piracy and IP regimes, media within a broader social context. Typically treats a range of net neutrality, media eects, social media and social change, and narrative and dramatic works as well as lms. Previously taught changing literacies) across media forms and from various historical, topics include Elements of Style; Gender, Sexuality and Popular transcultural, and methodological perspectives. Examines the Narrative. Students taking graduate version complete additional framing of these issues, their ethical and policy implications, and assignments. Approved for credit in Women's and Gender Studies strategies for repositioning the debate. Students taking graduate when content meets the requirements for subjects in that program. version complete additional assignments. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor. Sta Sta
24 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
CMS.922 Media Industries and Systems: The Art, Science and CMS.950 Workshop I Business of Games Prereq: Permission of instructor Subject meets with CMS.610 Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2022-2023: G (Fall) G (Spring) 4-2-6 units Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units Provides an opportunity for direct project development experience and emphasizes intellectual growth as well as the acquisition of Examines the interplay of art, science, law, and commerce in the technical skills. Students attend regular meetings to present and production, marketing, distribution, and consumption of historic critique their work and discuss its implications. and contemporary videogames. Students create prototypes and J. Paradis develop marketing programs to illustrate the challenges of producing videogames in a professional context. Combines perspectives on CMS.951 Workshop II media industries and systems with an examination of the creative Prereq: CMS.950 process, development, and trends that shape content. Includes G (Spring) discussions with industry leaders in various areas. Students taking Not oered regularly; consult department graduate version complete additional assignments. 4-2-6 units Sta A continuation of Workshop I. Provides an opportunity for direct CMS.925 Film Music project development experience and emphasizes intellectual Subject meets with 21M.284 growth as well as the acquisition of technical skills. Students attend Prereq: Permission of instructor regular meetings to present and critique their work and discuss its G (Spring) implications. 3-0-9 units Sta
Surveys styles and dramatic functions of music for silent lms of the CMS.990 Colloquium in Comparative Media 1910s-20s, and music in sound lms from the 1930s to the present. Prereq: None Close attention given to landmark scores by American and European G (Fall, Spring) composers, including Korngold, Steiner, Rozsa, Prokoev, Copland, 2-0-1 units Herrmann, Rota, Morricone, and Williams. Subsidiary topics include Can be repeated for credit. new trends in contemporary lm-scoring, pop scores, the impact of electronics, and specialized genres (e.g., animation). Students Exposes students to the perspectives of scholars, activists, taking the graduate version complete dierent assignments. Some mediamakers, policymakers, and industry leaders on cutting edge background in the study of lm and/or music is expected. issues in media. Registered CMS graduate students only. M. Marks Sta
CMS.935 Documentary Photography and Photojournalism: Still CMS.992 Portfolio in Comparative Media Images of a World in Motion Prereq: CMS.950 or permission of instructor Subject meets with 21W.749 G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units arranged G (Fall, Spring) Students work individually with an advisor to produce a portfolio Not oered regularly; consult department project which combines technical skills and a substantial intellectual 3-0-9 units component. Meets with 21W.749, but assignments dier. Sta B. D. Colen
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CMS.993 Teaching in Comparative Media CMS.S98 Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies Prereq: Permission of instructor Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring) G (Spring) Units arranged Units arranged Can be repeated for credit. Can be repeated for credit.
For qualied graduate students interested in teaching. Oers Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular experience in classroom and/or tutorial teaching under the curriculum. supervision of a Comparative Media Studies faculty member. Sta Sta CMS.S99 Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies CMS.994 Independent Study Prereq: Permission of instructor Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2021-2022: G (Spring) G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered Units arranged [P/D/F] Units arranged Can be repeated for credit. Can be repeated for credit.
Opportunity for individual research in comparative media studies. Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and curriculum. supervision by a faculty member. Sta Sta CMS.THG Master's Thesis CMS.995 Independent Study Prereq: Permission of advisor Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Units arranged Can be repeated for credit. Can be repeated for credit. Completion of a graduate thesis, to be arranged with a faculty Opportunity for individual research in comparative media studies. member, who becomes the thesis supervisor. Required of all CMS Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and students. supervision by a faculty member. Sta Sta First-Year Writing Subjects CMS.S96 Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies Prereq: Permission of instructor First-year writing subjects provide a foundation for future G (IAP; partial term) communication-intensive subjects, and also function as a starting Units arranged point for concentrating, minoring, or majoring in Writing. While the Can be repeated for credit. topical focus of writing assignments varies across these subjects, all rst-year writing subjects develop students' understanding of Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular genre, audience, argument, discourse, source use, and writing curriculum. process. All written work goes through stages of draing, peer Sta review, and revision. Because these subjects are limited to 15 students per section, students receive detailed feedback at all stages CMS.S97 Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies of the writing process, and have many opportunities for individual Prereq: Permission of instructor conferences with instructors. Active class participation and short oral G (Fall) presentations are required. Please note: Students can take no more Units arranged than one subject in each category (e.g., 21W. 01x, 21W. 02x, 21W. Can be repeated for credit. 03x) for credit.
Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular curriculum. L. Koslov
26 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.011 Writing and Rhetoric: Rhetoric and Contemporary Issues 21W.013 Writing and Rhetoric: Introduction to Contemporary Prereq: None Rhetoric U (Fall, Spring) Prereq: None 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW U (Fall) Credit cannot also be received for 21W.012, 21W.013, 21W.014, 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW 21W.015, 21W.016 Credit cannot also be received for 21W.011, 21W.012, 21W.014, 21W.015, 21W.016 Provides the opportunity for students - as readers, viewers, writers, and speakers - to engage with social and ethical issues they care Considers how rhetoric shapes current events in politics, science, deeply about. Explores perspectives on a range of social issues, and society. Students study rhetoric as a theoretical framework for such as the responsibilities of citizens, freedom of expression, developing persuasive arguments, as a method of analyzing written, poverty and homelessness, mental illness, the challenges of an oral, and visual texts, and as a mode of human inquiry. Assignments aging society, the politics of food, and racial and gender inequality. include analytical, persuasive, and research-based essays, as well as Discusses rhetorical strategies that aim to increase awareness of oral presentations, group discussions, and debates. Readings drawn social problems; to educate the public about dierent perspectives from political speeches, scientic arguments, and popular media. on contemporary issues; and to persuade readers of the value of Limited to 15. particular positions on, or solutions to, social problems. Students L. Harrison-Lepera analyze selected texts and photographs, as well as documentary and feature lms, that represent or dramatize social problems or issues. 21W.014 Writing and Rhetoric: Exploring Visual Media Students also write essays about social and ethical issues of their Prereq: None own choice. Limited to 15. U (Spring) A. Walsh Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW 21W.012 Writing and Rhetoric: Food for Thought Credit cannot also be received for 21W.011, 21W.012, 21W.013, Prereq: None 21W.015, 21W.016 U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW Explores the rhetoric of visual media and the meaning of the digital Credit cannot also be received for 21W.011, 21W.013, 21W.014, revolution. Students analyze readings and lms and discuss the 21W.015, 21W.016 power of media in dening social issues and shaping ideas of self, family, and community. They also write essays that sharpen skills in Explores many of the issues that surround food as both material fact analyzing visual rhetoric, developing and supporting arguments, and and personal and cultural symbol. Includes non-ction works on using sources. Limited to 18. topics such as family meals, food's ability to awaken us to "our own A. Walsh powers of enjoyment" (M.F.K. Fisher), and eating as an "agricultural act" (W. Berry). Students read Michael Pollan's best-selling book 21W.015 Writing and Rhetoric: Writing about Sports In Defense of Food and discuss the issues it raises about Prereq: None America's food supply and eating habits, as well as the rhetorical U (Fall) strategies it employs. Assignments include narratives, analytical 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW essays, and research-based essays. Limited to 15. Credit cannot also be received for 21W.011, 21W.012, 21W.013, S. Carlisle 21W.014, 21W.016
Examines the role of sports in our individual lives and American culture at large. Considers a broad range of issues, such as heroism and ethical conundrums, gender equality, steroids, and the proper role of sports in college life. Examples of high-quality, descriptive and analytic sports writing serve as the focus for class discussion and as models for student essays. Limited to 15. A. Karatsolis
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 27 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.016 Writing and Rhetoric: Designing Meaning 21W.031 Science Writing and New Media: Explorations in Prereq: None Communicating about Science and Technology U (Fall) Prereq: None 2-2-8 units. HASS-H; CI-HW U (Fall, Spring) Credit cannot also be received for 21W.011, 21W.012, 21W.013, 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW 21W.014, 21W.015 Credit cannot also be received for 21W.034, 21W.035, 21W.036
Explores how we use rhetoric in text, visuals, and other modes Examines principles of good writing, focusing on those associated to make meaning. Uses analysis, composition, and debate about with scientic and technical writing. Considers the eects of new rhetorical strategies to develop theoretical and empirical knowledge media as an avenue for communicating about science. Students of how design choices shape our texts and our understanding of the discuss scientic articles and essays and work in small groups world. In lab, students experiment with rhetorical strategies and to critique each other's writing. Assignments include a critical assess their eects. Limited to 15. review, a science essay for the general public, and a research or S. Lane service project proposal. Students choose topics that reflect their background and interests. Formal and informal presentations and 21W.021 Writing and Experience: MIT Inside, Live group discussions develop oral communication skills. Limited to 15. Prereq: None J. Melvold U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW 21W.034 Science Writing and New Media: Perspectives on Credit cannot also be received for 21W.022 Medicine and Public Health Prereq: None Acting as participant-observers, students investigate MIT's history U (Fall) and culture through visits to the Institute's archives and museums, Not oered regularly; consult department relevant readings, and depictions of MIT in popular culture. Students 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW chronicle their experiences and insights through a variety of writing Credit cannot also be received for 21W.031, 21W.035, 21W.036 projects, culminating in the completion of a portfolio. Limited to 15. J. Graziano Public health topics, such as AIDS, asthma, malaria control, obesity, and sleep deprivation, provide a unifying focus as students explore 21W.022 Writing and Experience: Reading and Writing diverse modes of science writing. Readings include essays by such Autobiography writers as Atul Gawande, Danielle Ofri, Jerome Groopman, and Prereq: None William Carlos Williams, as well as peer-reviewed journal articles. U (Fall, Spring) Assignments include a critical review, a scientic literature review, 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW a brochure suitable for general distribution, an autobiographical Credit cannot also be received for 21W.021 narrative, a resume, a job application letter, and oral presentations. Limited to 18. Draws on a range of autobiographical writing as examples for C. Ta students to analyze. Students write essays that focus on their own experience, exploring topics such as intellectual growth and 21W.035 Science Writing and New Media: Elements of Science development, the childhood and high school years, life at MIT, the Writing for the Public influence of place upon one's personality and character, and the role Prereq: None politics and religion play in one's life. Emphasizes clarity, specicity, U (Fall, Spring) and structure; investigates various modes of writing (narrative, 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW analytical, expository) and their suitability for dierent purposes. Credit cannot also be received for 21W.031, 21W.034, 21W.036 Limited to 15. L. Harrison Lepera, N. Jackson, S. Carlisle, S. Carlisle, L. Harrison Provides an introduction to writing about science (including Lepera, A. Walsh medicine, technology, and engineering) for general readers. Emphasizes background research as a foundation for strong science writing. Students read works by accomplished science writers. Each assignment focuses on a dierent popular form, such as news article, interview, essay, and short feature. Limited to 15. J. Berezin, A. Carleton, K. Boiko
28 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.036 Science Writing and New Media: Writing and the 21W.218[J] Workshop in Strategies for Eective Teaching (ELS) Environment (New) Prereq: None Same subject as 21G.218[J] U (Spring) Prereq: None 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW U (IAP; partial term) Credit cannot also be received for 21W.031, 21W.034, 21W.035 Not oered regularly; consult department 1-0-2 units Develops written and oral communication skills through the Credit cannot also be received for 21G.217[J], 21W.217[J] study and practice of environmental science writing. Covers a wide range of genres, including such standard forms as the A mini-module for international teaching assistants. Covers special scientic literature review. Students adapt the content of their problems in teaching when English is a second language and the papers and oral presentations to the distinctive needs of specic US a second culture. Videotaping of practice sessions for feedback. audiences. Assignments provide thematic coherence and a basis for Individualized programs to meet dierent needs. Limited to 18. independent student research. Limited to 15. A. C. Kemp C. Ta 21W.219[J] Foundations of Academic and Professional Writing 21W.041[J] Writing About Literature (ELS) (New) Same subject as 21L.000[J] Same subject as 21G.219[J] Prereq: None Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) G (Fall, Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for See description under subject 21L.000[J]. Enrollment limited. 21G.220[J], 21W.220[J] W. Kelley, I. Lipkowitz Writing module for high-intermediate ELS students who wish to 21W.042[J] Writing with Shakespeare review and practice accurate grammar, eective sentence and Same subject as 21L.010[J] paragraph structure, punctuation, and word choice. Short weekly Prereq: None writing assignments with extensive editing required. Meets with U (Fall) 21W.220[J] when oered concurrently. Limited to 18. 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW E. Grunwald
See description under subject 21L.010[J]. 21W.220[J] Foundations of Academic and Professional Writing D. Henderson (ELS) (New) Same subject as 21G.220[J] English Language Studies (ELS) Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 21W.217[J] Workshop in Strategies for Eective Teaching (ELS) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H (New) Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for Same subject as 21G.217[J] 21G.219[J], 21W.219[J] Prereq: None G (IAP; partial term) Writing module for high intermediate ELS students who wish to Not oered regularly; consult department review and practice accurate grammar, eective sentence and 1-0-2 units paragraph structure, punctuation, and word choice. Short weekly Credit cannot also be received for 21G.218[J], 21W.218[J] writing assignments with extensive editing required. Meets with 21W.219[J] when oered concurrently. Limited to 18. A mini-module for international teaching assistants. Covers special E. Grunwald problems in teaching when English is a second language and the US a second culture. Videotaping of practice sessions for feedback. Individualized programs to meet dierent needs. Graduate TAs have priority. Limited to 18. A. C. Kemp
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 29 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.221[J] Communicating in American Culture (ELS) (New) 21W.223[J] Listening, Speaking, and Pronunciation (ELS) (New) Same subject as 21G.221[J] Same subject as 21G.223[J] Prereq: None Prereq: None U (Spring) U (Fall, Spring) Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for 21G.224[J], 21W.224[J] Designed for international students who wish to rene their academic communication skills through the study of mainstream Designed for high intermediate ELS students who need to develop American culture. Using a variety of materials in dierent media, better listening comprehension and oral skills. Involves short students explore how the country's history, geography, institutions, speaking and listening assignments with extensive exercises in traditions and values have shaped contemporary communication accurate comprehension, pronunciation, stress and intonation, and styles and responses to critical events in the world. Students expression of ideas. Includes frequent video- and audio-recording examine and practice principles of eective communication in for analysis and feedback. Meets with 21W.224[J] when oered genres common to the humanities and social sciences. Explores how concurrently. Limited to 18 per section. discourse practices vary within and across cultures. Assignments A. Kemp, E. Grunwald include an educational memoir, project proposal, annotated bibliography, research-based cultural analysis of a current event of 21W.224[J] Listening, Speaking, and Pronunciation (ELS) (New) choice, and presentation. Limited to 18. Same subject as 21G.224[J] E. Grunwald Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 21W.222[J] Expository Writing for Bilingual Students (New) 3-0-9 units Same subject as 21G.222[J] Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for Prereq: None 21G.223[J], 21W.223[J] U (Fall, Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-HW Designed for high-intermediate ELS students who need to develop Can be repeated for credit. better listening comprehension and oral skills. Involves short speaking and listening assignments with extensive exercises in Formulating, organizing, and presenting ideas clearly in writing. accurate comprehension, pronunciation, stress and intonation, and Reviews basic principles of rhetoric. Focuses on development of expression of ideas. Includes frequent video- and audio-recording a topic, thesis, choice of appropriate vocabulary, and sentence for analysis and feedback. Meets with 21W.223[J] when oered structure to achieve purpose. Develops idiomatic prose style. concurrently. Limited to 18 per section. Gives attention to grammar and vocabulary usage. Special focus E. Grunwald on strengthening skills of bilingual students. Intended to be taken during the student's rst year at MIT. Limited to 18; undergraduates 21W.225[J] Advanced Workshop in Writing for Science and only. Engineering (ELS) (New) E. Grunwald, A. C. Kemp Same subject as 21G.225[J] Prereq: None G (Fall, Spring) 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for 21G.226[J], 21W.226[J]
Analysis and practice of various forms of scientic and technical writing, from memos to journal articles. Strategies for conveying technical information to specialist and non-specialist audiences. The goal of the workshop is to develop eective writing skills for academic and professional contexts. Models, materials, topics, and assignments vary from term to term. Meets with 21W.226[J] when oered concurrently. Limited to 18 per section. E. Grunwald
30 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.226[J] Advanced Workshop in Writing for Science and 21W.228[J] Advanced Workshop in Writing for Social Sciences Engineering (ELS) (New) and Architecture (ELS) (New) Same subject as 21G.226[J] Same subject as 21G.228[J] Prereq: None Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H 3-0-9 units. HASS-H Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for 21G.225[J], 21W.225[J] 21G.227[J], 21W.227[J]
Analysis and practice of various forms of scientic and technical Focuses on techniques, format, and prose used in academic and writing, from memos to journal articles. Strategies for conveying professional life. Emphasis on writing required in elds such as technical information to specialist and non-specialist audiences. economics, political science, and architecture. Short assignments The goal of the workshop is to develop eective writing skills for include business letters, memos, and proposals that lead toward academic and professional contexts. Models, materials, topics, and a written term project. Methods designed to accommodate those assignments vary from term to term. Meets with 21W.225[J] when whose rst language is not English. Develops eective writing skills oered concurrently. Limited to 18 per section. for academic and professional contexts. Models, materials, topics E. Grunwald, A. C. Kemp and assignments vary from term to term. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor. Limited to 18. 21W.227[J] Advanced Workshop in Writing for Social Sciences A. C. Kemp and Architecture (ELS) (New) Same subject as 21G.227[J] 21W.232[J] Advanced Speaking and Critical Listening Skills (ELS) Prereq: None (New) G (Spring) Same subject as 21G.232[J] 3-0-9 units Prereq: None Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for G (Fall, Spring) 21G.228[J], 21W.228[J] 3-3-6 units Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for Focuses on techniques, format, and prose used in academic and 21G.233[J], 21W.233[J] professional life. Emphasis on writing required in elds such as economics, political science, and architecture. Short assignments For advanced students who wish to build condence and skills in include business letters, memos, and proposals that lead toward spoken English. Focuses on the appropriate oral presentation of a written term project. Methods designed to accommodate those material in a variety of professional contexts: group discussions, whose rst language is not English. Develops eective writing skills classroom explanations and interactions, and theses/research for academic and professional contexts. Models, materials, topics, proposals. Valuable for those who intend to teach or lecture in and assignments vary from term to term. May be repeated for credit English. Includes frequent video- and audio-recording for analysis with permission of instructor. Limited to 18 per section. and feedback. Develops eective speaking and listening skills for A. C. Kemp academic and professional contexts. Models, materials, topics and assignments vary from term to term. May be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor. Meets with 21W.233[J] when oered concurrently. Limited to 15 per section. A. C. Kemp
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 31 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.233[J] Advanced Speaking and Critical Listening Skills (ELS) 21W.240[J] Imagining English: Creative Writing for Bilingual (New) Students (New) Same subject as 21G.233[J] Same subject as 21G.240[J] Prereq: None Prereq: 21W.222[J] or other CI-H/CI-HW subject U (Fall, Spring) U (Spring) 3-3-6 units. HASS-H 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Can be repeated for credit. Credit cannot also be received for 21G.232[J], 21W.232[J] Instruction for bilingual students in writing short stories and poems in English. Involves the study of cra, revision, and creativity, as well For advanced students who wish to build condence and skills in as close reading of important works by American, British, and non- spoken English. Focuses on the appropriate oral presentation of native writers' writing in English. Analyzes "the limits of English" material in a variety of professional contexts: group discussions, through group discussions of student writing to distinguish linguistic classroom explanations and interactions, and theses/research freshness from grammatical incorrectness, with review of relevant proposals. Valuable for those who intend to teach or lecture in rules. Includes academic and non-academic vocabulary building, a English. Includes frequent video- and audio-recording for analysis formal writing process, literary analysis essays, short translations to and feedback. Develops eective speaking and listening skills for and from students' native languages, and the workshopping (peer academic and professional contexts. Models, materials, topics and reviewing) of creative work. Limited to 18. assignments vary from term to term. May be repeated for credit with E. Grunwald permission of the instructor. Meets with 21W.232[J] when oered concurrently. Limited to 15 per section. Undergraduate Subjects A. C. Kemp 21W.729[J] Engineering Communication in Context 21W.237[J] MIT Out Loud: Public Speaking for Bilingual Students Same subject as ES.729[J] (New) Prereq: None Same subject as 21G.237[J] U (Fall) Prereq: None Not oered regularly; consult department Acad Year 2021-2022: U (Spring) 3-1-8 units. HASS-E; CI-H Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered 3-0-9 units. HASS-H See description under subject ES.729[J]. Limited to 18; preference to Can be repeated for credit. ESG students. D. Custer Develops oral communication skills for bilingual students through the lens of the MIT experience. Speaking assignments in informative 21W.735 Writing and Reading the Essay and persuasive speech forms draw on examples of popular culture Prereq: Writing sample and permission of instructor and MIT touchstones, such as "alternative" campus tours, interviews, U (Spring) MIT 100K pitches, and TED talks. Explores the role of voice and 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H body language through improvisation and impromptus. Focuses on spoken accuracy and vocabulary through oral exercises designed for Exploration of formal and informal modes of writing nonction prose. bilingual students. Frequent video-recording will be used for self- Extensive practice in composition, revision, and editing. Reading evaluation. Limited to 15. in the literature of the essay from the Renaissance to the present, A. C. Kemp with an emphasis on modern writers. Classes alternate between discussion of published readings and workshops on student work. Individual conferences. Limited to 18. Sta
32 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.737[J] Topics and Methods in 21st-Century Journalism 21W.742[J] Writing about Race Same subject as CMS.350[J] Same subject as WGS.231[J] Subject meets with CMS.850 Prereq: None Prereq: None U (Fall) U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H The issue of race and racial identity have preoccupied many writers throughout the history of the US. Students read Jessica Abel, Diana See description under subject CMS.350[J]. Limited to 12. Abu-Jaber, Lynda Barry, Felicia Luna Lemus, James McBride, Sigrid S. Mnookin Nunez, Ruth Ozeki, Danzy Senna, Gloria Anzaldua, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Carmit Delman, Stefanie Dunning, Cherrie Moraga, Hiram Perez 21W.738[J] Intersectional Feminist Memoir and others, and consider the story of race in its peculiarly American Same subject as WGS.238[J] dimensions. The reading, along with the writing of members of Prereq: None the class, is the focus of class discussions. Oral presentations on U (Spring) subjects of individual interest are also part of the class activities. 3-0-9 units. HASS-H Students explore race and ethnicity in personal essays, pieces of cultural criticism or analysis, or (with permission of instructor) See description under subject WGS.238[J]. ction. All written work is read and responded to in class workshops K. Ragusa and subsequently revised. Enrollment limited. K. Ragusa 21W.739[J] Darwin and Design Same subject as 21L.022[J] 21W.743 Voice and Meaning: Speaking to Readers through Prereq: None Memoir U (Fall) Prereq: None Not oered regularly; consult department U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H Not oered regularly; consult department See description under subject 21L.022[J]. 3-0-9 units. HASS-E A. Kibel Explores the memoir genre with particular attention to the relationships between form and content, fact and truth, self and 21W.740 Writing Autobiography and Biography community, art and "healing," coming to voice and breaking silence. Prereq: None Readings include works by Nick Flynn, Meena Alexander, Art U (Fall) Spigelman, James McBride, Ruth Ozeki, and Cheryl Strayed, with 3-0-9 units. HASS-A a focus on the ways in which these writers make meaning out of Writing an autobiography is a vehicle for improving one's style while specic events or moments in their own lives as a way of engaging studying the nuances of the language. Literary works are read with with larger questions of family, race, history, loss, and survivorship. an emphasis on dierent forms of autobiography. Students examine Drawing on lessons taken from these works, students write a short various stages of life, signicant transitions, personal struggles, and memoir of their own. Limited to 18. memories translated into narrative prose, and discuss: what it means K. Ragusa for autobiographer and biographer to develop a personal voice; and the problems of reality and ction in autobiography and biography. 21W.744 The Art of Comic Book Writing K. Manning Prereq: None U (Fall) 21W.741[J] Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Same subject as 24.912[J], 21H.106[J], 21L.008[J], CMS.150[J], Students create short scripts and full-length comic book narratives WGS.190[J] across a variety of genres, while analyzing a wide range of comics Prereq: None (corporate and independent, print and web). Focuses on scripts; U (Spring) drawing skills not required, but illustrations or storyboards are 3-0-9 units. HASS-A, HASS-H; CI-H welcome. Special attention to questions of gender, race, ethnicity, See description under subject 24.912[J]. and sexuality in both critical and creative work. Limited to 13. M. Degra & D. Fox Harrell M. Liu
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 33 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.745 Advanced Essay Workshop 21W.748 Apocalyptic Storytelling Prereq: Permission of instructor Subject meets with CMS.848 U (Spring) Prereq: Permission of instructor Not oered regularly; consult department U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Can be repeated for credit. Focuses on the critical making of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic For students with experience in writing essays and nonction prose. and dystopian stories across various narrative media. Considers Focuses on negotiating and representing identities grounded the long history of Western apocalypticism as well as the uses and in gender, race, class, nationality, and sexuality in prose that abuses of apocalypticism across time. Examines a wide variety is expository, exploratory, investigative, persuasive, lyrical, or of influential texts in order to enhance students' creative and incantatory. Authors include James Baldwin, Minnie Bruce Pratt, theoretical repertoires. Students create their own apocalyptic stories Audre Lorde, Richard Rodriguez, Alice Walker, John Edgar Wideman, and present on selected texts. Investigates conventions such as Diana Hume George, bell hooks, Margaret Atwood, Patricia J. plague, zombies, nuclear destruction, robot uprising, alien invasion, Williams, and others. Designed to help students build upon their environmental collapse, and supernatural calamities. Considers strengths as writers and to expand their repertoire of styles and questions of race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, trauma, memory, approaches in essay writing. Approved for credit in Women's and witness, and genocide. Intended for students with prior creative Gender Studies when content meets the requirements for subjects in writing experience. Students taking graduate version complete that program. Limited to 18. additional assignments. Limited to 15. Sta J. Diaz
21W.746 Humanistic Perspectives on Medicine: From Ancient 21W.749 Documentary Photography and Photojournalism: Still Greece to Modern America Images of a World in Motion Prereq: None Subject meets with CMS.935 U (Spring) Prereq: Permission of instructor Not oered regularly; consult department U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-A For students with experience in nonction prose and interest in the non-science side of medicine. Advanced study of the art of essay Designed to increase students' understanding of, appreciation for, (form, style, techniques of persuasion) and practice of that form. and ability to do documentary photography and photojournalism. Students required to write substantial essays and revise their work. Each three-hour class is divided between a discussion of issues Students read and discuss the writings of distinguished physicians and readings, and a group critique of students' projects. Students from antiquity to the late 20th century. Limited to 18. must have their own photographic equipment and be responsible K. Manning for processing and printing: either by student or commercial lab. Students must show basic prociency with their equipment. 21W.747 Rhetoric Readings include Susan Sontag, Robert Coles, Ken Light, Eugene Prereq: None Richards, and others. Previous photographic experience required. U (Fall, Spring) Limited to 15. 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H B. D. Colen
For students with a special interest in learning how to make forceful arguments in oral and written form. Studies the forms and structures of argumentation, including organization of ideas, awareness of audience, methods of persuasion, evidence, factual vs. emotional argument, gures of speech, and historical forms and uses of arguments. Limited to 18 per section. S. Strang, A. Karatsolis
34 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.750 Experimental Writing 21W.754[J] Playwriting Fundamentals Prereq: None Same subject as 21M.604[J] Acad Year 2021-2022: U (Fall) Prereq: None Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A 3-0-9 units. HASS-A
Students use innovative compositional techniques, focusing See description under subject 21M.604[J]. on new writing methods rather than on traditional lyrical or K. Urban narrative concerns. Writing experiments, conducted individually, collaboratively and during class meetings, culminate in chapbook- 21W.755 Writing and Reading Short Stories sized projects. Students read, listen to, and create dierent types Prereq: None of work, including sound poetry, cut-ups, constrained and Oulipian U (Fall, Spring) writing, uncreative writing, sticker literature, false translations, 3-0-9 units. HASS-A artists' books, and digital projects. N. Montfort An introduction to writing ction. Students write their own stories and study essays and short stories by contemporary authors from 21W.752 Making Documentary: Audio, Video, and More around the world. Discussion focuses on students' writing and on Prereq: 21A.550[J], 21W.786[J], or permission of instructor assigned works in their historical and social contexts. Limited to 15 U (Spring) per section. 3-6-3 units. HASS-A S. Lewitt, M. Nathan Credit cannot also be received for 21W.824 21W.756 Writing and Reading Poems Focuses on the technical demands of long-form storytelling in sound Prereq: None and picture. Students build practical writing and production skills U (Fall) through a series of assignments: still photo-text works, audio- Not oered regularly; consult department only documentaries, short video projects (4-6 minutes), and a 3-0-9 units. HASS-A semester-long, team-produced video science documentary (12-15 minutes). Readings, screenings and written work hone students' Examination of the formal structural and textual variety in poetry. analytical capacity. Students taking the graduate version complete Extensive practice in the making of poems and the analysis of both additional assignments. Students from the Graduate Program in students' manuscripts and texts from 16th- through 20th-century Science Writing center their work on topics in science, technology, literature. Attempts to make relevant the traditional elements engineering, and/or medicine. of poetry and their contemporary alternatives. Weekly writing T. Levenson assignments, including some exercises in prosody. Sta 21W.753[J] Phantasmal Media: Computer-Based Art Theory and Practice 21W.757 Fiction Workshop Same subject as CMS.314[J] Prereq: 21W.755 Subject meets with CMS.814 U (Fall) Prereq: None 3-0-9 units. HASS-A U (Fall) Can be repeated for credit. Not oered regularly; consult department Intermediate class for students with some experience in writing 3-0-9 units. HASS-A ction. Students write short stories and complete other writing See description under subject CMS.314[J]. exercises. Readings include short story collections by contemporary D. F. Harrell writers such as Sandra Cisneros, Benjamin Percy, Leila Lalami, Laura Pritchett, Bret Anthony Johnston, and Edward P. Jones. Discussions focus on sources of story material, characterization, setting, architecture, point of view, narrative voice, and concrete detail. J. Diaz
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 35 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.758 Genre Fiction Workshop 21W.763[J] Transmedia Storytelling: Modern Science Fiction Prereq: Permission of instructor Same subject as CMS.309[J] U (Spring) Subject meets with CMS.809 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Prereq: None U (Spring) Students read texts in genres such as fantasy, science ction, 3-2-7 units. HASS-A historical ction, noir, and horror, typically focusing on one genre exclusively in a given semester. Formats may include short stories, Explores transmedia storytelling by investigating how science ction novels, lms, TV shows and other narrative media. Considers genre stories are told across dierent media, such as the short story, protocols and how to write within the restrictions and freedoms the novel, the screenplay, moving image, and games. Students associated with each genre. Students write ction within a genre consider issues of aesthetics, authorship, and genre, while also (or "between" genres) for roundtable workshopping. Intended for contextualizing discussion within the broader framework of the students with prior creative writing experience. Limited to 15. political issues raised by lm, TV, and other kinds of science S. Lewitt ction texts. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. 21W.759 Writing Science Fiction H. Hendershot Prereq: None U (Fall) 21W.764[J] The Word Made Digital 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Same subject as CMS.609[J] Subject meets with CMS.846 Students write and read science ction and analyze and discuss Prereq: None stories written for the class. For the rst eight weeks, readings in Acad Year 2021-2022: U (Spring) contemporary science ction accompany lectures and formal writing Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered assignments intended to illuminate various aspects of writing cra 3-0-9 units. HASS-A as well as the particular problems of writing science ction. The rest of the term is given to roundtable workshops on students' stories. Video games, digital art and literature, online texts, and source S. Lewitt code are analyzed in the contexts of history, culture, and computing platforms. Approaches from poetics and computer science are 21W.762 Poetry Workshop used to understand the non-narrative digital uses of text. Students Prereq: None undertake critical writing and creative computer projects to U (Fall, Spring) encounter digital writing through practice. This involves reading and 3-0-9 units. HASS-A modifying computer programs; therefore previous programming Can be repeated for credit. experience, although not required, will be helpful. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. For students with some previous experience in poetry writing. N. Montfort Frequent assignments stress use of language, diction, word choice, line breaks, imagery, mood, and tone. Considers the functions of 21W.765[J] Interactive Narrative memory, imagination, dreams, poetic impulses. Throughout the Same subject as 21L.489[J], CMS.618[J] term, students examine the work of published poets. Revision Subject meets with CMS.845 stressed. Prereq: None E. Barrett U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A
Provides a workshop environment for understanding interactive narrative (print and digital) through critical writing, narrative theory, and creative practice. Covers important multisequential books, hypertexts, and interactive ctions. Students write critically, and give presentations, about specic works; write a short multisequential ction; and develop a digital narrative system, which involves signicant writing and either programming or the structuring of text. Programming ability helpful. N. Montfort
36 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.766 Writing Fantasy (New) 21W.773 Writing Longer Fiction Prereq: One subject in Writing or permission of instructor Prereq: A ction workshop or permission of instructor U (Spring) Acad Year 2021-2022: U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Acad Year 2022-2023: Not oered 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Explores the popularity and structure of Fantasy as a genre in lms, games, and literature. Students read articles and novels and write Designed for students who have some experience in writing ction exercises and stories in the genre. Intended for students with prior and want to try longer forms like the novella and novel. Students creative writing experience. Limited to 10. interested in writing a novel are expected to produce at least two S. Lewitt chapters and an outline of the complete work. Readings include several novels from Fitzgerald to the present, and novellas from 21W.768[J] Games and Culture Gogol's The Overcoat to current examples. Students discuss one Same subject as CMS.616[J], WGS.125[J] another's writing in a roundtable workshop, with a strong emphasis Subject meets with CMS.868 on revision. Prereq: None Sta U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S 21W.774[J] Playwriting Methods Same subject as 21M.607[J] See description under subject CMS.616[J]. Prereq: None T. L. Taylor U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A 21W.770 Advanced Fiction Workshop Prereq: Permission of instructor See description under subject 21M.607[J]. Enrollment limited. U (Spring) K. Urban 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Can be repeated for credit. 21W.775 Writing about Nature and Environmental Issues Prereq: None For students with some experience in writing ction. Write Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered longer works of ction and short stories which are related or Acad Year 2022-2023: U (Spring) interconnected. Read short story collections by individual writers, 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H such as Sandra Cisneros, Raymond Carver, Edward P. Jones, and Tillie Olsen, and discuss them critically and analytically, with attention Focuses on traditional nature writing and the environmentalist to the ways in which the writers' choices about component parts essay. Students keep a web log as a journal. Writings are drawn contribute to meaning. In-class exercises and weekly workshops of from the tradition of nature writing and from contemporary forms of student work focus on sources of story material, characterization, the environmentalist essay. Authors include Henry Thoreau, Loren structure, narrative voice, point of view and concrete detail. Eiseley, Annie Dillard, Chet Raymo, Sue Hubbel, Rachel Carson, Bill Concentration on revision. McKibben, and Terry Tempest Williams. Limited to 18. H. Lee C. Ta
21W.771 Advanced Poetry Workshop 21W.776[J] Screenwriting Prereq: Permission of instructor Same subject as 21M.608[J] U (Fall, Spring) Prereq: None 3-0-9 units. HASS-A Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered Can be repeated for credit. Acad Year 2022-2023: U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A For students experienced in writing poems. Regular reading of published contemporary poets and weekly submission of See description under subject 21M.608[J]. Enrollment limited. manuscripts for class review and criticism. Students expected K. Urban to do a substantial amount of rewriting and revision. Classwork supplemented with individual conferences. E. Funkhouser
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 37 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.777 Science Writing in Contemporary Society 21W.787 Film, Music, and Social Change: Intersections of Media Prereq: None and Society U (Spring) Subject meets with CMS.837 3-0-9 units. HASS-H Prereq: None U (Fall) Drawing in part from their own interests and ideas, students write Not oered regularly; consult department about science within various cultural contexts using an array of 3-0-9 units. HASS-H literary and reportorial tools. Studies the work of contemporary science writers, such as David Quammen and Atul Gawande, and Examines lms from the 1950s onward that document music examines the ways in which science and technology are treated in subcultures and moments of social upheaval. Combines screening media and popular culture. Discussions focus on students' writing lms about free jazz, glam rock, punk, reggae, hip-hop, and and address topics such as false equivalency, covering controversy, other genres with an examination of critical/scholarly writings and the attenuation of initial observations. Emphasizes long-form to illuminate the connections between lm, popular music, and narratives; also looks at blogs, social media, and other modes of processes of social change. Students critique each lm in terms communication. Not a technical writing class. of the social, political, and cultural world it documents, and the T. Levenson historical context and eects of the lm's reception. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. 21W.778 Science Journalism V. Bald Prereq: None U (Fall) 21W.788[J] South Asian America: Transnational Media, Culture, 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H and History Same subject as CMS.334[J] An introduction to print daily journalism and news writing, Prereq: None focusing on science news writing in general, and medical writing Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered in particular. Emphasis is on writing clearly and accurately under Acad Year 2022-2023: U (Spring) deadline pressure. Class discussions involve the realities of modern 3-0-9 units. HASS-H journalism, how newsrooms function, and the science news coverage in daily publications. Discussions of, and practice in, interviewing Examines the history of South Asian immigration, sojourning, and various modes of reporting. In class, students write numerous and settlement from the 1880s to the present. Focuses on the US science news stories on deadline. There are additional longer writing as one node in the global circulation, not only of people, but of assignments outside of class. Enrollment limited. media, culture and ideas, through a broader South Asian diaspora. B. D. Colen Considers the concept of "global media" historically; emphasis on how ideas about, and self-representations of, South Asians have 21W.786[J] Social Justice and The Documentary Film circulated via books, political pamphlets, performance, lm, video/ Same subject as CMS.336[J] cassette tapes, and the internet. Students analyze and discuss Subject meets with CMS.836 scholarly writings, archival documents, memoirs, ction, blogs and Prereq: None lms, and write papers drawing on course materials, lectures, and U (Spring) discussions. Limited to 18. 3-0-9 units. HASS-A V. Bald
Explores the history and current state of social-issue documentary. Examines how cultural and political upheaval and technological change have converged at dierent moments to bring about new waves of activist documentary lm production. Particular focus on lms and other non-ction media of the present and recent past. Students screen and analyze a series of key lms and work in groups to produce their own short documentary using digital video and computer-based editing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. V. Bald
38 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.790[J] Short Attention Span Documentary 21W.794 Graduate Technical Writing Workshop Same subject as CMS.335[J] Prereq: Permission of instructor Subject meets with 21W.890 G (IAP) Prereq: None 1-0-2 units Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered Acad Year 2022-2023: U (Fall) Designed to improve the student's ability to communicate technical 3-0-9 units. HASS-A information. Covers central communication concepts and techniques, including audience, discourse, and genre analysis; strategies for Focuses on the production of short (1- to 5-minute) digital eectively managing, integrating, and documenting information video documentaries: a form of non-ction lmmaking that has from sources; and methods of structuring information for coherence proliferated in recent years due to the ubiquity of palm-sized and and credibility. Assignments include an abstract, a literature review, mobile phone cameras and the rise of web-based platforms, such as and an oral presentation; students provide feedback to each other. YouTube. Students shoot, edit, workshop and revise a series of short Limited to graduate engineering students based on results of the videos meant to engage audiences in a topic, introduce them to new Graduate Writing Exam. ideas, and/or persuade them. Screenings and discussions cover key Sta principles of documentary lm - narrative, style, pace, point of view, argument, character development - examining how they function and 21W.798, 21W.799 Independent Study in Writing change in short format. Students taking graduate version complete Prereq: None additional assignments. Limited to 16. U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) V. Bald Units arranged Can be repeated for credit. 21W.791[J] Network Cultures Same subject as CMS.614[J] Primarily for students pursuing advanced writing projects with the Subject meets with CMS.867 assistance of a member of the Writing Program. Students electing Prereq: None this subject must secure the approval of the director of the Writing U (Spring) Program and its Committee on Curriculum. Normal maximum is 6 3-0-9 units. HASS-H units; exceptional 9-unit projects occasionally approved. HASS credit awarded only by individual petition to the Subcommittee on the See description under subject CMS.614[J]. HASS Requirement; minimum of 9 units required for HASS credit. T. L. Taylor 21W.798 is P/D/F. Sta 21W.792 Science Writing Internship Prereq: None Graduate Subjects U (Fall, Spring) 0-12-0 units 21W.820[J] Writing: Science, Technology, and Society Can be repeated for credit. Same subject as STS.477[J] Students developing professional writing and publishing skills Prereq: 21H.991 in part-time internships with Boston area media companies can Acad Year 2021-2022: Not oered apply to receive credit. Students planning to take this subject must Acad Year 2022-2023: G (Fall) contact the instructor by the end of November (if they are applying 3-0-9 units for spring semester) or the end of May (if they are applying for the Examination of dierent "voices" used to consider issues of fall semester). scientic, technological, and social concern. Students write Sta frequently and choose among a variety of non-ction forms: historical writing, social analysis, political criticism, and policy reports. Instruction in expressing ideas clearly and in organizing a thesis-length work. Reading and writing on three case studies drawn from the history of science; the cultural study of technology and science; and policy issues. K. Manning
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 39 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.822 Science Writing Thesis Development and Workshop 21W.825 Advanced Science Writing Seminar I Prereq: None. Coreq: 21W.THG Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) G (Fall) 3-0-9 units 6-0-18 units
Develops abilities to produce long-form pieces of science-based First term of year-long graduate sequence in science writing oers journalism, with a focus on constructing multiple narratives, source students intensive workshops and critiques of their own writing, building and interview techniques, rewriting and working with and that of published books, articles, and essays; discussions of editors. Students also hone their ability to shape their classmates' ethical and professional issues; study of science and scientists in work. historical and social context; analysis of recent events in science T. Levenson and technology. Emphasis throughout on developing skills and habits of mind that enable the science writer to tackle scientically 21W.823 Lab Experience for Science Writers formidable material and write about it for ordinary readers. Topics Prereq: 21W.825 include the tools of research, conceived in its broadest sense- G (Fall, IAP, Spring) including interviewing, websites, archives, scientic journal 0-2-1 units articles; science journalism, including culture of the newsroom and magazine-style journalism; science essays. Considerable attention During the fall or IAP, students conduct 20 hours of observation to science writing's audiences, markets, and publics and the special in a lab of their choosing that is outside their previous scientic requirements of each. experience. Participation in the work of the lab encouraged. In the Sta spring, students make an in-class presentation and submit a written report of publication quality. Preference to students in the Graduate 21W.826 Advanced Science Writing Seminar II Program in Science Writing. Prereq: 21W.825 or permission of instructor T. Levenson, M. Bartusiak G (Spring) 3-0-9 units 21W.824 Making Documentary: Audio, Video, and More Prereq: Permission of instructor Topics include research for writers, science journalism, and essays; G (Spring) literary science writing, and the social and historical context of 3-6-3 units science and technology. Includes seminars, lectures, and student Credit cannot also be received for 21W.752 writing workshops. Special emphasis on the science essay and on literary and imaginative science writing that employs traditionally Focuses on the technical demands of long-form storytelling in sound ctive devices in nonction, including scene-setting and storytelling. and picture. Students build practical writing and production skills Assignments cover science essays, writing on particular disciplines, through a series of assignments: still photo-text works, audio- and investigative and critical science journalism. only documentaries, short video projects (4-6 minutes), and a Graduate Program Faculty semester-long, team-produced video science documentary (12-15 minutes). Readings, screenings and written work hone students' analytical capacity. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Students from the Graduate Program in Science Writing center their work on topics in science, technology, engineering, and/or medicine. Limited to 7. T. Levenson
40 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.890 Short Attention Span Documentary 21W.S60 Special Subject: Writing Subject meets with 21W.790[J], CMS.335[J] Prereq: None Prereq: None U (Spring) G (Spring) Not oered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units Units arranged Can be repeated for credit. Focuses on the production of short (1- to 5-minute) digital video documentaries: a form of non-ction lmmaking that has Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular proliferated in recent years due to the ubiquity of palm-sized and curriculum. mobile phone cameras and the rise of web-based platforms, such as Sta YouTube. Students shoot, edit, workshop and revise a series of short videos meant to engage audiences in a topic, introduce them to new 21W.S96 Special Subject: Writing ideas, and/or persuade them. Screenings and discussions cover key Prereq: None principles of documentary lm - narrative, style, pace, point of view, G (IAP) argument, character development - examining how they function and Units arranged change in short format. Students taking graduate version complete Can be repeated for credit. additional assignments. Limited to 16. R. Adams Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular curriculum. 21W.892 Science Writing Internship Sta Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) 21W.THT Writing Pre-Thesis Tutorial 0-12-0 units Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Field placements tailored to the individual backgrounds of the Units arranged students enrolled, involving varying degrees of faculty participation Can be repeated for credit. and supervision. Graduate Program Faculty Denition of and early stage work on a thesis project leading to 21W.THU. Taken during the rst term of a student's two-term 21W.898 Graduate Independent Study in Writing commitment to the thesis project. Student works closely with an Prereq: Permission of instructor individual faculty tutor. Required of all students pursuing a full major G (Fall, IAP, Spring) in Course 21W. Joint majors register for 21.THT. Units arranged Sta Can be repeated for credit. 21W.THU Writing Program Thesis Opportunity for advanced independent study of writing under Prereq: 21W.THT regular supervision by a faculty member. Projects require prior U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) approval, as well as a written proposal and a nal report. Units arranged Consult Sta Can be repeated for credit.
21W.899 Graduate Independent Study in Writing Completion of work on the senior major thesis under the supervision Prereq: Permission of instructor of a faculty tutor. Includes oral presentation of the thesis progress G (Fall, IAP, Spring) early in the term, assembling and revising the nal text, and a Units arranged [P/D/F] nal meeting with a committee of faculty evaluators to discuss Can be repeated for credit. the successes and limitations of the project. Required of students pursuing a full major in Course 21W. Joint majors register for 21.THU. Opportunity for advanced independent study of writing under Sta regular supervision by a faculty member. Projects require prior approval, as well as a written proposal and a nal report. Consult Sta
Comparative Media Studies/Writing | 41 COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES/WRITING
21W.THG Graduate Thesis Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) 3-0-9 units Can be repeated for credit.
Research and writing of thesis in consultation with faculty, including individual meetings and group seminars, undertaken over the course of one year. T. Levenson
21W.UR Research in Writing Prereq: None U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged [P/D/F] Can be repeated for credit.
Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Sta
21W.URG Research in Writing U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.
Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Sta
42 | Comparative Media Studies/Writing