LA 141 — Introduction to Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course provides students with the tools to analyze moving image presentations in an academic setting or as a filmmaker. Students examine the uses of camera, editing, sound, and elements of the production design as they create meaning in film images and narratives. Examples are drawn from a full range of feature films, documentaries, other forms of entertainment, and advertising, whether delivered theatrically, through television, or over the internet. (G7: Humanities).
LA 211 — Dance as Art
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course surveys Western dance styles from the perspective of the creative process and cultural history. Students study ballet, modern dance, American dances of the African Diaspora, and world dances. The course uses film, lecture, performance, discussion, selected readings and guest lecturers to expose students to a wide range of dance traditions. No prior dance training is necessary. (G6: Arts).
LA 221 — U.S. History: Civil War to Present
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
An introduction to American history, this course moves from a brief view of American geography, economics, and government to a more focused examination of the social, political, and economic experience from the Civil War through the Cold War and to the present. Students are introduced to basic historical methodology and learn to apply these techniques through critical reading, analytical writing, and verbal presentations. (G10: American History)
Prerequisite(s): EN 121 or EN 362.
LA 223 — Survey of Latin American Music
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
A survey of Latin American music with an emphasis on the process of music composition and instrumentation that led to its creation. Students explore the creative process through in-class performances of musical excerpts and demonstrations of Latin American musical instruments. The class also focuses on the indigenous, cultivated, and vernacular traditions within Latin American music and their relation to regional histories. No previous musical background is required. (G6: Arts).
LA 224 — Distant Neighbors: A History of Latin America and the United States
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course compares the histories of Latin America and the United States from pre-Columbian times to the 20th century. Students learn about the deep influence of the United States in Latin American economies, politics, and culture, especially after the United States' independence, when American democracy became a political model for the former Spanish American colonies. (G10: American History)
Prerequisite(s): EN 121 or EN 362.
LA 225 — Leisure in America
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course examines the emergence and changing role of leisure and its relation to work in the United States from the late 19th century to the present. Situating leisure within its specific social, economic, and political contexts, students explore the complex intersection of factors and forces that have shaped conceptions and practices of leisure in American life through primary and secondary texts, both written and visual. (G10: American History)
Prerequisite(s): EN 121.
LA 227 — Past/Present: Chinese History
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course introduces students to modern Chinese history as well as ways through which one can examine and understand the historical roots of current affairs in and related to China. Two major themes are: changes and continuity in modern China, and China in the world.
Prerequisite(s): None.
LA 231 — Latin American Fiction: From the 1960s to the Present
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
LA 241 — Film Theory and Criticism, An Introduction
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Students are introduced to the major issues and movements in film theory and criticism. Examining key issues such as the relationship between film representation and reality and the roles of image, narrative, and the industrial infrastructure, students learn to place critical statements about film into a theoretical discussion that has flourished since the early days of silent film. (G7: Humanities)
Prerequisite(s): LA 141.
LA 242 — Hollywood: A History
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Students learn the history of the United States from the Civil War to the present through the lens of the American film industry. The course focuses on the economic structure of the film industry and the evolving depictions of violence in movies as a factor in American History. (G10: American History).
LA 243 — Introduction to Television Studies
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course analyzes the medium of television in terms of its history, narrative, style, technique, editing, sound, and representation. Students view programs from the 1950s to the present, marking and investigating TV's transformations as it moves with and creates cultural history. Students acquire and use skills for reading television in terms of its production and signification. (G7: Humanities)
Prerequisite(s): EN 121.
LA 244 — Documentary Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course provides a historical overview of the documentary form and a critique of ethnographic and propaganda films, social documentaries, cinema verite, and travelogues. Students investigate the issue of truth and/or objectivity, and critique films from the perspective of feminist theory, cultural anthropology, and general film history and theory.
Prerequisite(s): EN 255 or LA 141.
LA 245 — Film Genres: Animation
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
In this history of animation course, students gain an understanding of animation as an art form and as a series of ideological texts to be read and interpreted within the context of the cultures that produced them.
LA 246 — The Science Fiction Film
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course examines the science fiction film from its beginnings. Students analyze the genre's merits and flaws, conventional narrative themes and iconography, relevance, and fundamental departures from science fiction literature. They explore how science fiction films mirror the social and political environment of their time.
LA 247 — The Other Hollywood: Film in New York
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course examines New York's significance in the history of American film. As the birthplace of the industry, the city has been a seedbed for innovation in documentary, avant-garde and independent film, as well as an icon in Hollywood cinema.
LA 248 — Introduction to Sound (pending curriculum approval)
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students explore the phenomenon of sound, the art of audio, and the function of sound for the screen. They study techniques to shape film and video soundtracks, and view examples of film and video with expressive use of sound. Additional topics include the science of sound waves; microphone technique; digital recording, editing, and multitrack mixing; and final digital mixing to picture.
LA 251 — Contemporary Korean Cinema
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course is an introduction to South Korean cinema from the late 1980s to the present. Students study the concept of New Korean Cinema, the rise of the domestic film industry and auteurs, and the emergence of blockbusters and their growing regional and international recognition. (G7: Humanities; G9: Other World Civilizations).
LA 299 — Independent Study in Liberal Arts Divisional Studies
1-3 credit
Prerequisite(s): a minimum 3.5 GPA and approval of instructor, chairperson, and dean for Liberal Arts.
LA 321 — Survey of American Music
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
A study of the major styles, trends, and significant composers in American music. Through lecture and demonstration, students explore various types of music, including blues, current trends, folk, jazz, rock, show, and symphonic, focusing on their relation to the American experience. No musical background is necessary. (G6: Arts).
LA 341 — Advanced Cinematography Workshop
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course focuses on the tools, techniques, and hands-on experiences required for enabling students to become proficient in shooting digital video. Aesthetic, technical topics are addressed, including camera movement, use of filters, and digital workflows, culminating in a final project--shooting a scene lasting three to four minutes.
Prerequisite(s): PH 283.
LA 342 — Film Genres: Crime Stories
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course examines interrelationships in film and literature, focusing on Crime Stories--novels and cinematic adaptations that tell stories of crimes from differing points of view, starting with the detective, moving toward the criminal, and ending with the victims. Students study a variety of crime genres: the whodunit, the film noir, the docudrama, the neo-noir and the metafiction. (G7: Humanities).
LA 343 — Advanced Editing Workshop
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
Students build on their knowledge as editors, through exposure to audio editing, color correction, and outputting. Hands-on exercises, including an action scene, a dialogue scene, a commercial or trailer, a music video, and a scene or short film, help to increase their proficiency as editors.
Prerequisite(s): PH 284.
LA 391 — Issues in the Humanities and Technology (Honors)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Examines the relationship between cultural traditions and the technological present and future. Current issues in medicine, science, the arts, and artificial intelligence provide the platform to study the impact of technology on human society and the world. Major philosophical positions, definitions of terms, and their social and historical contexts are discussed. (G7: Humanities)
Prerequisite(s): qualification for Presidential Scholars Program, or 3.5 GPA with approval of dean for Liberal Arts.
LA 392 — United States History and Culture, 1860 to Present (Honors)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Major historic events and developments in United States history from 1860 to the present are examined in the context of their impact on the country's government, politics, and culture. Works by painters, photographers, sculptors, advertisers, dancers, musicians, novelists, filmmakers, and dramatists are used to broaden the study of U.S. history. (G10: American History)
Prerequisite(s): qualification for Presidential Scholars Program, or 3.5 GPA with approval of dean for Liberal Arts.
LA 394 — The Old and New Testaments in the History of Ideas (Honors)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Students examine the influence of selected books, chapters, and verses from the Old and New Testaments on the literature, philosophy, theology, and politics of Western civilization. Emphasis is given to ideas located in scripture as they have been developed by religious thinkers, systematic theorists, and creative artists. (G5: Western Civilization; G7: Humanities)
Prerequisite(s): qualification for Presidential Scholars Program, or 3.5 GPA with approval of dean for Liberal Arts.
LA 395 — Masterpieces of Music in the European Classical Tradition (1500 to Present) (Honors)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course is a survey of the major masterpieces of music in the European Classical tradition, with an emphasis on the compositional approaches that led to their creation. Through lectures and demonstrations, the course covers the main musical developments associated with the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern periods. No previous musical background is required. (G6: Arts)
Prerequisite(s): qualification for Presidential Scholars Program, or 3.5 GPA with approval of dean for Liberal Arts.
LA 396 — Religion and Religious Dissent in American History to the Civil War (Honors)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Students examine the ways in which religious controversies have figured, directly and indirectly, in many of the major events in the early history of the United States, up to and including the Civil War. (G7: Humanities; G10: American History)
Prerequisite(s): qualification for Presidential Scholars Program, or 3.5 GPA with approval of dean for Liberal Arts.
LA 397 — New York City and the Invention of America (Honors)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
Students learn the history of America from the Civil War to the present, through the lens of its greatest metropolis. Readings stress the roles that New York has played as innovator, counterpoint, and despised exception in the culture, economics, politics, and technology of the U.S. Students develop skills in basic primary research, public speaking, reading comprehension, and writing and revising. (G10: American History)
Prerequisite(s): qualification for Presidential Scholars Program, or 3.5 GPA with approval of dean for Liberal Arts.
LA 398 — Rebellion and Resistance in America (Honors)
3 credits; 3 lecture hours
This course examines the social, cultural, and political types of rebellion and resistance from their historical roots in Colonial and Revolutionary America to their modern and contemporary forms in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students analyze the tactics, strategies, and objectives of individual and collective action from across the political spectrum. (G10: American History)
Prerequisite(s): qualification for Presidential Scholars Program or 3.5 GPA and approval of dean for Liberal Arts.
LA 441 — Production I
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
In this first of a two-course sequence, students are introduced to the area of production for small- and large-scale films. Through readings, in-class visits, field trips, and lab experiences, students study the four aspects of production--development, pre-production, production, and post-production.
Prerequisite(s): LA 341.
LA 442 — Production II
3.5 credits; 2 lecture and 3 lab hours
The second of a two-course sequence in production, this course focuses on the perspective of the producer. Through readings, in-class visits, field trips and lab experiences, students continue their study of the four aspects of production-development, pre-production, production, and post-production.
Prerequisite(s): LA 441.
LA 443 — Major Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
3 credits; 2 lecture and 2 lab hours
This course provides an in-depth study of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, which are examined within the context of his life and the Hollywood system. Students learn the concepts of auteur theory by focusing on Hitchcock's storyboarding method, his stylistic and cinematic technique, and his innovative use of editing and sound.