Arts, Media, and Culture

This major focuses on how the fields of art and media operate within culture and how they transform it. Study formal, aesthetic and socio-cultural ways of understanding literature, visual art, film, music and other media.

An Arts, Media and Culture degree prepares students for a range of careers including publishing, the arts, media, museum work, public relations and public history. It is also appropriate for students pursuing broad cultural literacy, as well as for those planning to continue their education in advanced study in performing and visual arts or the humanities.

AMC students in the classroom, on an excursion, and in the theater arts studio 

In this major you will:

  • Cultivate insight unique to human beings and will be able to identify and explain interrelations among texts of apparently disparate discourses: literature, film and visual arts.
  • Acquire the interpretive skills necessary to analyze individual texts of various kinds - literary, film, art, televisual, musical - closely and critically. Students will be not just literate but visually or audiovisually literate.
  • Understand the importance of history and culture as they shape and are in turn shaped by arts and media.
  • Gain practical experience in the creative processes of one of the arts or media studied in the major.
  • Be able to express the knowledge and experience described in the items listed above in clear, concise and persuasive writing.

Arts, Media & Culture Email List

AMC faculty and students on a study abroad trip in Rome, Italy

Arts, Media, and Culture Degree Requirements

For Arts, Media, and Culture, you need to complete 60 credits, which must include a minimum of 30 credits of upper-division courses.  Students choose one track to pursue.

Overall, 45 credits upper-division and 45 credits of IAS courses are required to meet degree requirements. You must earn a total of 180 quarter credits, or 225 quarter credits for a double degree, in order to earn a bachelor of arts degree in your chosen major.

All students are required to take TLIT 220 or TFILM 220.

Arts, Media, and Culture has five themed tracks. You can choose the track that best suits your educational and career goals. Each track has its own requirements and can be found on the appropriate checklist below. 

For questions about the Arts, Media, and Culture major, contact an academic advisor.

TRACK I: LITERATURE

  • 5 credits, Foundation (TLIT 220 or TFILM 220)
  • 10 credits, History (List A: one survey class from the survey options and one additional history class apart from the survey options)
  • 5 credits, Culture (List B)
  • 5 credits, Interpretation (List C for Literature)
  • 5 credits Practice/Studio (List D)
  • 25 credits in Literature (List E)
  • 5 credits from List F or List G (Film/Media or Visual and Performing Arts)

TRACK II: FILM AND MEDIA

  • 5 credits, Foundation (TLIT 220 or TFILM 220)
  • 10 credits, History (List A: one survey class from the survey options and one additional history class apart from the survey options)
  • 5 credits, Culture (List B)
  • 5 credits, Interpretation (List C for Film/Media)
  • 5 credits, Practice/Studio (List D) 
  • 25 credits in Film and Media (List F)
  • 5 credits in Literature or Visual and Performing Arts (List E or List G)

TRACK III: VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS

  • 5 credits, Foundation (TLIT 220 or TFILM 220)
  • 10 credits, History (List A: one survey class from the survey options and one additional history class apart from the survey options)
  • 5 credits, Culture (List B)
  • 5 credits, Interpretation (List C for Visual and Performing Arts)
  • 15 credits, Practice/Studio (List D) 
  • 15 credits in Visual and Performing Arts (List G) 
  • 5 credits in Literature or Film and Media (List E or List F)

TRACK IV: COMPARATIVE ARTS

  • 5 credits, Foundation (TLIT 220 or TFILM 220)
  • 10 credits, History (List A: one survey class from the survey options and one additional history class apart from the survey options)
  • 5 credits, Culture (List B)
  • 10 credits, Interpretation (one class from two of the following: List C for Literature, List C for Film/Media, or List C for Visual and Performing Arts)
  • 5 credits, Practice/Studio (List D)
  • 25 credits in Literature; Film and Media; or Visual and Performing Arts (List E-G, with at least 5 credits from each list)

TRACK V: AMERICAN CULTURES

  • 5 credits, Foundation (TFILM 220 or TLIT 220) 
  • 10 credits, History: one class from List A in AMC; and one of the following: THIST 220, 221, 320, 340, 349, or TLAX 333
  • 25 credits, Culture (List B): take 25 credits from List B, which would be 5 courses that you have not taken for the sake of another requirement elsewhere in the major.
  • 5 credits, Interpretation:One of these: TAMST 120, 210, 220, or 250
  • 5 credits, Practice/Studio (List D)
  • 10 credits, Complete any 10 credits from Lists E, F, or G in AMC. 
LIST A: HISTORY

Students in all tracks must take 10 credits from List A, 5 of which must be from the Survey options and 5 of which must be from Additional History options.

Survey options: choose 5 credits from this list 

Additional History options: choose 5 credits from this list 

LIST B: CULTURE

Courses in this list set the study of arts and media in broad cultural or social contexts. Students in all tracks are required to take 5 credits.

LIST C: INTERPRETATION

Interpretation for Track I: Literature (List C):

This list includes courses that provide language and concepts for the critical study of texts and objects. Courses taken in this list cannot be double-counted to satisfy other requirements.

Interpretation for Track II: Film & Media (List C)

This list includes courses that provide language and concepts for the critical study of texts and objects. Courses taken in this list cannot be double-counted to satisfy other requirements.

Interpretation for Track III: Visual and Performing Arts (List C)

This list includes courses that provide language and concepts for the critical study of texts and objects. Courses taken in this list cannot be double-counted to satisfy other requirements.

Interpretation for Track IV: Comparative Arts (List C)

  • Any two of the Lists C for Track I, II, or III, each from a different list.
LIST D: PRACTICE/ STUDIO COURSE

(** denotes course counted as creative writing)

LIST E: LITERATURE
LIST F: FILM AND MEDIA
LIST G: VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS

View AMC requirements for majors started prior to 2017

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