Happy Holidays from all of us at MCS!

From all of us at the Media and Cinema Studies Program, we wish you all the best this holiday season and in the new year! Next December, why not consider taking Prof. Blair Davis' "MCS 353: Bah Humbug! - Analyzing Christmas Media Texts" course? Students analyze a wide range of classic Christmas films and TV shows using various media studies methodologies. It's the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit... with such topics as "How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Semiotics"! "Elf and Psychoanalysis"! "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Marxist Analysis"! "A Christmas Carol and Cultural Studies"! "A Charlie Brown Christmas and Religious Studies"! "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Paracinema"! 

"Films like It’s a Wonderful Life and programs like A Charlie Brown Christmas are commonly among the most re-watched media texts for most people – we watch them more often over the course of a lifetime than most other movies and shows," says Prof. Davis. "In turn, it would seem natural that we should critically analyze these media texts that we regularly return to in the same ways that we seek to find the cultural, aesthetic and/or political meanings inherent in popular Hollywood blockbusters and prime-time television series. But should Christmas media texts only be consumed emotionally rather than intellectually? Does studying these beloved films and shows somehow rob them of their joy, or does this process have just as many intellectual rewards as when we analyze more traditional media texts?" he asks.

image courtesy of cbs.com

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, he argues for instance, is “an enlightening tale of class politics at work at the North Pole that benefits from a Marxist analysis of how labor is represented… when Hermey the elf and Rudolph declare themselves to be a ‘couple of misfits,’ each rejects their class designations to declare a new identity, one which is not tied to the division of labor at the north pole. When the Abominable (or the Bumble) is finally welcomed at the North Pole it is because he is the only one who can put the star on top of the Christmas tree. So in other words, once he has unique labor potential, he becomes a useful part of North Pole society.”

"MCS 353: Bah Humbug! - Analyzing Christmas Media Texts" is offered as a fully online course in the December intersession term, and Prof. Davis plans to offer it again in December 2015.

Prof. Kessler at the Television Academy Foundation Faculty Seminar in Los Angeles

Media and Cinema Studies Professor Kelly Kessler recently attended a week-long stay in Los Angeles at the Television Academy Foundation Faculty Seminar.

The seminar chooses 20 faculty members annually to be flown out to Los Angeles for an intensive week of lectures and studio tours with those working within the television industry, such as producers, writers, directors, editors and entertainment lawyers. Kessler met with industry professionals and other academics working together to bridge the gap between production and the classroom. Kessler noted how the seminar gave her “some great info to take back to our students… Basically, it's a week of us learning more about how the television industry works by talking to industry folks and seeing how the industry works.”

“I went to an amazing talk being given as part of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media and had a really great talk with her about the divide between industry and academia. It was pretty amazing,” says Kessler.

Chicago Film Seminar Opening Event Thurs. Nov 13

The Media and Cinema Studies program is proud to host the Chicago Film Seminar again this year, with the opening event held this Thursday November 13th.

A dialogue across silent cinema authors, forms, and contexts 

Thursday, November 13th   6:30 pm, Room LL102, Daley Bldg., 14. E. Jackson St., Chicago.

Michael Cowan, Associate Professor of German Studies in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and William Dawson Scholar in Film and Visual Studies

McGill University

Author of Walter Ruttmann and the Cinema of Multiplicity (Amsterdam University Press, 2014)

-and-

Tami Williams, Assistant Professor of English and Film Studies

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Author of Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations (University of Illinois Press, 2014)

Moderated by

Ariel Rogers, Assistant Professor in the Department of Radio/Film/Television

Northwestern University

Author of Cinematic Appeals: The Experience of New Movie Technologies 

(Columbia University Press, 2013)

Hope to see you there!

Prof. Luisela Alvaray is a Chicago Film Festival Jury Member!

MCS Professor Luisela Alvaray has been chosen as a jury member for the 2014 Chicago Film Festival, which runs October 9 to 23. She will serve on the documentary film jury, helping to choose the festival's top documentary from among such films as Algren (USA, Dir. Michael Caplan), A Dream of Iron (South Korea/USA, Dir. Kelvin Kyung Kun Park), Hotel Nueva Isla (Cuba/Spain, Dir. Irene Gutierrez) and Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (USA, Dir. Chuck Workman). This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Chicago Film Festival, held at the AMC River East 21. Congratulations, Luisela!

MCS Graduate Program Alumni Career Outcomes

The College of Communication regularly provides updates on the career outcomes of its alumni. Our graduate students in the Media and Cinema Studies program have gone on to a wide range of careers involving film, television, digital media, marketing, media literacy as well as doctoral studies.

For profiles on several of our MCS alumni and their career paths following graduation, please see the link below:

MCS Grad Program Alumni Career Outcomes

Prof. Blair Davis CBC Radio Interview on 'So-Bad-They're-Good' Movies

Professor Blair Davis was interviewed for the CBC Radio program "Day 6" about movies that are 'So-bad-they're-good'. He was part of a panel with Tasha Robinson, a senior editor at The Dissolve. The full interview is available here:

                                 http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2014/07/23/good-bad-films/

Prof. Luisela Alvaray featured in Summer 2014 issue of DePaul Magazine

MCS Professor Luisela Alvaray's teaching is featured in the latest issue of DePaul Magazine. Her Media & Cultural Studies undergraduate class shared their research on the AMC program "Breaking Bad" at the College of Communication's symposium 'DePaul Talks: Making Meaning of Violence'. The article is entitled "A Cultural Study of Breaking Bad."

                    http://depaulmagazine.com/2014/08/11/a-cultural-study-of-breaking-bad/

Blog coverage of Prof. Blair Davis's PCA presentation

The blog Playing With Research features coverage of a presentation given by MCS Professor Blair Davis at the Popular Culture Association's annual national convention in April 2014 in Chicago. Davis gave a talk entitled "'Crashing Through': Comics and Adaptation in Classical Hollywood."


"Comics Adaptations Causing Fractured Fandom"

New Book by Prof. Michael DeAngelis: Reading the Bromance

Congratulations to MCS Prof. Michael DeAngelis, whose book Reading the Bromance: Homosocial Relationships in Film and Television is being released this week by Wayne State University Press:

Reading the Bromance

image courtesy of Wayne State University Press

This anthology of essays explores the social and cultural functions of the bromance phenomenon across numerous contemporary films and television programs such as The Hangover, Y tu mama tambien, Seinfeld, Friends, Humpday, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and I Love You, Man. Prof. DeAangelis contributes his own essay in which he examines how the bromance functions in the film Superbad. Other contributors include Hilary Radner, Murray Pomerance, Nick Davis, David Greven, Meheli Sen, Jenna Weinman, Ken Feil, Peter Forster, Dominic Lennard and Ron Becker.


Advance Reviews:

Everything you always wanted to know about the bromance, but were afraid to ask! This new volume explores contemporary masculinity, homosocial desire, and homosexual/homophobic knowing as it plays out across film and TV texts such as I Love You, Man, Superbad, The Wire, Jackass, and Humpday. In thoughtful and provocative ways, DeAngelis and his authors cover the history, forms, and multiple meanings of this curious phenomenon. Essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary models of gender and sexuality.

– Harry M. Benshoff, professor of radio, TV, and film at University of North Texas and author of Dark Shadows (Wayne State University Press, 2011)

This lively and perceptive collection of essays posits the ‘bromance’ film as an ambivalent response to gay liberation and the women’s movement that allows for expanded representations of male intimacy even when operating within heteronormativity. Reading the Bromance is a valuable volume for those who want to understand the role of gender and sexuality in contemporary popular cinema.

– Mary Desjardins, author of Recycled Stars: Female Film Stardom in the Age of Television and Video and co-editor of Dietrich Icon

Reading the Bromance's remarkably sophisticated essays analyze the twisted generic complexity of a long history of representing male-male relations. Studying the formula's homosocial and heteronormative behaviors, these authors demonstrate how these texts permit fluid cultural and social adventures involving emotions, maturity, gender, taste, and physicality. A terrific collection.

– Janet Staiger, William P. Hobby Centennial Professor Emeritus in Communication and professor emeritus of women’s and gender studies

Now Accepting Applicants for the Masters in Media and Cinema Studies Program

The Media and Cinema Studies Program is still accepting applications for our MA program through the summer months, for students seeking to begin in September 2014 or January 2015.

For more information, and to apply, please visit:

Masters in Media and Cinema Studies