The MFA in Film and Television Studies program consists of a minimum of 64 credits.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN HERE
Our internationally recognized faculty have diverse research interests, which results in a dynamic curriculum that allows you to study film, television, and emerging media. Although our program has an emphasis on international cinema, we have two TV Studies professors, and we’re a home for Horror Studies. In our flexible program, you’ll learn to:
- Think creatively and critically about images, messages, institutions, and consumers
- Closely and coherently analyze written and audio-visual material
- Synthesize large amounts of dense material and present that information to a group
- Conduct original research using online databases
- Answer big-picture questions by selecting and analyzing pertinent case studies
- Construct cogent arguments and support those arguments with evidence
- Use historical and contemporary contexts to evaluate the state of film and television
- Make an original scholarly contribution to the field of Film and Television Studies
- Conduct a thorough analysis of media artifacts/institutions using a clear theoretical framework
- Craft long-form, independent research projects using primary and secondary sources
- Synthesize key media studies scholarship and apply it to specific case studies
- Prepare for a PhD program
- Gain experience as a teaching assistant
Four Semesters (Fall, Spring and Fall, Spring)
Core Requirements 16 credits (cr)
The curriculum contains four required courses in history and theory. These are to be taken in sequence within the first year of the course of study. The remainder of the program is composed of individual selections among a wide spectrum of specialized upper-division courses (500-level and above) taught within the Film and Television Studies program. In addition, a student may petition to take a maximum of two electives (8 credits) outside the program. This includes courses in production and/or screenwriting.
The curriculum also offers an opportunity to work on directed study projects with the faculty, as well as the option to pursue a wide variety of professional internships.
FALL SEMESTER
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMFT303) - As an omnipresent site of entertainment and information, "reality" and fantasy, "quality" and "trash," and commerce and the public interest, television requires an active, critical analysis of its texts, uses, and production of meaning. Students in this class will engage in such analysis, confronting television as a rich and contradictory site of entertainment, culture, politics, ideology, and signs. This discussion driven seminar sets aside evaluative considerations of TV in favor of theoretical and critical approaches that challenge widespread assumptions about the medium and expand our understanding of its role in our lives. These approaches, which constitute some of the dominant frameworks in Television Studies, include analyses of culture, industry, narrative, genre, images and sounds, liveness, and the television schedule. This course fulfills the additional TV Studies course requirement. Pre-req: FT303.
- Two Electives (8 cr)
SPRING SEMESTER
Undergraduate Prerequisites: Undergraduate pre-req: FT250 - An introduction to classical and contemporary film and media theory. Topics include montage theory, realism, structuralism, post-structuralism, semiotics, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and cultural studies. The course includes screenings of films that have contributed to critical debate and those that challenge theoretical presuppositions.
- Two Electives (8 cr)
FALL SEMESTER
- Three electives (12 cr)
- Fourth elective or COM FT 953 Internship* (4 cr)
SPRING SEMESTER
- Two Electives (8 cr)
- COM FT 852 Thesis Project (8 cr)
Below you’ll find a list of elective courses from a two-year cycle of the program:
Spring I Course Offerings
FT 536 FILM THEORY
FT 549 THE PROFANE
FT 554 TRUE CRIME
FT 554 THE MUSICAL
FT 554 RELIGION AND TV
FT 557 AMERICAN INDEPENDENT FILM 2
FT 570 UNCENSORED TV
FT 708 ASIAN CINEMA
FT 721 INTERNATIONAL MASTERWORKS
Fall I Course Offerings
FT 500 WRITING FILM AND TV CRITICISM
FT 520 TV THEORY AND CRITICISM
FT 554 BROADCASTING HORROR
FT 554 GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA
FT 554 INTERNATIONAL THRILLER
FT 558 AMERICAN INDEPENDENT FILM 3
FT 722 AMERICAN MASTERWORKS
Spring II Course Offerings
FT 530 BOLLYWOOD AND NOLLYWOOD
FT 534 CRITICAL TV INDUSTRY STUDIES
FT 541 TV GENRES AND FANDOM
FT 543 TV COMEDY
FT 546 NEW GERMAN CINEMA
FT 554 UK COSTUME DRAMA
FT 554 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FILM
FT 559 AMERICAN INDEPENDENT FILM 4
FT 567 FILM STYLES
FT 721 INTERNATIONAL MASTERWORKS
Fall II Course Offerings
FT 500 WRITING FILM AND TV CRITICISM
FT 520 TV THEORY AND CRITICISM
FT 536 FILM THEORY
FT 554 INTERNATIONAL GENRE FILM
FT 554 INTERNATIONAL FILM AND IDENTITY
FT 554 STREAMING TV
FT 554: TV AND THE HOME
FT 722 AMERICAN MASTERWORKS
FT 556 AMERICAN INDEPENDENT FILM 1
Some courses have prerequisites which are not listed above. All Film & Television requirements, prerequisites and course descriptions are listed on the Boston University Academics website.