CONCENTRATIONS: Students are not required to have a concentration, but if they do, students can have only one. Concentrations do not involve additional requirements on top of the standard major requirements. Instead, each concentration requires that at least three (3) of the six (6) electives be focused on specialized courses from approved lists. For students who expect to graduate in May, the deadline for declaring a concentration is January 31 in the student’s final semester. If the student’s final semester is in the fall, and a January graduation is expected, the deadline for declaring a concentration the first Friday of the fall semester. Students should not submit the form for the concentration until coursework has been completed or is almost completed.
To declare, use the Registrar's DocuSign Declaration of Major Form and input the following information:
- Student (Your Name and Email)
- DMC (Julie Gronlund/jlg2r@virginia.edu)
- Intended Date of Graduation
- Intended Major/Minor: Concentration: [name of concentration]
- DO NOT check any of the boxes.
- Fill out the information on the courses you have taken to fulfill the concentration's requirements.
- Advisor's Name.
Declarations are due in accordance with deadlines set by the College of Arts & Sciences. We recommend declaring in your 4th year after you are enrolled in or completed the necessary courses to complete the concentration.
Media Policy and Ethics
This concentration requires the completion of three (3) courses focused on issues in media policy or media ethics. All courses must be at the 3000-level or above. Students may use courses from the pre-approved list here or may appeal the use of a course not listed. Any other courses, including cross-listed courses, which a student might wish to have count toward the concentration, must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Programs for the Media Studies Department.
MDST 3102 Copyright, Commerce & Culture
MDST 3104 Making (and Faking) the News
MDST 3106 History of U.S. Broadcasting
MDST 3108 Media Law
MDST 3120 Global Media & Cybersecurity
MDST 3140 Mass Media and American Politics
MDST 3402 War and the Media
MDST 3404 Democratic Politics in the New Media Environment
MDST 3410 Media Ethics
MDST 3503 Special Topics: Issues & Controversies in the Media
MDST 3504 Cinema of Türkiye
MDST 3504 International Communications
MDST 3504 Digital Media and the Environment
MDST 3510 Media Policy
MDST 3706 Media in China: Technology, Policy, and Commerce
MDST 3742 Athletes, Activism, and the Media
MDST 3750 Money, Media, and Technology
MDST 3751 Value, Values, Valuation
MDST 3811 History of American Broadcast News
MDST 4101 Privacy and Surveillance
MDST 4105 Media and Citizenship
MDST 4405 Internet Policy and Regulation
MDST 4411 Free Speech and the Media
MDST 4510 Political Economy of Communication (formerly MDST 4704)
PLAP 3140 Mass Media and American Politics
Film Concentration
Media Studies majors have the option of concentrating their upper-division study in the area of film by selecting one (1) Film Studies Core course; one (1) Practice of Film course and three (3) 3000-level or higher Film electives from the following list of pre-approved film studies courses. Any other film courses which a student might wish to have count toward the concentration must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Programs of Media Studies. Note: The course used for the Practice of Film requirement must be the same course used for the Practice of Media requirement for the major. No more than one Practice of Media/Film course may be used towards the major.
Film Studies Core Course Requirement
Students must complete one of the following approved core courses:
DRAM 3830 History of Film I
DRAM 3840 History of Film II
DRAM 3850 History of Film III
MDST 2200 Introduction to Film
MDST 3830 History of Film I
MDST 3840 History of Film II
MDST 3850 History of Film III
Practice of Film Requirement
Students must complete one Practice of Film requirement. This course will be used to simultaneously fulfill the Practice of Media requirement for the major. Only one of these courses may count towards the major and film concentration requirements.
ARCH 5420 Digital Animation and Storytelling
ARCH 5450 Digital Moviemaking and Animation
ARTS 2370 Introduction to Cinematography I
ARTS 2372 Introduction to Cinematography II
ARTS 3370 Intermediate Cinematography I
ARTS 3372 Intermediate Cinematography II
ARTS 4372 Advanced Cinematography II
DRAM 3651 Directing I
DRAM 3710 Playwriting I
DRAM 3720 Playwriting II
DRAM 4596 Special Topics in Directing
DRAM 4599 Special Topics in Playwriting
DRAM 4730 Advanced Playwriting
MDST 2508 Introduction to Filmmaking
MDST 2710 Screenwriting
MDST 2870 Writing Film Criticism
STS 2500 Science and Technology in Social and Global Context
Approved Courses towards the Film Concentration Electives
Students must dedicate three (3) of their MDST electives at the 3000-level or above to courses in which film is the main object of study. These may be chosen flexibly from offerings in Media Studies and the other UVa Departments that offer film courses. The following courses are pre-approved for this requirement. Additional courses can be approved by the DUP.
AMST 2500 Racial Borders and American Cinema
AMST 4410 Censorship
AMST 4472 Hollywood Cinema's Golden Age
AMST 4500 Stardom and American Cinema
AMST 4500 The Vietnam War: A Film
ASL 4810/ENG 3922 Deafness in Literature and Film
DRAM 3830 History of Film I
DRAM 3840 History of Film II
DRAM 3850 History of Film III
ENG 3922/ASL 4810 Deafness in Literature & Film
FREN 3584 Topics in French Cinema
FREN 4743 Africa in Cinema
FREN 5584 Topics in Cinema
FRTR 3584 Topics in French Cinema
GERM 5620 Studies in Drama
GETR 3471 Weimar Cinema
GETR 3566 Topics in Film - Weimar Cinema
GETR 3562 New German Cinema
GETR 3590 Staging Revolution: Aesthetics & Politics of 20c Film and Theater
HIEU 3604 Holocaust on Film
HIUS 3161 Viewing American, 1940-1980
HIUS 3173 The Vietnam War in American Film
HIUS 3559 Vietnam War in Literature and Film
ISHU 3300 Socrates at the Cinema
ITTR 3670 Contemporary Italian Cinema: From Canon to the Fringe
JPTR 3320 Cinematic Images of Japanese Culture and Society
JTTR 3559 Tokyo, Its Cinematic Landscape
ITTR 3775 Acting Italian: Benigni, Goldoni, Fo
KRTR 3390 Gender in Modern Korean Film and Literature
MESA 3111 Film Festivals & Global Media Cultures
MESA 3380 A Thousand and One Nights at the Cinema
MDST 3115 Breaking Bad: Once Upon a Time with the Pests
MDST 3205 New Latin American Cinema
MDST 3206 Documentary Film
MDST 3207 Experimental Ethnography
MDST 3306 Sexuality, Gender, Class and Race in Teen Film
MDST 3307 Animated Media
MDST 3402 War and the Media
MDST 3407 Racial Borders and American Cinema
MDST 3430 AI & Cinema
MDST 3501 Special Topics in Directors and Auteurs
MDST 3502 Special Topics in Film Genre
MDST 3504 Cinema & South Asian Politics
MDST 3504 Cinema of Türkiye
MDST 3504 Hollywood Goes to Asia
MDST 3504 Hong Kong Film
MDST 3504 Immigrant Narratives in Italian Cinema
MDST 3504 Italian Mafia in Film & TV
MDST 3504 Japanese Cinema
MDST 3504 Mexican Cinema
MDST 3504 Small Cinemas in Small Nations
MDST 3504 Sound and Cinema
MDST 3505 Gender, Society, Film
MDST 3510 Doing Film History
MDST 3510 True Crime and Social Justice
MDST 3559 Animated Media (fall 2022)
MDST 3559 Avenger, Victim, Outsider: Women in 1990s Cinema (fall 2021)
MDST 3559 Italian Film in World Cinema, 1945 - Today (fall 2021)
MDST 3559 Iranian Cinema (spring 2022)
MDST 3559 New Cinema History - Nontheatrical Films (spring 2023)
MDST 3559 Small Cinemas in Small Nations (spring 2022)
MDST 3559 Ukranian Cinema (spring 2023)
MDST 3584 ALL Topics
MDST 3630 Screening Terrorism
MDST 3640 American Gangster Films
MDST 3650 Shooting the Western
MDST 3830 History of Film I
MDST 3840 History of Film II
MDST 3850 History of Film III
MDST 3883 Superhero Media
MDST 4240 Contemporary Brazilian Cinema
MDST 4310 Celebrity Studies
MDST 4510 Internet Distributed TV in a Global Context
MDST 4510 Media and Modern Life in India
MDST 4510 Seeking Social Justice through Documentary Film
MDST 4510 Sex and Gender Go to the Movies
MDST 4660 Watching the Detectives
MDST 4670 White Out: Screening White Supremacy
MESA 3111 Film Festivals & Global Media Cultures/ ME/SA Spotlight
MESA 3381 Spies in Action: Cine-Media Worlds of Espionage
PAVS 4500 The Vietnam War: A Film
POTR 4260 Brazilian Media
POTR 4559 Global South: Brazilian Soccer in a Global Context
WGS 3210 Gender, Sport, and Film