Courses - CMS Autumn 2025

Listings for future quarters are tentative and subject to change. For the most up-to-date information, please consult the UW Time Schedule. For a listing of all courses potentially offered, see the Course Catalog.

Autumn 2025

CMS 240 A: Writing in Cinema and Media Studies

  • MW 10:30am - 12:20pm / MGH 287
SLN: 12898
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
  • Composition and W-courses
GE Requirements Met:
  • C
A critical approach to film and/or media texts and a workshop on writing papers in English. Topics vary. Offered: AWSpS.

CMS 240 B: Writing in Cinema and Media Studies

  • TTh 10:30am - 12:20pm / JHN 022
SLN: 12899
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
  • Composition and W-courses
GE Requirements Met:
  • C
A critical approach to film and/or media texts and a workshop on writing papers in English. Topics vary. Offered: AWSpS.

CMS 240 C: Writing in Cinema and Media Studies

  • MW 12:30pm - 2:20pm / MGH 242
SLN: 12900
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
  • Composition and W-courses
GE Requirements Met:
  • C
A critical approach to film and/or media texts and a workshop on writing papers in English. Topics vary. Offered: AWSpS.

CMS 270 A: Perspectives on Film: Introduction

  • TTh 10:30am - 12:20pm / KNE 110
SLN: 12901
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
  • Pre-req to Declare Cinema & Media Studies Major
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Introduction to film form, style, and techniques. Examples from silent film and from contemporary film. Course equivalent to: BIS 261 and T FILM 201.

CMS 295 A: Study Abroad

  • to be arranged / * *
SLN: 12903
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Equivalency for 200-level CMS courses taken on UW Study Abroad programs or direct exchanges.

CMS 297 A: Special Topics in Cinema and Media Studies

  • TTh 10:30am - 12:20pm / ECE 105
SLN: 23387
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Varied topics related to film and/or media. Offered: AWSpS.

CMS 301 A: Film and Media Studies: Analysis

  • MW 12:30pm - 2:20pm / RAI 121
SLN: 12904
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
  • Cinema & Media Studies Core
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Introduction to the analysis of film. Covers major aspects of cinematic form: mise en scene, framing and camera movement, editing, and sound and color. Considers how these elements are organized in traditional cinematic narrative and in alternative approaches.

CMS 302 A: Media Arts and Cultures

  • TTh 12:30pm - 2:20pm / JHN 175
SLN: 12905
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Examines cultural expressions and aesthetic formations across media forms, with an emphasis on electronic and digital media. Media arts analyzed vary, including but not limited to comics, cell-phones, mash-ups, games, electronic literature, video installations, photography, and soundscapes. Topics vary.

CMS 304 A: Television Studies

  • TTh 2:30pm - 4:20pm / RAI 121
SLN: 12906
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Provides an overview of key issues in the study of television. Explores what television is, what television does, and how television shapes our fundamental assumptions about space, time, image, and sound.

CMS 310 A: History of Film: 1895-1929

  • MW 12:30pm - 2:20pm / ECE 037
SLN: 12907
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Film history from its beginnings in the 1890s through the golden era of silent film in the 1920s. Topics include the invention of major film techniques, the creation of Hollywood and the studios, and movements such as expressionism, constructivism, and surrealism.

CMS 313 A: History of Film: 1989-Present

  • TTh 3:30pm - 5:20pm / SIG 225
SLN: 12908
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
  • Cinema & Media Studies Core
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Addresses the latest trends in international filmmaking typically with an emphasis on world cinema and issues of globalization and diaspora. Sometimes taught in conjunction with the Seattle International Film Festival.

CMS 320 A: Cinema and Nation

  • TTh 2:30pm - 4:20pm / LOW 205
SLN: 12909
Instructor:
  • Claudio Mazzola
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Examines the cinema of a particular national, ethnic or cultural group, with films typically shown in the original language with subtitles. Topics reflect themes and trends in the national cinema being studied. Offered: AWSpS.

CMS 320 B: Cinema and Nation

  • TTh 8:30am - 10:20am / PCAR 293
SLN: 12910
Instructor:
  • Sasha Senderovich
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Examines the cinema of a particular national, ethnic or cultural group, with films typically shown in the original language with subtitles. Topics reflect themes and trends in the national cinema being studied. Offered: AWSpS.

CMS 321 A: Oppositional Cinema and Media

  • F 10:30am - 2:20pm / HRC 135
SLN: 12911
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
  • Cinema & Media Studies Core
GE Requirements Met:
  • DIV
  • A&H
Approaches film and related media as socially and politically engaged practice, with focus on screen media produced or received in "opposition" to dominant cultural and entertainment industry norms. Topics vary.

CMS 370 A: Basic Screenwriting

  • MW 10:30am - 12:20pm / MGH 254
SLN: 12912
Instructor:
  • Warren Etheredge
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Students develop collaborative critical and creative skills; studying screenwriting manuals and techniques; adapt stories for screenplays; and/or write synopses, treatments, and first acts of their own screenplays.

CMS 395 A: Study Abroad

  • to be arranged / * *
SLN: 12913
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Equivalency for 300-level CMS courses taken on UW Study Abroad programs or direct exchanges.

CMS 397 C: Special Topics in Cinema and Media Studies

  • MW 2:30pm - 4:20pm / CHL 105
SLN: 12915
Instructor:
  • Warren Etheredge
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • SSc
  • A&H
Varying topics relating to film in social contexts. Offered by resident or visiting faculty.

CMS 490 A: Directed Study or Research

  • to be arranged / * *
SLN: 12917
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Individual study of topics in cinema and media studies by arrangement with the instructor and the Comparative Literature, Cinema, and Media Department advising office.

CMS 491 A: Internship

  • to be arranged / * *
SLN: 12918
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Supervised experience in local businesses and other agencies. Open to upper-division cinema and media studies majors with approval of departmental internship supervisor.

CMS 525 A: Cinema and Media Studies Pedagogy

  • W 1:30pm - 4:50pm / MGH 097
SLN: 12919
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Pedagogical approaches to cinema and media studies. Introduces teaching tools, technologies and modes of practice. Offered: AWSp.

CMS 573 A: Aesthetics

  • T 2:30pm - 5:50pm / CHL 025
SLN: 12920
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Inquiry into such areas as the sensory perception, cultural valuation, or close analysis of cinema and media. Formal, theoretical, and philosophical approaches. Content varies. Offered: AWSp.

CMS 590 A: Master of Arts Essay

  • to be arranged / * *
SLN: 12921
Instructor:
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Research and writing project under the supervision of a faculty member. Offered: jointly with C LIT 590; AWSpS.