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

SLN: 12898

Department Requirements Met:

Composition and W-courses

GE Requirements Met:

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

SLN: 12899

Department Requirements Met:

Composition and W-courses

GE Requirements Met:

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

SLN: 12901

Department Requirements Met:

Pre-req to Declare Cinema & Media Studies Major

GE Requirements Met:

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 271 A: Perspectives on Film: Great Directors

MW 12:30pm - 2:20pm

SLN: 23505

Department Requirements Met:

Pre-req to Declare Cinema & Media Studies Major

GE Requirements Met:

Introduction to authorship in the cinema. The work of a major director or directors.

CMS 295 A: Study Abroad

to be arranged

SLN: 12903

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

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

SLN: 23387

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Varied topics related to film and/or media. Offered: AWSpS.

CMS 301 A: Film and Media Studies: Analysis

MW 12:30pm - 2:20pm

SLN: 12904

Department Requirements Met:

Cinema & Media Studies Core

GE Requirements Met:

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 3:30pm - 5:20pm

SLN: 12905

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

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 303 A: Genre Studies

TTh 2:30pm - 4:20pm

SLN: 23510

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Introduction to the history and significance of genre in film and/or television. May examine one or a selection of several genres, drawn from a list including, but not limited to, the western, melodrama, musical, thriller, sitcom, film noir, and documentary. Topics include form, ideology, authority, history, innovation, and parody. Offered: AWSp.

CMS 310 A: History of Film: 1895-1929

MW 12:30pm - 2:20pm

SLN: 12907

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

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 12:30pm - 2:20pm

SLN: 12908

Department Requirements Met:

Cinema & Media Studies Core

GE Requirements Met:

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

SLN: 12909

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

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

SLN: 12910

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

CMS 320 C: Cinema and Nation

MW 10:30am - 12:20pm

SLN: 23582

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

CMS 321 A: Oppositional Cinema and Media

F 10:30am - 2:20pm

SLN: 12911

Department Requirements Met:

Cinema & Media Studies Core

GE Requirements Met:

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

SLN: 12912

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

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

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

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

SLN: 12915

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

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

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

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

SLN: 12919

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

SLN: 12920

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

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Research and writing project under the supervision of a faculty member. Offered: jointly with C LIT 590; AWSpS.

CMS 600 A: Independent Study or Research

to be arranged

SLN: 23856

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Offered: jointly with C LIT 600.

CMS 800 A: Doctoral Dissertation

to be arranged

SLN: 23602

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Offered: jointly with C LIT 800.