Courses - CMS Spring 2025

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

Spring 2025

CMS 273 A: Perspectives on Television: Analysis

  • MW 1:30pm - 3:20pm
SLN: 12453
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Provides an introduction to television styles and aesthetics, with particular attention to camerawork, narrative, acting, and sound. Course overlaps with: TCOM 347.

CMS 274 A: Perspectives on Media: Critical Concepts

  • MW 10:30am - 12:20pm
SLN: 12454
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Provides an introduction to media studies, with particular attention to critical concepts including, but not limited to, audience studies, formal analysis, and ideological critique. Specific media analyzed varies. Course overlaps with: TCOM 247.

CMS 275 A: Perspectives on Visual Culture: Sex, Race and Power

  • WF 12:30pm - 2:20pm
SLN: 12455
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • DIV
  • SSc
  • A&H
An introduction to the study of visual texts such as film, television, comics, or digital media. Focus on the representation of cultural differences including, but not limited to, sexuality, gender, ability, and race. Topics vary.

CMS 295 A: Study Abroad

  • to be arranged
SLN: 12456
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Equivalency for 200-level CMS courses taken on UW Study Abroad programs or direct exchanges.

CMS 303 A: Genre Studies

  • TTh 3:30pm - 5:20pm
SLN: 21523
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
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 304 A: Television Studies

  • MW 10:30am - 12:20pm
SLN: 12457
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

  • TTh 10:30am - 12:20pm
SLN: 12458
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 311 A: History of Film: 1930-1959

  • TTh 1:30pm - 3:20pm
SLN: 12459
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Film history from the introduction of sound through the late 1950s. Focuses mostly on the golden age of the Hollywood studios and on alternative developments after World War II in Italy (Neo-Realism), France (the New Wave), and Japan.

CMS 313 A: History of Film: 1989-Present

  • TTh 12:30pm - 2:20pm
SLN: 12460
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 315 A: History of New Media

  • MW 1:30pm - 3:20pm
SLN: 12461
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Study of new media histories and methodologies for research, with particular emphasis on new and emergent technologies such as the Internet and other digital forms. Specific media to be analyzed vary.

CMS 320 B: Cinema and Nation

  • MW 3:30pm - 5:20pm
SLN: 21377
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 C: Cinema and Nation

  • MW 10:30am - 12:20pm
SLN: 21469
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 D: Cinema and Nation

  • TTh 12:30pm - 2:20pm
SLN: 21501
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 370 A: Basic Screenwriting

  • MW 2:30pm - 4:20pm
SLN: 12463
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: 12464
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 A: Special Topics in Cinema and Media Studies

  • MW 2:30pm - 4:20pm
SLN: 12465
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • SSc
  • A&H
Varying topics relating to film in social contexts. Offered by resident or visiting faculty.

CMS 397 B: Special Topics in Cinema and Media Studies

  • MW 10:30am - 12:20pm
SLN: 12466
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
  • SSc
  • A&H
Varying topics relating to film in social contexts. Offered by resident or visiting faculty.

CMS 480 A: Senior Capstone

  • TTh 9:30am - 11:20am
SLN: 12468
Department Requirements Met:
  • Capstone for Cinema
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Capstone course in cinema and media studies. Includes research, creative, and/or reflective project. Topics vary. Prerequisite: CMS 301.

CMS 480 B: Senior Capstone

  • MW 12:30pm - 2:20pm
SLN: 12469
Department Requirements Met:
  • Capstone for Cinema
GE Requirements Met:
  • A&H
Capstone course in cinema and media studies. Includes research, creative, and/or reflective project. Topics vary. Prerequisite: CMS 301.

CMS 490 A: Directed Study or Research

  • to be arranged
SLN: 12470
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: 12471
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 570 A: Media Lab

  • M 3:30pm - 6:50pm
SLN: 12472
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Practical approaches to cinema and media studies. May include archival research, production of videographic or audiographic criticism, film programming, public scholarship, or hands-on work with media devices and technologies. Offered: AWSp.

CMS 573 A: Aesthetics

  • W 3:30pm - 6:50pm
SLN: 12473
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: 12474
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 597 A: Special Topics in Cinema and Media Studies

  • W 2:30pm - 5:20pm
SLN: 12475
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Varying topics in cinema and media studies. Offered by resident or visiting faculty.

CMS 597 B: Special Topics in Cinema and Media Studies

  • T 2:30pm - 5:20pm
SLN: 21525
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Varying topics in cinema and media studies. Offered by resident or visiting faculty.

CMS 599 A: Special Seminar or Conference

  • to be arranged
SLN: 12476
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Group seminars or individual conferences scheduled to meet special needs. Prerequisite: permission of graduate program adviser. Offered: jointly with C LIT 599.

CMS 599 B: Special Seminar or Conference

  • to be arranged
SLN: 12477
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Group seminars or individual conferences scheduled to meet special needs. Prerequisite: permission of graduate program adviser. Offered: jointly with C LIT 599.

CMS 600 A: Independent Study or Research

  • to be arranged
SLN: 12478
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Offered: jointly with C LIT 600.

CMS 600 B: Independent Study or Research

  • to be arranged
SLN: 12479
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Offered: jointly with C LIT 600.

CMS 800 A: Doctoral Dissertation

  • to be arranged
SLN: 12480
Department Requirements Met:
GE Requirements Met:
Offered: jointly with C LIT 800.