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CMS.616[J] | Games and Culture | Examines the social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of digital games. Topics include the culture of gameplay, gaming styles, communities, spectatorship and performance, gender and race within digital gaming, and the politics and economics of production processes, including co-creation and intellectual property. Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21W.768[J], WGS.125[J] | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.618[J] | Interactive Narrative | Provides a workshop environment for understanding interactive narrative (print and digital) through critical writing, narrative theory, and creative practice. Covers important multisequential books, hypertexts, and interactive fictions. Students write critically, and give presentations, about specific works; write a short multisequential fiction; and develop a digital narrative system, which involves significant writing and either programming or the structuring of text. Programming ability helpful. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21L.489[J], 21W.765[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.619[J] | Gender and Media Studies | Examines representations of race, gender, and sexual identity in the media. Considers issues of authorship, spectatorship, and the ways in which various media (film, television, print journalism, advertising) enable, facilitate, and challenge these social constructions in society. Studies the impact of new media and digital media through analysis of gendered and racialized language and embodiment online in blogs and vlogs, avatars, and in the construction of cyberidentities. Provides introduction to feminist approaches to media studies by drawing from work in feminist film theory, cultural studies, gender and politics, and cyberfeminism. | false | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | WGS.111[J] | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.621 | Fans and Fan Cultures | Examines media audiences - specifically, fans - and the subcultures that evolve around them. Examines the different historical, contemporary and transnational understandings of fans. Explores products of fan culture, i.e., clubs, fiction, "vids," activism, etc. Readings place these products within the context of various disciplines. Students consider the concept of the "aca-fan" and reflect on their own "fannish" practices. Requires several short papers. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.627 | Imagination, Computation, and Expression Studio | Aims to help students invent and analyze new forms of computer-based art, gaming, social media, interactive narrative, and related technologies. Students participate in a range of new and ongoing projects that are designed to hone skills in research, development, design, and evaluation. Topics vary from year to year; examples include cognitive science and artificial intelligence-based approaches to the arts; social aspects of game design; computing for social empowerment; and game character, avatar, and online profile design. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.628[J] | Advanced Identity Representation | Studies and develops computational identity systems for games, social media, virtual worlds, and computer-based artwork. An interdisciplinary set of readings (cognitive science, computer science, art, and sociology) looks at both the underlying technology and the social/cultural aspects of identity. Includes topics such as developing improved characters, avatars, agents, social networking profiles, and online accounts. Engages students in on-going research projects. Explores how social categories are formed in digital media, including gender, class, and ethnicity, along with everyday social categories (such as those based on personality or shared media preferences). Experience required in one of the following: computer programming, graphic design, web development, interaction design, or social science research methods. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | WGS.167[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.631 | Data Storytelling Studio | Explores visualization methodologies to conceive and represent systems and data, e.g., financial, media, economic, political, etc. Covers basic methods for research, cleaning, and analysis of datasets. Introduces creative methods of data presentation and storytelling. Considers the emotional, aesthetic, ethical, and practical effects of different presentation methods as well as how to develop metrics for assessing impact. Work centers on readings, visualization exercises, and a final project. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.633 | Digital Humanities: Topics, Techniques, and Technologies | Examines theory and practice of using computational methods in the emerging field of digital humanities. Develops a critical understanding of key digital humanities concepts such as data representation, digital curation, information visualization, and user interaction through the study of contemporary research in conjunction with working on real-world projects for scholarly, educational, and public needs. Students create prototypes, write design papers, and conduct user studies. Some programming and design experience is helpful but not required. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.634 | Designing Interactions | Explores the future of mobile interactions and pervasive computing, taking into consideration design, technological, social and business aspects. Discusses theoretical works on human-computer interaction, mobile media and interaction design, and covers research and design methods. Students work in multidisciplinary teams and participate in user-centric design projects aimed to study, imagine and prototype concepts illustrating the future of mobile applications and ubiquitous computing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Repeatable for credit with permission of instructor. Limited to 12. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-3-6 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Elective | False |
CMS.635 | Designing Active Archives | Investigates the digital archive as an emerging platform for critical inquiry and creative engagement through analysis, conceptualization, and experimentation with user-oriented design. Readings provide theoretical, analytical, and practical perspectives on topics such as participatory digital culture, data curation, visualization, and the archive's role in activism. Students work throughout the term to develop a group project. Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.636 | Extending the Museum | Investigates the museum as a participatory public space and rethinks visitor engagement and museum education in light of digital technologies, including extended reality (XR) technologies. Students develop concepts, models, and prototypes that integrate physical and digital spaces in novel ways in close collaboration with partners at local museums. Readings provide theoretical, critical, and analytical foundations for collaborative class projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.701 | Current Debates in Media | Addresses important, current debates in media with in-depth discussion of popular perceptions and policy implications. Students use multiple perspectives to analyze texts emanating from these debates, and present their findings through discussions and reports. Explores emerging topics (e.g., piracy and IP regimes, net neutrality, media effects, social media and social change, and changing literacies) across media forms and from various historical, transcultural, and methodological perspectives. Examines the framing of these issues, their ethical and policy implications, and strategies for repositioning the debate. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | CMS.100 | null | false | false | false | False | Humanities | False |
CMS.702 | Qualitative Research Methods | Focuses on a number of qualitative social science methods including interviewing, participant observation, focus groups, cultural probes, and visual sociology. Primary emphasis on understanding and learning concrete techniques that can be evaluated and utilized in any given project. Data organization and analysis will be addressed. Several advanced critical thematics are also covered, including ethics, reciprocity, "studying up," and risk. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | Social Sciences | False |
CMS.S60[J] | Special Subject: Rap Theory and Practice | To gain a deeper understanding of rap, students engage in the full process of creating rap music, including composing lyrics, recording, performing, and creating an EP length album. Existing rap music is studied, selected lyrics are analyzed, and possible reasons for the structure and success of different songs are presented in case studies. Students analyze rap songs, reflect on their own weekly activities in writing and present their work in class by playing recordings, performing and responding to each other in workshop discussions. Licensed for Fall 2024 by the Committee on Curricula. Limited to 10. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 3-0-9 | null | 21L.S60[J] | false | false | false | False | Arts | False |
CMS.S61 | Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies | Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular curriculum. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.S62 | Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies | Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular curriculum. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.S63 | Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies | Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular curriculum. | true | Spring | Undergraduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.THT | Comparative Media Studies Pre-Thesis Tutorial | Student works with an advisor to define his/her thesis. By the end of the term, student must have a substantial outline and bibilography for thesis and must have selected a three-person thesis committee. Advisor must approve outline and bibliography. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | 1-0-5 | Permission of advisor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.THU | Undergraduate Thesis in Comparative Media Studies | The CMS Undergraduate Thesis is a substantial research project or comparable exercise. A written thesis ranges in length from 35 to 50 pages. Digital projects are assessed on the quality of research and argumentation, as well as presentation, and must include a substantial written component. Student gives an oral presentation of his/her thesis at the end of the term. Thesis is not required for CMS majors. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | rranged | CMS.THT | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.UR | Research in Comparative Media Studies | Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | rranged [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.URG | Research in Comparative Media Studies | Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Undergraduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.790 | Media Theories and Methods I | An advanced introduction to core theoretical and methodological issues in comparative media studies. Topics covered typically include the nature of theory, the gathering and evaluation of evidence, the relationship of media to reality, formal approaches to media analysis, the ethnographic documentation of media audiences, cultural hierarchy and taste, modes of production, models of readership and spectatorship. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-3-6 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.791 | Media Theories and Methods II | An advanced introduction to core theoretical and methodological issues in comparative media studies. Topics covered typically include globalization, propaganda and persuasion, social and political effects of media change, political economy and the institutional analysis of media ownership, online communities, privacy and intellectual property, and the role of news and information within democratic cultures. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-3-6 | CMS.790 | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.796 | Major Media Texts | Intensive close study and analysis of historically significant media "texts" that have been considered landmarks or have sustained extensive critical and scholarly discussion. Such texts may include oral epic, story cycles, plays, novels, films, opera, television drama and digital works. Emphasizes close reading from a variety of contextual and aesthetic perspectives. Syllabus varies each year, and may be organized around works that have launched new modes and genres, works that reflect upon their own media practices, or on stories that migrate from one medium to another. At least one of the assigned texts is collaboratively taught, and visiting lectures and discussions are a regular feature of the subject. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-3-6 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.801 | Media in Transition | Centers on historical eras in which the form and function of media technologies were radically transformed. Includes consideration of the "Gutenberg Revolution," the rise of modern mass media, and the "digital revolution," among other case studies of media transformation and cultural change. Readings in cultural and social history and historiographic method. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.802 | Qualitative Research Methods | Focuses on a number of qualitative social science methods including interviewing, participant observation, focus groups, cultural probes, and visual sociology. Primary emphasis on understanding and learning concrete techniques that can be evaluated and utilized in any given project. Data organization and analysis will be addressed. Several advanced critical thematics are also covered, including ethics, reciprocity, "studying up," and risk. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.803 | DJ History, Technique, and Technology | Students explore a chosen contemporary or historical dance scene from around the world. Lectures examine the evolution of the craft and technologies of the DJ. Presents foundational practices of live DJ mixing; practice equipment is accessible to teams of students. Assignments include writing a report analyzing a book on DJ history or technique, producing a complete mix, and participation in an end-of-term performance. No prior experience is necessary, but students must sustain interest in some form of popular dance music, broadly defined. Graduate students complete additional assignments. Limited to 24. | true | Fall, Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.806 | Making Comics and Sequential Art | Applied introduction to comics and sequential art production. Builds skills in how to develop storylines; develop and draw characters, panels, and backgrounds; prepare for print production; and comprehend the basics of sequential language, composition, and layout. Students engage with crucial personal and political issues at stake across a range of comics genres: superhero, biographical, and countercultural. Addresses not just how we create comics, but why we create comics. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 16. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.807 | Critical Worldbuilding | Studies the design and analysis of invented (or constructed) worlds for narrative media, such as television, films, comics, and literary texts. Provides the practical, historical and critical tools with which to understand the function and structure of imagined worlds. Examines world-building strategies in the various media and genres in order to develop a critical and creative repertoire. Participants create their own invented worlds. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 13. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-3-6 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.809 | Transmedia Storytelling: Modern Science Fiction | Explores transmedia storytelling by investigating how science fiction stories are told across different media, such as the short story, the novel, the screenplay, moving image, and games. Students consider issues of aesthetics, authorship, and genre, while also contextualizing discussion within the broader framework of the political issues raised by film, TV, and other kinds of science fiction texts. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-2-7 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.813 | Silent Film | Examines how the key elements of today's films - composition, continuity editing, lighting, narrative structure - were originally created. Studies the history of cinema, from its origins in the late 19th century to the transition to sound in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Students view a range of films (both mainstream and experimental) from all over the world, with a particular focus on US productions. Emphasis on how color, sound, and other developments paved the way for today's technological innovations. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-3-6 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.814 | Phantasmal Media: Computer-Based Art Theory and Practice | Engages students in theory and practice of using computational techniques for developing expressive digital media works. Surveys approaches to understanding human imaginative processes, such as constructing concepts, metaphors, and narratives, and applies them to producing and understanding socially, culturally, and critically meaningful works in digital media. Readings engage a variety of theoretical perspectives from cognitive linguistics, literary and cultural theory, semiotics, digital media arts, and computer science. Students produce interactive narratives, games, and related forms of software art. Some programming and/or interactive web scripting experience (e.g., Flash, Javascript) is desirable. Students taking the graduate version complete a project requiring more in-depth theoretical engagement. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.815 | Games for Social Change | Students will collaborate in teams to design and prototype games for social change and civic engagement. Run as a workshop in which student teams develop their games and showcase them at a semester-end open house. Features guest speakers from academia and industry as well as the non-profit sector and the gaming community. Readings will explore principals of game design, and the social history of games. Graduate students will complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.821 | Fans and Fan Cultures | Examines media audiences - specifically, fans - and the subcultures that evolve around them. Examines the different historical, contemporary and transnational understandings of fans. Explores products of fan culture, i.e., clubs, fiction, "vids," activism, etc. Readings place these products within the context of various disciplines. Students consider the concept of the "aca-fan" and reflect on their own "fannish" practices. Requires several short papers. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.827 | Imagination, Computation, and Expression Studio | Aims to help students invent and analyze new forms of computer-based art, gaming, social media, interactive narrative, and related technologies. Students participate in a range of new and ongoing projects that are designed to hone skills in research, development, design, and evaluation. Topics vary from year to year; examples include cognitive science and artificial intelligence-based approaches to the arts; social aspects of game design; computing for social empowerment; and game character, avatar, and online profile design. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | false | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.828 | Advanced Identity Representation | Studies and develops computational identity systems for games, social media, virtual worlds, and computer-based artwork. An interdisciplinary set of readings (cognitive science, computer science, art, and sociology) looks at both the underlying technology and the social/cultural aspects of identity. Includes topics such as developing improved characters, avatars, agents, social networking profiles, and online accounts. Engages students in on-going research projects. Explores how social categories are formed in digital media, including gender, class, and ethnicity, along with everyday social categories (such as those based on personality or shared media preferences). Experience required in one of the following: computer programming, graphic design, web development, interaction design, or social science research methods. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.830 | Studies in Film | Intensive study of films from particular periods, genres, or directors, or films focusing on specific formal or theoretical problems. Previous topics include The Contemporary Horror Film, Film Remixes, Film Narrative, Heroic Cinema, and Color in Film. Students taking graduate version complete different assignments. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor if content differs. Limited to 12. | true | Fall, Spring | Graduate | 3-3-6 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.831 | Data Storytelling Studio | Explores visualization methodologies to conceive and represent systems and data, e.g., financial, media, economic, political, etc. Covers basic methods for research, cleaning, and analysis of datasets. Introduces creative methods of data presentation and storytelling. Considers the emotional, aesthetic, ethical, and practical effects of different presentation methods as well as how to develop metrics for assessing impact. Work centers on readings, visualization exercises, and a final project. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.833 | Digital Humanities: Topics, Techniques, and Technologies | Examines theory and practice of using computational methods in the emerging field of digital humanities. Develops an understanding of key digital humanities concepts such as data representation, digital archives, information visualization, and user interaction through the study of contemporary research in conjunction with working on real-world projects for scholarly, educational, and public needs. Students create prototypes, write design papers, and conduct user studies. Some programming and design experience is helpful but not required. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.834 | Designing Interactions | Explores the future of mobile interactions and pervasive computing, taking into consideration design, technological, social and business aspects. Discusses theoretical works on human-computer interaction, mobile media and interaction design, and covers research and design methods. Students work in multidisciplinary teams and participate in user-centric design projects aimed to study, imagine and prototype concepts illustrating the future of mobile applications and ubiquitous computing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Repeatable for credit with permission of instructor. Limited to 12. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-3-6 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.835 | Desiging Active Archives | Investigates the digital archive as an emerging platform for critical inquiry and creative engagement through analysis, conceptualization, and experimentation with user-oriented design. Readings provide theoretical, analytical, and practical perspectives on topics such as participatory digital culture, data curation, visualization, and the archive's role in activism. Students work throughout the term to develop a group project. Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.836 | Social Justice and The Documentary Film | Explores the history and current state of social-issue documentary. Examines how cultural and political upheaval and technological change have converged at different moments to bring about new waves of activist documentary film production. Particular focus on films and other non-fiction media of the present and recent past. Students screen and analyze a series of key films and work in groups to produce their own short documentary using digital video and computer-based editing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.837 | Film, Music, and Social Change: Intersections of Media and Society | Examines films from the 1950s onward that document music subcultures and moments of social upheaval. Combines screening films about free jazz, glam rock, punk, reggae, hip-hop, and other genres with an examination of critical/scholarly writings to illuminate the connections between film, popular music, and processes of social change. Students critique each film in terms of the social, political, and cultural world it documents, and the historical context and effects of the film's reception. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.838 | Innovation in Documentary: Technologies and Techniques | Discusses emerging technologies and techniques available to media-makers (e.g., location-based technologies, transmedia storytelling, crowdsourcing, and interactivity) and their implications on the film and television documentary. Studies the development of these tools and considers the many new directions in which they may take the genre. Includes screenings, meetings with documentary makers, and an experimental component in which students can explore new approaches to documentary production. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | CMS.100 or permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.839 | Virtual Reality and Immersive Media Production | Provides an overview of historical developments and current innovations in virtual reality (e.g., gear, software, and storytelling techniques) and looks into new trends in augmented, mixed and holographic reality. Includes practical instruction and a step-by-step exploration of the fundamentals of virtual reality creation - from new visual languages and grammars, to storyboarding, scripting, sound design and editing, to new and innovative ways to capture, scan and reproduce 360-degree images. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.840 | Literature and Film | Investigates relationships between the two media, including film adaptations as well as works linked by genre, topic, and style. Explores how artworks challenge and cross cultural, political, and aesthetic boundaries. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-3-6 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.841 | Game Studies | Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of videogames as texts through an examination of their cultural, educational, and social functions in contemporary settings. Students play and analyze videogames while reading current research and theory from a variety of sources in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and industry. Assignments focus on game analysis in the context of the theories discussed in class. Includes regular reading, writing, and presentation exercises. No prior programming experience required. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-3-6 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.844 | Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities | Introduces programming through "free projects" in which students choose (or discover) the direction of their project through exploration. Covers the fundamentals of programming and how to develop a programming practice. Students complete analytical and generative projects, using different media. Examines how to think with computation, how computation and media interact, and how computation can be understood as a part of culture. No background in programming required. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-1-8 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.845 | Interactive Narrative | Provides a workshop environment for understanding interactive narrative (print and digital) through critical writing, narrative theory, and creative practice. Covers important multisequential books, hypertexts, and interactive fictions. Students write critically, and give presentations, about specific works; write a short multisequential fiction; and develop a digital narrative system, which involves significant writing and either programming or the structuring of text. Programming ability helpful. Graduate students complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.846 | Computational and Experimental Writing Workshop | Students study and use innovative compositional techniques, focusing on new writing methods. Using approaches ranging from poetics to computer science, students undertake critical and creative writing, with writing experiments culminating in print or digital projects. Students read, listen to, and create different types of work, including sound poetry, cut-ups, constrained and Oulipian writing, uncreative writing, false translations, artists' books, and digital projects ranging from video games to computer-generated books. Digital art and literature, analyzed and discussed in the contexts of history, culture, and computing platforms are covered, as well as avant-garde writing methods, situated in their historical contexts. Topics vary by year; may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 18. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.848 | Apocalyptic Storytelling | Focuses on the critical making of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories across various narrative media. Considers the long history of Western apocalypticism as well as the uses and abuses of apocalypticism across time. Examines a wide variety of influential texts in order to enhance students' creative and theoretical repertoires. Students create their own apocalyptic stories and present on selected texts. Investigates conventions such as plague, zombies, nuclear destruction, robot uprising, alien invasion, environmental collapse, and supernatural calamities. Considers questions of race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, trauma, memory, witness, and genocide. Intended for students with prior creative writing experience. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.855 | Extending the Museum | Investigates the museum as a participatory public space and rethinks visitor engagement and museum education in light of digital technologies, including extended reality (XR) technologies. Students develop concepts, models, and prototypes that integrate physical and digital spaces in novel ways in close collaboration with partners at local museums. Readings provide theoretical, critical, and analytical foundations for collaborative class projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.860 | Introduction to Civic Media | Examines civic media in comparative, transnational and historical perspective. Introduces various theoretical tools, research approaches, and project design methods. Students engage with multimedia texts on concepts such as citizen journalism, transmedia activism, media justice, and civic, public, radical, and tactical media. Case studies explore civic media across platforms (print, radio, broadcast, internet), contexts (from local to global, present-day to historical), and use (dialogic, contentious, hacktivist). As a final project, students develop a case study or project proposal. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to20. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.861 | Networked Social Movements: Media and Mobilization | Provides an overview of social movement studies as a body of theoretical and empirical work, with an emphasis on understanding the relationship between social movements and the media. Explores multiple methods of social movement investigation, including textual and media analysis, surveys, interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and co-research. Covers recent innovations in social movement theory, as well as new data sources and tools for research and analysis. Includes short papers, a literature review, and a final research project. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 16. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.862 | Civic Media Collaborative Design Studio | Project-based studio focusing on collaborative design of civic media provides a service-learning opportunity for students interested in working with community organizations. Multidisciplinary teams create civic media projects based on real-world community needs. Covers co-design methods and best practices to include the user community in iterative stages of project ideation, design, implementation, testing, and evaluation. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 16. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | One subject in CMS or MAS | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.863[J] | Design and Development of Games for Learning | Immerses students in the process of building and testing their own digital and board games in order to better understand how we learn from games. Explores the design and use of games in the classroom in addition to research and development issues associated with computer-based (desktop and handheld) and non-computer-based media. In developing their own games, students examine what and how people learn from them (including field testing of products), as well as how games can be implemented in educational settings. All levels of computer experience welcome. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-6-3 | null | 11.252[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.864 | Game Design | Practical instruction in the design and analysis of non-digital games. Provides students the texts, tools, references, and historical context to analyze and compare game designs across a variety of genres. In teams, students design, develop, and thoroughly test their original games to better understand the interaction and evolution of game rules. Covers various genres and types of games, including sports, game shows, games of chance, card games, schoolyard games, board games, and role-playing games. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-3-6 | One subject in Comparative Media Studies or permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.865 | Immersive Media Studies | Critical examination of the history, aesthetics, and politics of virtual reality and related media. Focuses on virtual space and embodiment; cultural reception and industry hype; accessibility, surveillance, and data privacy; and debates surrounding the use of immersive media in social, work, art, and entertainment contexts. Projects include experimentation with VR development tools and critical analysis of existing immersive works. Graduate version includes additional research. Enrollment limited to 15. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.868 | Games and Culture | Examines the social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of digital games. Topics include the culture of gameplay, gaming styles, communities, spectatorship and performance, gender and race within digital gaming, and the politics and economics of production processes, including co-creation and intellectual property. Students taking graduate version complete additional readings and assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.871 | Media in Cultural Context | Seminar uses case studies to examine specific media or media configurations and the larger social, cultural, economic, political, or technological contexts within which they operate. Organized around recurring themes in media history, as well as specific genres, movements, media, or historical moments. Previously taught topics include Gendered Genres: Horror and Maternal Melodramas; Comics, Cartoons, and Graphic Storytelling; and Exploring Children's Culture. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Approved for credit in Women's and Gender Studies when content meets the requirements for subjects in that program. Limited to 12. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.875 | Reading Climate Through Media | Explores how climate is construed in the contemporary media in order to gain a better understanding of how views of climate change are shaped and received in the public sphere. Studies the pathways that take us from climate science to media content, from the big data of global scale to the particulars and narratives of the human experience. Surveys a variety of media forms--reports, articles, comics, videos, films, photography, poetry and fiction--that reflect on the contemporary human challenges of dealing with a changing natural environment of our own making. Emphasizes the role of media in shaping public opinion, both in the US and globally, and its influence on public (and voter) perceptions on which a vast body of regulation and funding for environmental management is based. Students work individually and in teams to produce a selection of the media forms studied. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.876 | History of Media and Technology | Surveys the interrelated histories of communications media and technological development, from the emergence of 19th-century forms of mass print media and telegraphy, to sound capture and image-based forms (e.g., film, radio, and television), to the shift from analog to digital cultures. Examines how new forms of communication exert social, political, and cultural influences in the global context. Explores how technological innovation and accelerating media affect social values and behaviors in the popular and global adoption of a media device. Includes two papers and a research project on aspects of media history. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.877 | Transmedia Art, Extraction, and Environmental Justice | Exploration of today's extractive economies and the role that artists, media-makers, and transmedia producers play in shaping public perception, individual choices, and movement-building towards sustainability. Traces the contingent geological, material, community, and toxic histories of extracted materials used throughout our built environment, as well as civic resistance and reform that could alter extraction practices. Scaffolded workshops with artists and media producers support students' production of creative documentary and other media projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 2-3-7 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.888 | Advertising and Media: Comparative Perspectives | Compares modern and contemporary advertising culture in China, the US, and other emerging markets. First half focuses on branding in the old media environment; second half introduces the changing practice of advertising in the new media environment. Topics include branding and positioning, media planning, social media campaigns, cause marketing 2.0, social TV, and mobility marketing. Required lab work includes interactive sessions in branding a team product for the US (or a European country) and China markets. Taught in English and requires no knowledge of Chinese. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.894 | Education Technology Studio | Uses media and technology to develop new forms of learning experiences for schools, workplace, and informal settings. Students participate in a range of projects that hone understanding and skills in learning science, instructional design, development, and evaluation. Topics vary but include developing new media and activities for massive open online courses, creating practice spaces for practitioners in the professions and humanities, and developing new approaches to assessment in complex learning environments. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor if project content differs. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.895 | Learning, Media, and Technology | Addresses new digital technologies that are transforming learning across the lifespan - from reading apps for toddlers, intelligent tutors for school children, and blended learning for college students, to MOOCs for adults and interest-based learning communities for hobbyists. Focuses on how these technologies shape people's lives and learning. Students explore how education technologies operate in complex social-technical systems, and acquire analytic tools and strategies that can be applied to other complex systems. They also refine their thinking about the opportunities, limits, and tradeoffs of educational technology. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.901 | Current Debates in Media | Addresses important, current debates in media with in-depth discussion of popular perceptions and policy implications. Students use multiple perspectives to analyze texts emanating from these debates, and present their findings through discussions and reports. Explores emerging topics (e.g., piracy and IP regimes, net neutrality, media effects, social media and social change, and changing literacies) across media forms and from various historical, transcultural, and methodological perspectives. Examines the framing of these issues, their ethical and policy implications, and strategies for repositioning the debate. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall, Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.915 | Understanding Television | A cultural approach to television's evolution as a technology and system of representation. Considers television as a system of storytelling and mythmaking, and as a cultural practice studied from anthropological, literary, and cinematic perspectives. Focuses on prime-time commercial broadcasting, the medium's technological and economic history, and theoretical perspectives. Considerable television viewing and readings in media theory and cultural interpretation are required. Previously taught topics include American Television: A Cultural History. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.920 | Popular Culture and Narrative | Examines relationships between popular culture and art, focusing on problems of evaluation and audience, and the uses of different media within a broader social context. Typically treats a range of narrative and dramatic works as well as films. Previously taught topics include Elements of Style; Gender, Sexuality and Popular Narrative. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Approved for credit in Women's and Gender Studies when content meets the requirements for subjects in that program. May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.925 | Film Music | Provides a conceptual foundation and methodology for the study of music created for various types of (mainly) narrative films, from the medium's origins in the early twentieth century to the present. Close attention to select influential scores by composers active in Hollywood from the 1940s to the 1990s (e.g., Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Quincy Jones, John Williams, Philip Glass). Those works are juxtaposed with landmarks of alternative film and musical styles from other countries and centers of production. Subsidiary topics include the history and challenges of live musical accompaniment to silent films, and the evolution of recording and sound-editing technologies from the studio era to the global present. Students taking the graduate version complete different assignments. Some background in the study of film and/or music is desirable, but not a prerequisite. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.941 | Immersive Social Worlds | Focuses on critical media sociology of immersive social worlds, from digital environments and avatar-based worlds to live action role-play (LARP) and theme parks. Draws on both historical and contemporary cases. Investigates key issues including communication and community; authorship and co-creativity; embodiment and identity; and ownership, governance, and management. Attention given to cultural and socio-technical nature of these environments and their ongoing construction within a broader media system. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.942[J] | Designing Virtual Worlds | Three primary areas of focus are: creating new Virtual Reality experiences; mapping the state of emerging tools; and hosting guests - leaders in the VR/XR community, who serve as coaches for projects. Students have significant leeway to customize their own learning environment. As the field is rapidly evolving, each semester focuses on a new aspect of virtual worlds, based on the current state of innovations. Students work in teams of interdisciplinary peers from Berklee College of Music and Harvard University. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall | Graduate | 4-2-6 [P/D/F] | null | 2.178[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.950 | Workshop I | Provides an opportunity for direct project development experience and emphasizes intellectual growth as well as the acquisition of technical skills. Students attend regular meetings to present and critique their work and discuss its implications. | true | Fall | Graduate | 4-2-6 | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.990 | Colloquium in Comparative Media | Exposes students to the perspectives of scholars, activists, mediamakers, policymakers, and industry leaders on cutting edge issues in media. Registered CMS graduate students only. | true | Fall, Spring | Graduate | 2-0-1 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.992 | Portfolio in Comparative Media | Students work individually with an advisor to produce a portfolio project which combines technical skills and a substantial intellectual component. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged | CMS.950 or permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.993 | Teaching in Comparative Media | For qualified graduate students interested in teaching. Offers experience in classroom and/or tutorial teaching under the supervision of a Comparative Media Studies faculty member. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring | Graduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.994 | Independent Study | Opportunity for individual research in comparative media studies. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by a faculty member. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged [P/D/F] | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.995 | Independent Study | Opportunity for individual research in comparative media studies. Registration subject to prior arrangement for subject matter and supervision by a faculty member. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.S96 | Special Subject: Rap Theory and Practice | To gain a deeper understanding of rap, students engage in the full process of creating rap music, including composing lyrics, recording, performing and creating an EP length album. Existing rap music is studied, selected lyrics are analyzed and possible reasons for the structure and success of different songs are presented in case studies. Students analyze rap songs, reflect on their own weekly activities in writing and present their work in class by playing recordings, performing and responding to each other in workshop discussions. Licensed for Fall 2024 by the Committee on Graduate Programs. Limited to 10. | true | Spring | Graduate | 3-0-9 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.S97 | Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies | Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular curriculum. | true | Spring | Graduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.S98 | Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies | Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular curriculum. | true | Spring | Graduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.S99 | Special Subject: Comparative Media Studies | Seminar or lecture on a topic that is not covered in the regular curriculum. | true | Spring | Graduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CMS.THG | Master's Thesis | Completion of a graduate thesis, to be arranged with a faculty member, who becomes the thesis advisor. Required of all CMS students. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged | Permission of advisor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSB.100[J] | Topics in Computational and Systems Biology | Seminar based on research literature. Papers covered are selected to illustrate important problems and varied approaches in the field of computational and systems biology, and to provide students a framework from which to evaluate new developments. Preference to first-year CSB PhD students. | true | Fall | Graduate | 2-0-10 | Permission of instructor | 7.89[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSB.110 | Research Rotations in Computational and Systems Biology | Students carry out research rotations with MIT faculty members or principal investigators working in the field of computational and systems biology. Generally three one-month long rotations are pursued that together span theoretical and experimental approaches. Open only to CSB PhD students. | true | Fall, Spring | Graduate | 0-12-0 [P/D/F] | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSB.190 | Research Problems in Computational and Systems Biology | Directed research in the field of computational and systems biology. Open only to CSB PhD students. | true | Fall, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged [P/D/F] | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSB.195 | Professional Development in Computational and Systems Biology | Required for CSB students in the doctoral program to fulfill their professional development requirement through self-directed professional activities. Professional development activities include: internships (with industry, government, or academia); attendance at scientific meetings, MIT IAP events, or career fairs; participation in networking events or an entrepreneurship competition; training in teaching through the MIT Teaching and Learning lab; or the CAPD Path of Professorship. For an internship experience, prior authorization is required prior to enrollment; a report is required within two weeks of completion. Proposals subject to departmental approval. | true | IAP, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSB.199 | Teaching Experience in Computational Systems Biology | For qualified graduate students in the CSB graduate program interested in teaching. Classroom or laboratory teaching under the supervision of a faculty member. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring | Graduate | rranged [P/D/F] | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSB.930[J] | Research Experience in Biopharma (New) | Provides exposure to industrial science and develops skills necessary for success in such an environment. Under the guidance of an industrial mentor, students participate in on-site research at a local biopharmaceutical company where they observe and participate in industrial science. Serves as a real-time case study to internalize the factors that shape R&D in industry, including the purpose and scope of a project, key decision points in the past and future, and strategies for execution. Students utilize company resources and work with a scientific team to contribute to the goals of their assigned project; they then present project results to the company and class, emphasizing the logic that dictated their work and their ideas for future directions. Lecture component focuses on professional development. | true | Fall | Graduate | 2-10-0 | null | 7.930[J], 20.930[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSB.THG | Graduate Thesis | Program of research leading to the writing of PhD thesis; to be arranged by the student and the MIT faculty advisor. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSE.900 | Doctoral Seminar in Computational Science and Engineering | Interdisciplinary seminar explores diverse topics in computational science and engineering (CSE), featuring talks from Institute faculty and external speakers. Surveys current research in CSE methodologies and applications. Discusses important open research areas, as well as the ethical context and implications of research advances in CSE. Priority to first-year CSE PhD students. | true | Fall | Graduate | 1-0-2 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSE.999 | Experiential Learning in Computational Science and Engineering | For graduate students in Center for Computational Science and Engineering (CCSE) programs participating in curriculum-related off-campus experiential learning opportunities in computational science and engineering and related areas. Students are responsible for arranging the experiential learning opportunity. Prior to enrolling, students must contact the CCSE Academic Administrator for procedures and restrictions and must verify their arrangements by submitting a memo or email from the sponsoring organization along with MIT advisor endorsement to the CCSE Academic Administrator. Upon completion of the training experience students are required to submit a letter from the experiential advisor describing the goals accomplished along with a substantive final report for review and grading by the MIT advisor. | true | Summer | Graduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSE.C20[J] | Introduction to Computational Science and Engineering | Provides an introduction to computational algorithms used throughout engineering and science (natural and social) to simulate time-dependent phenomena; optimize and control systems; and quantify uncertainty in problems involving randomness, including an introduction to probability and statistics. Combination of 6.100A and 16.C20J counts as REST subject. | true | Fall, Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 | 6.100A; Coreq: 8.01 and 18.01 | 9.C20[J], 16.C20[J], 18.C20[J] | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSE.IND | Independent Study | Opportunity for independent study or experiential learning, under regular supervision by a faculty member. Projects require prior approval. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSE.S99 | Special Subject in Computational Science & Engineering (New) | Covers subject matter not offered in the regular curriculum. Consult CCSE to learn of offerings for a particular term. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
CSE.THG | Graduate Thesis | Program of research and writing of thesis for Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) graduate students; to be arranged by the student in conjunction with the faculty advisor, with CCSE approval. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer | Graduate | rranged | Permission of instructor | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
EC.050 | Re-create Experiments from History: Inform the Future from the Past | Offers students alternative exploratory experience in teaching, learning, and researching. Through collaborative activities with open-ended experiments from diverse origins, participants re-create historical instruments and discoveries that challenged assumptions and sparked new investigations. Student curiosity and questions shape specific course content. Assignments include observations, experiments, readings, journal writing and sketching, and a final reflective paper. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring | Undergraduate | 1-3-2 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
EC.074 | The Start-up Experience at MIT | Explores some of the critical actions in starting up a technology-based business, including concept generation, searching prior art and patents, protecting intellectual property, founders agreements, forming and building teams, and work-life balance. Students review case studies and complete exercises that develop practicable knowledge in these areas. Each student keeps an "idea log book," which includes critical assessments of each case study, to be presented at the end of the term. First in a two-part series (seminars do not have to be taken sequentially; see EC.075 in spring term). Preference to undergraduates; open to graduate students with permission of advisor. | true | Fall | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
EC.075 | Starting Up New Technology-Based Business Enterprises at MIT | Seminar participants define and study the development stages of new enterprises at MIT, from the exciting moment a new idea for a tech product or service is realized, through to selling, customer support, and the next new idea. Follows the history of successful MIT spin-off companies with attention to the people (and their ideas) behind the start-up. Students attend MIT technology and science start-up case presentations given by individuals and teams working from zero-stage, and by partners in going concerns of historical relevance to the Institute and the economy. Second in a two-part series (seminars do not have to be taken sequentially; see EC.074 in fall term). | true | Spring | Undergraduate | 2-0-4 [P/D/F] | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
EC.090 | Re-create Experiments from History: Inform the Future from the Past | Offers students alternative exploratory experience in teaching, learning, and researching. Through collaborative activities with open-ended experiments from diverse origins, participants re-create historical instruments and discoveries that challenged assumptions and sparked new investigations. Student curiosity and questions shape specific course content. Assignments include observations, experiments, readings, journal writing and sketching, and a final reflective paper. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. | true | Fall, IAP, Spring | Graduate | 1-3-2 | null | null | false | false | false | False | False | False |
Subsets and Splits