Graduate Certificate in Film Studies

The Graduate Certificate in Film Studies offers graduate students the opportunity to have their work and interest in film studies formally acknowledged as an important part of their graduate training. Certificate students have the opportunity to benefit from advanced study in a growing field, mentored by internationally-renowned, award-winning faculty  specialists in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Academic institutions often  seek candidates from traditional fields who can also demonstrate pedagogical  and  scholarly strengths in cinema studies. This certificate program responds to these intellectual and professional currents, providing a clear but flexible curriculum for graduate students whose work intersects with film studies,preparing students with skills and knowledge to research and teach film in order to advance their own work in the field. The Graduate Certificate in Film Studies, as part of a graduate degree, will acknowledge and formalize this specialty area for degree-holders, providing clear evidence of  training, ability, and knowledge for those seeking academic positions and developing related careers.

Beginning with the assumption that the moving image is ubiquitous in contemporary discourse across cultures and disciplines, the Graduate Certificate trains future scholars, teachers, researchers and other film studies professionals in historical, theoretical, methodological and  critical perspectives. In addition, courses in production will focus on the relationships between theory and practice. Ranging from the silent era to  new media, courses include documentary film; French, Maghrebi and Francophone cinemas; Central and East European film; German and Scandinavian film, Spanish,Portuguese, and Italian film, Middle East and pan-Asian cinemas; African and African diasporic cinemas; Hollywood and American independent cinema; Latin American cinemas; emerging and Third Cinemas; melodrama and  film noir; gender and representational studies; digital media; photography; visual  anthropology; film theory; and curatorial studies.

Students acquire critical skills and knowledge of Film Studies as both a discrete discipline with its own methodology as well as perspectives on Film Studies from the disciplines in which they are matriculated. This  exceptional intellectual and cultural environment, complemented by colloquia, collaborative research and publishing projects, community service learning and volunteer opportunities, academic exchange, invited lectures and annual film festivals including the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival, Arab Cinema Panorama, Youth Film Showcase, New Asia Cinema, the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival, and the Northampton Independent Film Festival and the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst provides an ideal setting for the  next generation of visionary educators, researchers, artists, curators,
administrators, consultants, business leaders and policy makers. Film Studies Certificate Program students are defined as those students matriculated for the Master's or doctoral candidates in any graduate program at  the University of Massachusetts Amherst whose application for  admission to the Certificate Program has been approved by the Advisory Committee and  who are pursuing the requirements for the Certificate.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. An application submitted to the Advisory Committee, containing a personal statement of interest in and qualifications for undertaking the Graduate Certificate, which can only be earned in conjunction with a film-focused Master's or M.F.A thesis, doctoral dissertation (or approved final film / video  project) in a University department approved to grant those degrees.

2. Students must complete 15 credits of approved graduate film courses,
selected from a list of approved courses to be determined by the Advisory
Committee, to include the following:

a. one course in introductory film theory (3 credits)

b. a minimum of 2 courses (six credits) taken from courses outside their degree-granting department and college

c. a minimum of 2 courses (six credits) with an international and/or
intercultural focus

3. Upon completion of coursework, Graduate Certificate students will
submit a statement to the Advisory Committee demonstrating the ways in which
their coursework constitutes an integrated, interdisciplinary film studies
concentration.

4. Upon filing of the completed film-oriented M.A./M.F.A. thesis or Ph.D
dissertation, students must submit to the Advisory Committee a copy of the
abstract, table of contents, and signatory pages.

5. The Graduate Certificate will be awarded only upon completion of these
requirements and by approval of the Advisory Committee at the time the
student receives his or her terminal degree in his or her major department.

Restrictions:
1. A maximum of two 3-credit independent study courses may be applied to
the Certificate requirement
2. A minimum of three approved graduate film courses, of at least 3
credits each, must be taken at UMass Amherst
3. Students may appeal to the Advisory committee for course substitutions up
to 6 credits for work undertaken elsewhere; this includes augmented
upper-level Five College courses and graduate courses from other accredited academic institutions

Faculty Contacts:
Professor Anne Ciecko, Graduate Certificate Coordinator
Professor Cathy Portuges, Director, Interdepartmental Film Studies Program