Division of Critical Studies, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California
Undergraduate Courses
CTCS 464: Film and/or Television Genres: Zombies!
Spring 2013
Without any doubt, the figure of the zombie has completely captured contemporary media. Where does our fascination with the undead come from and what does it tell us about our anxieties and priorities today? In addition to providing a history of the zombie genre, this course examines zombie media across a range of contemporary cultural practices, from film and television, to graphic novels, video games, and “viral” media. Along the way, the course examines the critical importance of genre and popular culture in everyday life (and death).
CTCS 367: Global Media
Fall 2013
This course examines media globalization from aesthetic, political, and cultural perspectives. The course considers a broad array of historical and contemporary media with an attention to the connections between media forms, practices, and industries across local and global contexts. It also investigates the current imagination of the “global” in media arts and practice. Topics covered include Bollywood, urban transformation, political activism, Danish television, the Olympics, the materiality of the Internet, social media and revolution, the environment, and global Hollywood.
CTCS 191: Introduction to Television
Spring 2014
What and where is American television today? Will video streaming replace cable TV? Has the quality of television outpaced feature films? Has reality TV run out of steam? Are women auteurs in television the next big thing? What is the relationship between technologies, institutions, narratives, aesthetics, and audiences? To discuss these questions, this course introduces students to the study of television as a dramatic form with a history of industrial and creative practices that both overlap and diverge from that of other media. The course focuses on innovations in American television over the past 15 years and reads history, theory, and criticism pertaining to television as a textual form and industrial practice.
Graduate Courses
CTCS 500: Seminar in Film Theory
Fall 2012 and Fall 2013
This course is a graduate introduction to classical and contemporary film theory, focusing on form, narrative, experimentation, and cultural transformation. The course works through the major traditions that have informed film theory from across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Some of the themes to be considered include the relationship between film and the other arts, film as document and archive, the role of technology, spectatorship as ideology and apparatus, affect and embodiment, subjectivity and difference, and film as spectacle, attraction, and magic. The present and historical condition of “theory” as form and practice frames the course content, with an emphasis on developing the ability to analyze and construct theoretical arguments.
CTCS 510: Case Studies in National and/or Regional Media: Imagination of “Asia”
Spring 2013
This course investigates the production and the multiple meanings of Asia as a mediated concept, examining sites of linkage and tension between “East” and “West,” as well as exploring the possibilities of rethinking (if not transcending) these longstanding binaries. What is the conceptual future of Asia, given frictions between the local, regional and the global? The course focuses on how film and media have engaged the imagination of Asia as a way to reorient the organizing tenets of contemporary global capitalism, from tradition and modernity to materiality and spirit. The present and historical condition of Asia as form, method, theory and practice frames the inquiry. Required readings are drawn from a broad tradition of interdisciplinary inquiry, extending outward from film and media studies to the broader arts, humanities and social sciences.
CTCS 510: Case Studies in National and/or Regional Media: Comparison as Method in Asian Media
Spring 2014
This graduate seminar explores contemporary “Asian” media by focusing on comparative methods. Comparison is the theme and primary mode of analysis – with the aim to denaturalize and “unthink” comparison, locating it within broader intellectual and ideological trajectories across global and local contexts. The present and historical condition of comparison as the categorically modern form will frame the course. Required readings are drawn from a broad tradition of interdisciplinary inquiry but focus on contemporary film and media studies. Through an investigation of the production and multiple meanings of comparison as a mediated concept, the course engages sites of linkage and tension between “East and West” as well as exploring the possibilities of rethinking (if not transcending) these longstanding binaries. What is the conceptual future of comparison, given frictions between the local, regional and the global? The course focuses on how film and media have engaged the imagination of comparison as a way to reorient the structuring tenets of media analysis.
Communication Department, University of California, San Diego (2005-2012)
Undergraduate Courses
COSF 186: The Film Industry
COSF 140A: Comparative Media Systems: Asia
COGN 20: Introduction to Communication
COCU 175: Advanced Topics in Communication and Culture: Science Fiction
COGN 150: Senior Seminar: Media and Convergence
Graduate Courses
COGR 200A: Introduction to Communication as a Social Force
COGR 275: Special Topics: Comparative Media, Alternative Modernities
COGR 275: Special Topics: Film Studies
Nitin Govil 