Call it the Age of Images:on the Internet, in DVDs, in video games. “It is exploding, and young people have so much more access to digital cameras and manipulation,” says professor of communication Kris Samuelson. “We are surrounded by and embedded in the world of what we call ‘moving image media.’”
Hence Stanford’s decision to create an undergraduate major in film and media studies, to be housed in the department of art and art history. In 2006, the documentary film and video program will migrate from the communication department to the art department and begin awarding master’s of fine arts degrees, rather than master’s of arts degrees. The switch from an MA to an MFA is designed to make graduates more competitive for academic positions.
About 15 to 20 undergraduates have told Samuelson, ’73, that they intend to choose the new major. “We get lots of students stopping by who are really accomplished working with the tools, but may need some development in terms of telling stories,” she says.
The first director of the new major, Samuelson comes to her new position after teaching in the communication department for 23 years, most recently as director of the documentary film program. She and communication professor Jan Krawitz will transfer to the art department in fall 2006, joining associate professor of art and art history Scott Bukatman and assistant professor Pavle Levi, both film specialists. “We’re all going to be, finally, wonderfully together,” she says. “We’ll have those kinds of great interactions that happen in the hallway.”
Largely because of strong student interest, Samuelson says, film and media studies programs have been “sprouting up” nationwide. The Stanford major will have a liberal-arts focus in film and media history, theory and criticism, like programs at Yale and the University of Chicago. It will not follow the film-school model of New York University or USC, which offer courses such as cinematography and production design.
A $1 million gift from an alum has helped launch the new major, which will be celebrated with “Stanford in Hollywood,” a kick-off event October 1 in Los Angeles. Sponsored by the Alumni Association, Stanford in Entertainment and the film studies major, the half-day symposium will feature a keynote address and panel discussions with prominent alumni, including the Oscar-winning producing team of Richard Zanuck, ’56, and David Brown, ’36, who will receive the inaugural Muybridge Award for their lifetime contributions to cinema.
Stanford will conduct a faculty search this year for a specialist in Asian cinema. “We have strength in American and European cinema already,” Samuelson says. “But look at the explosion of Indian cinema, the emerging Thai, Malay and Filipino cinema, plus the subset of Hong Kong films, and there’s so much to explore. We’re right on the edge of the West Coast, and we want that strength.”
