Certificate Program in Culture and Media

The Departments of Anthropology and Cinema Studies offer a specialized joint course of study leading to a New York State Certification in Culture and Media for NYU graduate students who are also pursuing their MA or PhD degrees in Anthropology or Cinema Studies

The program's philosophy takes a broad approach to the relationships between culture and media in a number of domains including: ethnographic film's significance for the fields of anthropology and cinema/media studies; problems in representation of cultures through media; the development of media in indigenous, Diaspora, and non-Western communities; the emerging social and cultural formations shaped by new media practices; and the political economy shaping the production, distribution and consumption of media worldwide.

Faculty

Core Faculty:

Faye Ginsburg
David B. Kriser Professor, Dept. of Anthropology
Director, Program in Culture and Media
Director, Center for Media, Culture and History
Co-Director, Center for Religion and Media

Tejaswini Ganti
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

Jonathan Kahana
Assistant Professor, Department of Cinema Studies

Affiliated Faculty:

Robert Stam
University Professor, Cinema Studies/New York University

George Stoney
Paulette Goddard Professor in Film, Kanbar Institute of Film and Television

Program

This graduate program provides a focused course of graduate studies integrating production with theory and research. Training in this program will enable students to pursue the following:

  • Production work in 16mm film and state-of-the-art digital video based on their own research;
  • Ethnographic research into the uses and meanings of media in a range of communities and cultures. Students from the program have been doing PhD research on the development of media in diverse settings, from the emergence of media in Papua New Guinea, to circulation of religious media in Northern Nigeria, to the use of media in linking the Tibetan Diaspora;
  • Teaching the history, theory, and production of ethnographic documentary and related issues in cinema and media studies;

A career in media requiring an understanding of anthropology, such as specialized programming and distribution of ethnographic film and video, community-based documentary production, management of ethnographic film/video libraries and archives, or work in new media.

More on the Program in Culture and Media

In 2006, in addition to the work of the students in the Video Production Seminar, culminating in our annual May Docs on the Edge screening (to a standing room only crowd at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema), a number of our students had their films screened in prestigious international film festivals and had their work launched into distribution. These included:

Lucas Bessire's film, From Honey to Ashes (2005, 48 mins., Distributor: Documentary Educational Resources, http://www.der.org/films/from-honey-to-ashes.html) which screened at the Bilan du Film Ethnographique (Paris); Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival (London); and was invited to a pitch session at the Silverdocs Documentary Conference.

Aaron Glass, In Search of Hamat'sa, (2005, 33 mins., Distributor: Royal Anthropological Institute and IWF, Germany), which screened in 2005-06 at the  Bilan du Film Ethnographique (Paris), Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival (London), Beeld voor Beeld Festival (Amsterdam); 2006 Pärnu International Film Festival; XIII Sardinia International Ethnographic Film Festival (Nuoro, Italy); Third International Visual Anthropology Film Festival (Moscow);  Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Video Festival (San Jose).  The film was awarded the Royal Anthropological Institute's Material Culture and Archaeology Prize.

Anya Bernstein's, In Pursuit of the Siberian Shaman (2006, 72 min, Distributor: Documentary Educational Resources, http://www.der.org/films/in-pursuit-of-siberian-shaman.html), was screened in 2005-06 at the Bilan du Film Ethnographique (Paris), Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival (London); Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Video Festival (San Jose); Ethnographic Film Festival at Gottingen (Germany);Russian Festival of Anthropological Film (Salekhard, Russia). This film was also invited to a pitch at the Silverdocs Documentary Conference (Washington DC).

Additionally, three of our students were invited to pitch their films to producers from Sundance, PBS, and Discovery, and other networks at the Silverdocs Documentary Conference in Washington D.C. Read More...

A Tribute to Jean Rouch
In 2004, the French ethographic filmmaker Jean Rouch passed away in Africa. He was an influential figure for many of the people at NYU, and someone whose creative spirit profoundly shaped the Culture and Media Program. In April 2004, we organized a major tribute to him at NYU. For information about that event, including the talks given by people such as Manthia Diawara, George Stoney and others, as well as clips from films by Ann McIntosh, visit the Jean Rouch tribute website created by Documentary Educational Resources.

Recent Documentaries

crewshot.jpgThis webpage includes recent documentaries produced, directed, and shot by students in the yearlong seminar on ethnographic documentary video production, the capstone of the Program in Culture and Media. The first portion of the course is dedicated to instruction, exercises, and reading familiarizing students with fundamentals of video production and their application to a broad conception of ethnographic and documentary approaches. Assignments undertaken in the fall raise representational, methodological, and ethical issues in approaching and working through an ethnographic and documentary project. Students develop a topic and field site for their project early in the fall term, begin their shooting, and complete a short preview tape by the end of the first semester. This work should demonstrate competence in shooting and editing using digital camera/audio Final Cut Pro non-linear editing systems. Students devote the spring semester to intensive work on the project, continuing to shoot and edit, presenting work to the class and completing their ethnographic documentaries.

Every year new documentaries from the video production seminar are presented in a public screening at "Docs On the Edge: A Documentary Showcase." Many of these works have been featured at film festivals and picked up for distribution, as noted in the information on each piece.

Internships

The program also arranges supervised internships for course credit, tailored to individual research and professional interests. Students work in a variety of programming and production positions for institutions, such as:

The American Museum of Natural History Margaret Mead Film Festival
The National Museum of the American Indian Film-Video Center
The Asia Society
The Jewish Museum

Resources

In the two-semester Video Production Seminar taught in the Anthropology Department, students use in-house state-of-the-art production and post-production digital video facilities to produce their own short documentaries.

The Anthropology Department also has a film and video screening theater, the David B. Kriser Film Room, as well as an excellent and expanding collection of over 2000 ethnographic film and video works, including most of the classics, important recent works, and a unique collection of works by indigenous media makers. The Department of Cinema Studies has a collection of over 400 films in its Film Study Center, and the Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media in Bobst Library contains nearly 14,000 tapes of films and documentaries as well as viewing facilities available to students. In addition, some of the best film, video, and broadcast libraries are available in New York City, including:

The Center for Media, Culture, and History

The program works closely with the Center for Media, Culture, and History, directed by Professor Faye Ginsburg. The Center sponsors fellows, screenings, lectures and conferences, and integrates concerns of faculty and students from the Program in Africana Studies and the Departments of Anthropology, Cinema Studies, History, and Performance Studies as well as other programs. The Center addresses issues of representation, social change, and identity construction embedded in the development of film, television, video, and new media worldwide. For more information about the Center, visit their website at www.nyu.edu/gsas/program/media.

Curriculum

Students cannot take courses in the Culture and Media Program unless they are enrolled in an M.A./PhD. program in either Anthropology or Cinema Studies at NYU. To complete the Certificate Program, they must: (1) take the curriculum outlined below; (2) design and complete a project in ethnographic film or video in the form of either a production or original research; and (3) complete their M.A. in Anthropology or Cinema Studies. Students wishing to pursue a Ph.D. can integrate the Certificate Program into their studies for the advanced degree in consultation with their Dissertation Committee. Anthropology doctoral students typically finish all of the requirements for the Program as part of their coursework and before beginning dissertation research. Students with prior training in media may be able to substitute other courses from the extensive curriculum offered in Cinema Studies, Anthropology, or media production – including other forms such as photography and new media. All students are required to take the following courses:

[1] G14.1215/ H72.1402 CULTURE AND MEDIA I (Ginsburg/Ganti) Fall Semester, Tues 6:00-9:00pm

[2] G14.1216/ H72.1403 CULTURE AND MEDIA II: (Ginsburg/Ganti) ETHNOGRAPHY OF MEDIA or ANTHROPOLOGY OF SOUND (see recommended courses) Spring Semester

[3] H72.2002 CULTURAL THEORY AND THE DOCUMENTARY (Kahana) Spring Semester

[4] Recommended course or approved elective* in opposite dept: H72.1026 TELEVISION: HISTORY AND CULTURE (McCarthy) (for Anthropology students)
G14.1010 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ANTHROPOLOGY (Myers) (for Cinema Studies students)

[5]/[6] H72.1998 SIGHT AND SOUND (16mm summer production course; mid-May to late-June; 6pts. or equivalent)

[7]/[8] G14.1218-19 VIDEO PRODUCTION SEMINAR (Ginsburg/Ganti, 8pts.) (Prerequisite: Sight and Sound or equivalent) Fall & Spring Semester, Thursdays 1-4:30pm; Lab Mondays 2-4:00pm

*Possible approved electives in Cinema Studies for Anthropology students:
H72.1400-01 The Documentary Tradition (Stoney)
H72.3005 Multiculturalism and Film (Stam)

*Possible approved electives in Anthropology for Cinema Studies students:
G14.1630 Art and Society (Myers)
G14.3392 Anthropology of Sound

Course Descriptions

CULTURE & MEDIA I (Ginsburg/Ganti)
This course offers a critical revision of the history of the genre of ethnographic film, the central debates it has engaged around cross-cultural representation, and the theoretical and cinematic responses to questions of the screen representation of culture, from the early romantic constructions of Robert Flaherty to current work in film, television and video on the part of indigenous people throughout the world. Ethnographic film has a peculiar and highly contested status within anthropology, cinema studies, and documentary practice. In this seminar, we will situate ethnographic film within the wider project of the representation of cultural lives, and especially "natives". Starting with what are regarded as the first examples of the genre, we will examine how these emerged in a particular intellectual context and political economy. We will then consider the key works that have defined the genre, and the epistemological and formal innovations associated with them, addressing questions concerning social theory, documentary, as well as the institutional structures through which they are funded, distributed, and seen by various audiences. Throughout the course we will keep in mind the properties of film as a signifying practice, its status as a form of anthropological knowledge, and the ethical and political concerns raised by cross-cultural representation.

CULTURE & MEDIA II:
ETHNOGRAPHY OF MEDIA (Ginsburg/Ganti)
Where Culture and Media I critically explored the emergence of ethnographic film largely as an academic-based documentary genre, this seminar examines the implication of film and ethnography as part of a much wider discourse of representation. Travelers, missionaries, colonialists, commercial companies, and educationalists were all involved in the production of images (both moving and still) of the "Other" to promote modernization abroad and education and spectacle at home. From consideration of the ethnographic visual world (photographs, world’s fairs, postcards, museums, etc.) into which ethnographic film emerged in the early years of this century, to examining contemporary televisualist modes of representation, this course will weave film analysis into a broader discussion of the popular culture of ethnographic representation. It will focus on: the film archive; colonialism and visual culture; television and ethnographic film; indigenous media and postcolonial critiques of colonial visual relations.

CULTURAL THEORY AND THE DOCUMENTARY (Kahana)
This course considers the actual and possible forms of relation between theories of culture and society and documentary film and video. The course is structured as a series of problematics: in each, cultural theory and documentary work are placed in conversation around issues central to both forms of social knowledge. While the course is not intended as a history of international non-fiction film production, the syllabus covers a wide historical and national range of examples. Like many of the visual works we will study, the critical premise of the syllabus is that concepts such as truth, justice, authenticity, originality, and humanity - the putative values of the documentary mode - are themselves historically and culturally relative, variable, and controversial.

SIGHT AND SOUND (NYU Film School Faculty)
An intensive, six-week, hands-on summer course (early June to mid-July) in practical 16mm filmmaking at the NYU Film School. Students are required to complete five short films using equipment and materials provided. Emphasis is initially on documentary techniques, which rely on editing for meaning. Students then move on to the scripted narrative. The goal is to develop technical skills while exploring creative possibilities. Early application is encouraged, as this is limited-enrollment workshop.

VIDEO PRODUCTION SEMINAR 1 & 2 (Ginsburg/Ganti)
This is a year-long seminar in ethnographic documentary video production using state of the art digital video equipment for students in the Program in Culture and Media. The first portion of the course is dedicated to instruction, exercises, and reading familiarizing students with fundamentals of video production and their application to a broad conception of ethnographic and documentary approaches. Assignments undertaken in the Fall raise representational, methodological, and ethical issues in approaching and working through an ethnographic and documentary project. Students develop a topic and field site for their project early in the Fall term, begin their shooting, and complete a short (5-10 minute) edited tape by the end of this semester. This work should demonstrate competence in shooting and editing using professional digital camera/audio Final Cut Pro non-linear editing systems. Students devote the spring semester to intensive work on the project, continuing to shoot and edit, presenting work to the class and completing their (approximately 20 minute-long) ethnographic documentaries. Student work is presented and critiqued during class sessions, and attendance and participation in group critiques and lab sessions is mandatory. Students should come into the class with project ideas already well-developed. Students who have not completed the work assigned in the first semester will not be allowed to register for the second semester. Culture & Media I is a pre-requisite. THE SEMINAR IS OPEN ONLY TO STUDENTS IN THE PROGRAM IN CULTURE AND MEDIA. IT IS LIMITED TO TEN STUDENTS AND REQUIRES PERMISSION OF THE INSTRUCTOR. There is no lab fee, but students are expected to provide their own videotapes. In addition to class time, there will be regular technical lab sessions on the use of equipment.

TELEVISION: HISTORY AND CULTURE
How did the consumption and circulation of popular cultural forms develop as an object of academic study? What national contexts, and what institutional and disciplinary traditions shape such studies? This proseminar addresses these and other questions through a survey of key theories, methods and debates in Anglo-American and European cultural studies. Readings explore political and affective dimensions of popular cultural forms from a variety of perspectives. Written assignments and class discussion explore some crucial questions facing cultural studies today: the effects of disciplinary and interdisciplinary, the politics of audience studies, identities and the state, definitions of "cultural policy," and more.

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ANTHROPOLOGY (Myers)
This course is intended to acquaint graduate students in anthropology with some core issues in social/cultural anthropology. It cannot pretend to be a comprehensive introduction to the discipline; matters are too complex. Instead it seeks to highlight basic issues in social theory and the relationship of theory and ethnographic practice. It proceeds through a consideration of key controversies within the field and through mapping some contemporary directions. Although the course covers material from the 19th through the 20th centuries it is not a history of anthropological thought; it is expected that students will complement this course with "The History of Anthropology" and a lifetime of reading in anthropology and related fields.