The study of film is primarily concerned with motion picture history, theory and criticism. These areas are approached through intensive critical analysis of individual films, through research into the primary documents of filmmakers and the film industry, and through the construction of theoretical models of film forms and styles, national cinemas, film genres, and the economics of the film industry. Film production is meant primarily for students studying history, theory and criticism as a way to enhance their understanding of the practical decisions filmmakers confront. The program is not designed for students whose sole interest is in film production.
For degree requirements and other detailed program information, please consult the graduate handbook:
Communication Arts Graduate Handbook
A weekly graduate student/faculty colloquium gives students the opportunity to present their own work and to hear guest lecturers from a range of disciplinary perspectives, often in cooperation with other departmental areas. We also use this time also to present information and facilitate discussions of publishing, conference presentations, and the job search process.
The Velvet Light Trap is a semi-annual journal publishing work on film, television, and other media. It is edited entirely by graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at the University of Texas-Austin.
The Film Graduate Program is designed to train future media scholars and university faculty; students are admitted with the assumption that they will carry on to the Ph.D. Financial support is provided primarily through teaching appointments, so students must have a level of English competency sufficient for the classroom.
Our graduates teach at major universities across the country, and indeed around the world. See our Recent and Ongoing PhDs page for examples.
The study of film, media and culture is enhanced at Madison by the presence of significant resources that aid critical inquiry and research. In particular, the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, founded in 1960, is one of the leading US centers for archival documentation in film, television, radio and theater history, housing 20,000 motion pictures, television shows, and videotapes; 2 million still photographs and promotional graphics; and hundreds of primary-document collections from major production companies, directors, screenwriters, actors, producers, and designers.
Three nights a week, our amazing, professionally-programmed, free Cinematheque showcases rare archival prints, art films and popular works from around the world. Equipped with state-of-the-art projectors (all formats and DCP) and a stunning sound system, our departmental theater ranks as one of the finest screening rooms in the nation.
Recent and forthcoming graduate-level classes include:
- Agnès Varda (Professor Kelley Conway)
- Film Festivals (Conway)
- Global Art Cinema (Conway)
- Globalization and French National Cinema (Conway)
- Introduction to Media Production (Professor Aaron Greer)
- Screen Directing (Greer)
- Writing for TV and Film (Greer)
- American Film Industry in the Era of the Studio System (Professor Eric Hoyt)
- Digital Media Production for Graduate Students (Hoyt)
- Film Historiography (Hoyt)
- Gender, Sexuality and the Media (Professor Darshana Mini)
- Indian Cinema and Beyond (Mini)
- Migrant Media and Diasporic Imaginations (Mini)
- Avant-Garde Cinema (Professor Ben Singer)
- Cognition, Emotion, and Evolutionary Aesthetics (Singer)
- Global Melodrama (Singer)
- Japanese Cinema (Singer)
- Black American Cinema (Professor Jeff Smith)
- Contemporary Hollywood (Smith)
- Film and Allegory (Smith)
- Film Noir (Smith)
- Film Sound: Theory and History (Smith)
- Hollywood Film Score (Smith)
- The Hollywood Blacklist (Smith)
Current ongoing dissertation topics:
- John Bennett
“Mediterranean Film Cultures in Light of Algerian Independence”
- Tim Brayton
“The Illusion of Depth in Animation” - Pauline Lampert
“Not Just an Actor: Socially Conscious Stardom and the Rise of the Post-War Actor-Producer” - Thomas Macpherson
“Towards a Poetics of Landscape” - Erica Moulton
“Hollywood’s Middlebrow Adaptations: Acquisition and Development of Popular Novels from 1930-1949” - Matt St John
“The American Film Festival System” - David Vanden Bossche
“Man and Camera Become One”: Analyzing the influence of the Steadicam on Camera Movement in American Cinema,1974-94” - Zach Zahos
“Beyond Distinction: New Possibilities in Art House Film Distribution”
Recent completed dissertation topics have examined:
- JJ Bersch (2022) “Pack Your Product’s Bags, It’s Going Hollywood: Explaining the Mainstream Emergence of Cinematic Product Placement in the 1980s”
Blank Check Podcast - Luke Holmaas (2022) “The Best Gag in the Picture: Gag-Based Comedy’s Adaptability in Blockbuster-Era Hollywood Cinema”
University of Madison-Wisconsin - Hamidreza Nassiri (2022) “Iranian Cinema in the Digital Era: The Implications of Digital Technologies on Local and Global Power Relations in Film and Media Industries”
Fordham University - Megan Boyd (2021) “Legitimizing Laughter: The Rise of Feature Comedy”
University of Cincinnati - Maureen Rogers (2020) “Getting in on the Act: How Exploitation Cinema Remade the New Hollywood (and Vice Versa)”
Shapiro & Raj - Jonah Horwitz (2019) “Live Television Drama and Its Cinematic Legacies”
University of Pittsburgh - Nora Stone (2018) “Marketing the Real: The Creation of a Multilayered Market for Documentary Cinema”
University of Alabama - Brandon Colvin (2018) “Making It Real: Performance Styles and Contexts in Contemporary American Microbudget Cinema”
University of Alabama - Matt Connolly (2018) “Underground Exploiteer: John Waters and the Development of a Directorial Brand, 1964-1981”
Minnesota State University, Mankato - Eric Dienstfrey (2018) “The Stereo Impulse: High Fidelity Cinema and the Making of Modern Surround Sound Aesthetics”
Ursinus College - Derek Long (2017) “Reprogramming the movies: distribution strategy and production planning in the early studio system, 1915-1924”
University of Illinois - Chelsea McCracken (2017) “Riding the Gay New Wave into New Queer Cinema: revealing the contexts that created a movement”
State University of New York, Oneonta - Jenny Oyallon-Koloski (2017) “An aesthetic of contradictions: Jacques Demy, Choreography, and the musical genre”
University of Illinois - Booth Wilson (2017) “The most European cinema: Yakov Protazanov across borders, 1909-1930”
Shenzhen University, China - Amanda McQueen (2016) “After ‘the Golden Age’: an industrial history of the Hollywood musical, 1955-1975”
New York University - John Powers (2016) “Conjuror’s box: technology and aesthetics in postwar American avant-garde cinema”
Washington University in St. Louis - Andrea Comiskey (2015) “The Sticks, the Nabes, and the Broadways: U.S. Film Distribution, 1935-1940”
Franklin & Marshall College - Heather Heckman (2014) “Undervalued Stock: Eastman Color’s Innovation and Diffusion, 1900-1957”
University of South Carolina - Mark Minett (2013) “Expanding the Standard Story: Rethinking ‘Early Altman’ and the Elaboration of Classical Hollywood Storytelling”
University of South Carolina