Cinema & Media Studies

From the invention of the movie camera in the late 1800s, cinema has grown into one of the most complex art forms, popular entertainments, and powerful social forces in today’s world. It is also the primary focus for an interdisciplinary field of study, established in the 1960s, that now employs historical, aesthetic, theoretical, and cultural frameworks to deepen the understanding of television and other moving-image media, as well as film.

At Boston University, students can pursue a BA in Cinema & Media Studies (CIMS) while enrolled either in the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) or in the College of Communication (COM). BU’s first thoroughly “intercollegiate” joint major in the humanities, the program draws on a combined CAS/COM faculty with expertise spanning American film and television, the national and regional cinemas of Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, and the transnational flow of electronic and digital media.

Options within the major include study abroad, a local internship, senior honors research, and/or a course or two in the crafts of film production and screenwriting.

A minor in Cinema & Media Studies is also available to students in all of BU’s four-year undergraduate schools and colleges.