Click on the boxes below to read more about UBC courses relating to qualitative research methods, visual methodologies, documentary making, storytelling, visual research, with a focus on social justice.
ANTHRO 217 002: Culture and Communication
Description: The study of communication; the relation between communication and its cultural context with emphasis on verbal and non-verbal communication, cross-cultural communication, and cultural differences in the use of oral, literate, and electronic media.
Instructor: Daisy Rosenblum
ARTH 101 001: Ways of Seeing - Introduction to Visual Studies
Description: Drawing on examples from across history and around the world, this course deals with the role of the visual in society, culture, and everyday experience.
Instructor: Julia Orell
ASIA 254 021: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Japanese Literature and Film
Description: The integral role that sex, gender, and sexuality play in literary and cinematic works from Japan. Literary works will be read in translation, movies will be subtitled.
Instructor: Nicholas Hall
CINE 200 002: Introduction to Canadian Cinema
Description: History and aesthetics of Canadian cinema. Credit will be granted for only one of FIST 200 or CINE 200. Preference may be given to Majors, Minors, or Honors students in Theatre or Film.
Instructor: William Brown.
CINE 210 001: Early Cinema
Description: Aesthetics, economics, history, and technological characteristics of international early film. Credit will be granted for only one of FIST 210 or CINE 210. Preference may be given to Majors, Minors, or Honors students in Theatre or Film.
Instructor: William Brown.
CINE 240 001: Media Industries
Description: Overview of today's film and media industries, and of the concepts governing their practices. Credit will be granted for only one of FIST 240 or CINE 240. Restricted to students with second-year standing or above.
Instructor: Keren Zaiontz
CRWR 213 001: Introduction to Writing for the New Media
Description: An exploration of and practice in writing for new media, including podcasting, blogging, and writing for websites, games, and online environments. Manuscript submission is not required for admission.
Instructor: TBA.
ENGL 232 001: Approaches to Media Studies
Description: Approaches to the study of media: philosophical; technological; cultural; theoretical. For ENGL courses at the 200- or 300- level, prior completion of at least one 100- level ENGL course is recommended.
Instructor: Richard Anthony Cavell
ENGL 246 002: Literature and Film
Description: Approaches to the study of the relationships between literature and film. For ENGL courses at the 200- or 300- level, prior completion of at least one 100- level ENGL course is recommended.
Instructor: Tiffany Potter
ENGL 247 001: Television Studies
Description: Introduction to methods and practices of television studies, with emphasis on the use of literary approaches to televisual narrative. For ENGL courses at the 200- or 300- level, prior completion of at least one 100- level ENGL course is recommended.
Instructor: Adam Frank
FIPR 101 001: Introduction to the History of Film Production
Description: Representation, identity, and cultural politics through Indigenous literature, film, and the visual arts; the relationship between these sites of cultural production and the self-determination struggles of Indigenous peoples. Credit will be granted for only one of FNSP 200, FNIS 220, or FNSP 220. The history of film and film production by decade with a strong emphasis on filmmakers and advances in production technology.
Instructor: Shannon Walsh
FIPR 133 001: Introduction to Film and Media Production
Description: A hands-on introduction to Film and Multi/New Media production, focusing on fundamental techniques for creating effective presentations.
Instructor: Igor Drlajaca & Antoine Bourges
FNIS 220 001: Representation and Indigenous Cultural Politics
Description: Representation, identity, and cultural politics through Indigenous literature, film, and the visual arts; the relationship between these sites of cultural production and the self-determination struggles of Indigenous peoples. Credit will be granted for only one of FNSP 200, FNIS 220, or FNSP 220.
Instructor: Candis Callison
GRSJ 225 101: Youth Activism and Social Justice
Description: A critical engagement with major issues, debates, and politics in feminist and social justice scholarship through an exploration of youth movements with a focus on activists, popular culture, digital activism, fan cultures, and literature by and for youth.
Instructor: Kim Snowden
GRSJ 226 101: Human Rights and Artistic Expression - Thinking Beyond the Legal
Description: How human rights are expressed in the Arts. Critical engagement with feminist, race and social justice scholarship, and activism.
Instructor: Lorenia Salgado-Leos
HIST 201 101: History Through Photographs
Description: The discipline of history through the study of photographs. Explores themes such as colonialism, orientalism, the mass media, representations of gender and sexuality, and protest through photographic evidence.
Instructor: Kelly McCormick
MDIA 100 001: Media Objects
Description: Multidisciplinary perspectives on contemporary media objects and their effects.
Instructor: TBA
VISA 110 001: Foundation Studio - Digital Media
Description: Foundation instruction in techniques and approaches to digital practice. The nature of digital technologies and their role in contemporary culture will be examined. This course is open to all UBC students, regardless of prior experience.
Instructor: Joshua Hite
ANTHRO 309 002: Ethnography of the Himalaya - Diversity and Development
Description: Ethnographic engagement with lives of people in and from the Himalayan region: including parts of Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan; Tibetan cultural zones traversing these countries; and diasporas. Students will be doing a media-based project and working with podcasts and documentaries in the course.
Instructor: Sara Shneiderman
ANTHRO 332 002: Oral Tradition
Description: An ethnographic perspective on the dynamics of oral tradition in various oral and literate cultures; the characteristics and roles of oral genres including folktale, genealogy, oral history, autobiography, and myth in these societies; and the relationship between orality and literacy.
Instructor: Leslie Robertson
ANTHRO 516 001: Qualitative Methods in Anthropology
Description: A discussion of selected methods used to observe, describe, and interpret cultural phenomena and social organization, including participant observation, interviewing, ethnographic semantics, life histories, componential analysis, and photography. Attention will also be given to ethics in anthropological research and writing and to such analytic matters as the nature of description, conceptualization, generalization, and content analysis.
Instructor: Hugh Phillimore Gusterson
ARTH 380 001: Art as Technology
Description: Relationship between artistic practice and media, examined through a history of paradigm shifts in technology. 41 seats restricted to media studies students, and 19 seats for all UBC students.
Instructor: Jillian Lerner
ASIA 305 011: Asian Horror Cinema - National Nightmares and Specters of Trauma
Description: Engaging with the ideologies, industrial histories, socio-cultural contexts, and aesthetics of horror films - and the genre itself - from various Asian cinemas.
Instructor: TBA.
ASIA 353 021: Introduction to Hindi Film
Description: History, aesthetics, politics, and social roles of Bollywood films. Films will be subtitled.
Instructor: Sunil Kumar Bhatt
ASIA 354 011: Introduction to Japanese Cinema
Description: Students will be introduced to the work of the major directors (e.g., Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, Itami, Oshima, Shinoda). Ideological uses of literary texts and period pieces (e.g., Ugetsu, Life of Oharu, Double Suicide). Impact of depiction of Japanese in American film.
Instructor: Nicholas Hall
ASIA 354 011: History of Chinese Cinema
Description: Introduction to the work of major directors.
Instructor: Xiaoqiao Xu
ASIA 356 021: Korean Cinema
Description: Introduction to the work of the major film makers.
Instructor: TBA.
ASIA 365 021: Punjabi Cinema
Description: Punjabi culture, history, and social values through films. The class includes film viewings and seminar discussions. Films will be subtitled.
Instructor: Kiran Sunar
ASIA 336A 021: Topics in Asian Studies - Iran, Women, Art
Description: The title for this course is "Iranian Women Writers and Artists." The course is a survey of literature, cinema, and visual art by modern and contemporary Iranian women writers and artists of differing identities, worldwide, with a focus on their narratives and expressions of social dissent and criticism.
Instructor: Mostafa Abedinifard
ASIA 394 011: Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema
Description: Gender politics, family relationships, and women's social, economic, and political roles in post-revolutionary Iran as shown through Iranian cinema.
Instructor: Mostafa Abedinifard
CINE 334 001: Seminar in Documentary
Description: An analysis of the representational strategies and ethics of the form. Credit will be granted for only one of FIST 334 or CINE 334.
Instructor: Chelsea Birks
ENGL 396 001: Studies in Drama
Description: Plays organized by thematic approach, cultural movements, critical issues, and/or geopolitical regions. Consult department website for current year's offerings. Credit will be granted for up to 6 credits of ENGL 396 and/or 405. For ENGL courses at the 200- or 300- level, prior completion of at least one 100- level ENGL course is recommended.
Instructor: Miguel Mota
FIPR 436A: Documentary Development and Production
Description: Documentary concept development, essential production techniques, and marketing.
Instructor: Shannon Walsh
FIPR 436B: Documentary Development and Production
Description: Documentary concept development, essential production techniques, and marketing.
Instructor: Shannon Walsh
FIPR 536A: Advanced Documentary Development and Production
Description: Advanced documentary development and production.
Instructor: Shannon Walsh
FIPR 536B: Advanced Documentary Development and Production
Description: Advanced documentary development and production.
Instructor: Shannon Walsh
GMST 335 001: German Cinema
Description: Screening, discussion, and critical analysis of influential cinema from German-speaking societies from the silent era to the 21st century. Find out more at https://cenes.ubc.ca/courses/. Credit will be granted for only one of GERM 304 or GMST 335.
Instructor: Florian Gassner
GRSJ 304 101: Gaming the System - Digital Media, Social Justice, and Video Games
Description: Emerging technology in the areas of digital affect theory, cyborg feminism, critical digital humanities, critical race studies, surveillance studies, and queer game studies.
Instructor: TBA.
GRSJ 307 201: Gender, Race, Sexuality and Popular Culture
Description: Critical examination of mainstream and alternative media images of gender, race, and sexuality in the context of networked social media, film, music, and television.
Instructor: Alifa Bandali
HIST 400 101: The Practice of Oral History
Description: The practice, ethics, and politics of oral history. Provides research training, where students design and complete projects based on oral history interviews.
Instructor: Anne Murphy
LAST 315A 101: Topics in Latin American Studies
Description: From production to consumption, from preparation to presentation, food is a powerful symbol of social and cultural meaning. This course examines the expansive relationship between food and identity in Latin America through cultural texts (orality, narrative, poetry, film). Course lectures take the form of podcast lectures with an accompanying blog transcripts. Each podcast seeks to respectfully incorporate Latin American Indigenous music and include pertinent images, videos, and other media.
Instructor: Tamara Mitchell
SLAV 307A 101: Literature and Film in Eastern Europe
Description: Films and translated literature by Slavic writers with emphasis on the interaction between politics and literature.
Instructor: TBA.