The Critical-Cultural Studies side of the Master of Arts program is led by a small, but dynamic faculty who work closely with graduate students as they develop their degree plans and theses. Seminar courses provide students with unique opportunities to engage in critical discussion and cultural debate with faculty and peers. Students in this area examine media culture in relation to topics such as cultural history, ideology, race, class, gender, sexuality, audiences/fandom, technocultures, social media, globalization, convergence, and production cultures. The Critical-Cultural studies area is designed for students who wish to develop their critical thinking and writing skills with a view to either proceeding to a PhD program or increasing their professional skills.

The area values and encourages an interdisciplinary approach in course selection. As applicable, additional faculty are drawn from outside departments such as English, History, and Women's Studies, as well as from other local media studies programs to serve on students' theses projects.

Find out more about admissions or the program, contact Dr. Xiaoqun Zhang, Director of Master of Arts program.

1. REQUIRED COURSES

• RTVF 5120: Critical/Cultural Media Theory
• RTVF 5121: New Media Theory

2. MINIMUM 9 HOURS OF TRACK-SPECIFIC CRIT/CULT COURSES: (offerings subject to chagne with approval from faculty advisor)

• Post-War Eurpoean Film
• Gender & Digital Cultures
• The Films of Alfred Hitchcock
• History of the Documentary
• Contemporary Documentary
• African-American Film
• Teen Media
• Gender & Sexuality in the Horror Film
• Media/Genre Authors
• Affect/Emotion in Film
• Video Game Perspectives
• Gangster Films
• Cinema Video Verite
• Lesbian, Gay, Queer Film & Video

3. MINIMUM 9 HOURS OF GRADUATE LEVEL ELECTIVES

• These can include up to (but not required):
  • 6 credit hours from graduate courses in other departments at UNT as approved by the faculty advisor
  • 3 credit hours practicum OR 3 hours internship
  • 3 credit hours special problems (with faculty approval)

4. CAPSTONE

The Master of Arts degree offers the option of a written thesis or a comprehensive exam. We strongly encourage students to pursue the thesis option if they are interested in applying to Ph.D. programs.

• Thesis Option (6 hours of thesis enrollment)
  • Of the required minimum of 30 graduate hours, 6 hours must be thesis credit. The student must have departmental approval for this option, including the approval of a Media Arts graduate faculty thesis advisor. The student must successfully complete and orally defend a written thesis.

• Comprehensive Exam Option (3 hours of special problems)
  • Of the required minimum of 30 graduate hours, 3 hours must be a special problems credit with the successful completion of a comprehensive examination. The student must have departmental approval for this option, including the approval of a Media Arts graduate faculty examination advisor. Students are eligible to complete the exam once they have a degree plan approved and have completed 21 hours of graduate course work.

RECENT STUDENT THESES

Thesis works completed by graduate students in Critical-Cultural Studies traverse issues of history, representation, multiculturalism, film theory, disursive analysis, television studies, and digitial media studies. Recent completed theses include works such as:

• Musicals & the Margins: African-Americans, Women, and Queerness in the Twenty-First Century American Musical - Brecken Wellborn
• Furyous Female Just-Warrious of Post-Apocalypse and Dystopia - Shaylynn Lesinski
• "Reality" while Dreaming in a Labyrinth: Christopher Nolan as a Realist Auteur - Brent Crowley
• Creating Discussion: An Auteur Analysis of Films Directed by Adrian Lyne - Stephanie Oliver
• "According to Their Wills and Pleasures:" The Sexual Stereotyping of Mormon Men in American Film and Television - Travis Sutton
• 24, Lost and Six Feet Under: Post-Traumatic Television in the Post 9/11 Era - Tonya Anderson
• A Textual Analysis of the Closer and Saving Grace: Feminist and Genre Theory in 21St Century Television - Leila M. Stone
• The Limitations and Stereotypes Placed on Female Hero Representations in Video Games - Linet L. Cisneros
• True Bromance: Representation of Masculinity and Heteronormative Dominance in the Bromantic Comedy - David Hartwell
• Framing Femininity As Insanity: Representations Of Mental Illness In Women In Post-Classical Hollywood - Kelly Kretschmar
• Dangerous, Desperate and Homosexual: Cinematic Representations of the Male Prostitute as Fallen Angels - John Phillip Lay
• Provincial Heroism: Hunanese Audiences and Sylvester Stallone - Jun Kuang
• "They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To:" Cultural Hegemony and the Representation of White Masculinity in Recent U.S. Cinema - Matthew Schneider