American Religion, Film & Popular Culture

Film and Media Studies is partnering with the Department of Religious Studies to develop a Certificate in American Religion, Film and Media. The Certificate has been approved by the faculty and is currently under review by the university. We anticipate implementation in Spring 2009.

If approved, students pursuing the proposed Certificate in American Religion, Film and Media certificate will receive historical, critical and theoretical grounding in the relationship between religious practices, ideas and representation of religion in American film, television and popular culture. By augmenting their major with the certificate, graduates will be better prepared for entry level positions in the cultural industries (film, television, arts, etc.) or advanced graduate level education.

The proposed Certificate will consists of 18 credit hours.

Required courses include:

•  FMS 100 Introduction to Film (HU)
•  REL 202 Religion and Popular Culture

Students then select 12 units from the following list. Six units must be in REL and six must be in FMS.

•  FMS 313 Anti-Semitism in the Media
•  FMS 370 Signs of Aliens: Semiotics of Film & Pop-Culture
•  FMS 395 American Jews in U.S. Media and Policy
•  FMS 487 Religion and Film
•  REL 320 American Religious Traditions
•  REL 321 Religion in America
•  REL 324 Spirituals and the Blues
•  REL 376 Virgin Mary in History, Film and Culture

For more information, contact Michelle McCormick at: (480) 965-6747 or Michelle.McCormick@asu.edu.