This is the course website for First Year Seminar 05: Race, Gender and Power in Film and Television, Fall 2013, at Loyola Marymount University.

This course introduces students to the scholarly analysis of film and television, through an interdisciplinary approach that combines Ethnic, Gender, and Film/Media Studies. Questions of power and privilege on the big and small screen are at the center of this course: How have women and minorities been represented Hollywood? How do they represent themselves? Why do visual representations matter to how we understand the world? What’s to be gained by asking these questions?

Students will read scholarly essays about race, gender, sexuality and representation, as well as learn a basic visual and conceptual vocabulary for analyzing film and television. Critical reading, speaking, and writing skills are at the heart of this class, and students will work extensively with the professor and writing instructor to revise several paper assignments.