The Film and Media Studies Program has announced changes to the requirements of its major, with students now required to take a seminar as an additional core course. FMS seminars have an in-depth focus on an aspect of the industry, and their requirement for the major replaces the need to take an upper level elective.
In addition to taking a seminar, the social science elective requirement can now be fulfilled with a wider range of media studies courses.
The FMS program, established in 2015, is a relatively new addition to Tufts. The program is small and relies on other departments, such as those that teach foreign languages, in order for students to fulfill the non-U.S. course elective requirement.
“We bring in faculty from a wide array of departments who teach film or media in some way, shape or form, and we're very grateful to them,” said Professor Malcolm Turvey, professor of History of Art and Architecture as well as the founder and first director of the FMS Program.
The FMS major’s previous “legacy” requirements are available for majors up to and including the class of 2027. This track requires students to take 2 core courses: Art of the Moving Image (FMS-0001) and one of Global History of Cinema (FMS-0002), 20th Century U.S. Television History (FMS-0006) or A Cultural History of the Internet (FMS-0094-01 for the Fall 2025 semester).
The remaining eight courses available should satisfy five elective requirements: theory, social science or media studies, a practice course, a non-U.S. course and an upper level elective.
Professor Tasha Oren, the current Director of the Film and Media Studies Program, explained how the department has added new faculty in recent years, such as Professors Denise Cummings and Mat Rappaport.
Hiring them has allowed the department to offer more courses more frequently. For example, The Art of the Moving Image is now offered every semester.
The introduction of a core seminar in place of the upper-level elective followed the expansion of the department. “The difference is that now we have enough faculty, you can teach a seminar class that is for the major,” Oren said.
The amount of students majoring in FMS is also increasing. Professor Turvey pointed out that there are currently “well over 100 [FMS] majors.”
The seminar course will be required for FMS majors in their junior or senior years and will enable students to dive deeper into an area they’re interested in. According to Professor Turvey, the seminar gives majors “a more concentrated capstone experience.”
“What we really want is to make sure students have the experience of doing some in-depth research,” he said.
Professor Oren added that the seminars could appeal to students without time to complete a senior thesis while still offering in-depth research experience.
As for the potential topics, Professor Oren said she will be teaching a seminar on reality TV. Professor Turvey noted that “generally, our capstone seminars will cover fairly broad topics so that students from a number of different backgrounds and interests will get something out of them.”
New media courses cover topics ranging from ethics of artificial intelligence, film festivals and content making for the digital industry.
While offering more focused courses, the program will remain interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on liberal education.
“The strength that we offer for our students is [that] students get a full picture of film and media,” Oren said. “If you’re coming in and you want to be a lawyer, or you want to be an executive, or you know you want to write scripts — you are still going to know how to use the camera, you're gonna know how to shoot, you’re gonna know how to record sound.”
A current student of the FMS department, sophomore David Goldenberg, told the Daily that he will likely pursue the legacy requirements. “I have all of the classes that I have to take laid out,” he said.
As for further improvements for the department, David suggested “trying to get the alumni together.”
“All of the alumni are still in the beginnings of their careers because the department is very new,” he said. “But in film, it’s extremely important to have this collaboration between people and networking.”
First-year student Sarah Moeller, who intends to major in Film and Media Studies, told the Daily that she is interested in exploring the intersection between music and film, which she could potentially explore in a FMS Seminar core course.
Though she has a specific vision for which courses she wants to pursue, she thinks the new core requirements are helpful.
“I think putting more into the requirements is a good guideline for students who … don’t totally know what path to take yet,” she said.
