CRITICAL MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES S
tudy what you love in a welcoming and inclusive environment while gaining multicultural perspectives and developing skills in critical thinking, writing, presentation and discussion facilitation, and media production. With the guidance of faculty, build your own specialized concentration or focus in areas that include: action, advocacy, and social change; body, health, and society; critical media analysis; gender studies; media production; power and persuasion; race and ethnicity studies; and sexualities studies. A CMC degree from Rollins prepares you for a career in media, communications, and other industries; public service and policy; and graduate and professional programs in media studies, cultural studies, law, and business.
Why Study Critical Media & Cultural Studies at Rollins Media Expertise Our curriculum trains students to be critical analysts and producers of media, combining the theory, analysis, and research of media studies with hands-on experience in media production.
Activism & Advocacy We study media and culture with an eye toward activism and advocacy. In Incarceration and Inequality, for example, students research current issues in the criminal justice system, then present their recommendations to policymakers.
Flexibility In this interdisciplinary major, you’ll work closely with a faculty advisor to craft an individualized concentration and to locate the most relevant courses across departments and programs.
“CMC gave me the critical-thinking skills I need to analyze the complex geopolitical relations, policies, and ideologies I study. The major also equipped me with the ability to effectively communicate my ideas and effect positive change in both my community and the government, which has been essential to my career.”
Rebecca Charbonneau ’16
PhD candidate, University of Cambridge
Rollins Critical Media & Cultural Studies Careers Sam Barns ’11 ’12MBA
Executive Director, Better Lives
J.D. Casto ’11
Camera Operator, Orlando Magic
Annie Koeblitz ’13
Video Producer, NBC Sports
Spencer Mumford ’15
Actor, TDH Talent
Julia Pyzik ’09
Content Producer, Not Impossible Labs
Cass Yankala ’13
Franchise Manager, The Walt Disney Company
Real World Experience Hone the skills you’re developing in the classroom through internships at local and national organizations.
Popular Courses The “critical” in critical media and cultural studies stems from our commitment to critical thinking, critical issues of the 21st century, and critical theory’s analysis of social systems and the distribution of power and inequality. • CMC 110 Digital Storytelling • CMC 270 Media, Gender, and Sexualities • CMC 310 Media, Peace, and Justice • CMC 320 Political Economy of Body and Food • CMC 325 Incarceration and Inequality • CMC 330 Native American Media and Cultural Studies
Beyond the Classroom Student Media Develop your voice through volunteer and paid work opportunities at Rollins’ student-run media outlets, including WPRK radio, The Independent magazine, and The Sandspur newspaper.
Local Film Festivals The Global Peace and Florida Film Festivals—both based in Orlando—provide project-based internship and full-time employment opportunities.
Documentary Filmmaking For their capstone project, students meld their area of study with concentrated research to produce a 15-minute documentary.
Expert Faculty Grounded in social justice values, our professors help students develop the tools to work for change.
Denise Cummings, PhD Associate Professor of Critical Media & Cultural Studies
Research interests: Critical cinema studies, cultural studies, critical theory, and Native American and global indigenous studies
Kathryn Norsworthy, PhD Professor of Counseling
Research interests: Social justice and transnational feminist applications in international counseling, social change and peacebuilding in South and Southeast Asia, and LGBTQ+ affirmative counseling and civil rights activism
Steve Schoen, PhD Assistant Professor of Critical Media & Cultural Studies
Research interests: Documentary production, theory and criticism, and media representations of gender and sexuality
Lisa Tillmann, PhD Professor of Critical Media & Cultural Studies
Research interests: Activism, social justice documentary filmmaking, and civil rights
rollins.college/cmc