Explore DVS minors below
Click here to explore a Minor in Art History (4.0 credits) »
Click here to explore a Minor in Cinema Studies (4.0 credits) »
Click here to explore a Minor in Visual Culture Studies (4.0 credits) »
Why take a DVS minor?
A minor in Art History, Cinema Studies or Visual Culture Studies
- indicates a well-rounded education
- can open doors for further career or education goals
- can help improve writing skills — necessary for every program and profession
- will help you to deepen your engagement with art/cinema
But my home department is totally unrelated.....
That's okay! Minors are designed for students who are based in other departments. A minor is a great way to include an area of personal interest in your degree while completing a major or specialist in another department. Minors can be combined with virtually any other degree program.
Are there any program combinations that you'd recommend?
While anyone can take a DVS minor and students from unrelated departments have flourished in our programs, there are a number of program combinations we feel are particularly complementary.
Art History + History
Think about history from another angle. Much of the material you will look at in a history department is based on textual records from archives. Art History offers an interesting alternative as it investigates the history of civilizations through their visual production. Combining a Major in History with a minor in Art History will help you develop an additional set of analytical skills that you can bring to bear on your historical work.
Art History + History of Religion
Art History has a natural connection with the study of religion. Courses in Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art are heavily infused with the art of the Christian Church. Courses such as Art and Religion; Early Christian Art and Architecture; Gothic Architecture; and, Reformation and Counter-Reformation Art will suit History of Religion majors perfectly. Keep an eye peeled for Professor Caskey's courses Pilgrimage and Art of the Medieval Mediterranean. The latter examines Christian, Jewish and Islamic art in their Mediterranean context. Students of religion will also be interested in Professor Kaplan's course on Contemporary Jewish Art and Professor Jain's courses on South Asian Art which include topics on the representation of gods and rituals as well as the religious underpinnings of both the love and the hatred of images.
Art History + Anthropology
Anthropology students will be familiar with studying other cultures through their artifacts. Adding a minor in Art History to your studies will allow an additional development of the visual skills necessary to understand the art and visual culture produced by a society and to use it as a gateway to understanding that culture.
Cinema Studies + English/Drama
Students interested in the meaning and power of storytelling will find Cinema Studies to be a natural complement to their studies in English/Drama. We make every attempt to schedule CIN classes on days that match the scheduling needs of students in the joint Drama program.
Cinema Studies + Philosophy
It might not seem like it at first glance, but Philosophy students will find a lot of common ground in CIN coded Cinema Studies classes. That is because our two core Cinema Studies faculty — Professor Price and Professor Sutherland — work at the intersection of Cinema Studies, Philosophy and Critical Theory. Discussions of films will be informed by weekly readings from the likes of Plato, Kant, Marx and Nietzsche, as well as more recent figures including Bataille, Adorno, Baudrillard, Irigaray and Nancy. This is an opportunity for students with a keen interest in theory to widen and deepen their engagement with a set of philosophical texts while learning about film, television and new media.
Cinema Studies + Languages/French/Italian
Students interested in the languages and literatures of other countries will find Cinema Studies a natural fit. You can take courses on the national cinemas of France, Germany, Italy, as well as thematic courses that draw on films from around the world.
Cinema Studies + Communication, Culture and Information Technology
CCIT students with an interest in working in the fields of film, television, and media production would benefit from adding a Cinema Studies minor to their degree. Cinema Studies provides the opportunity to delve deeper into these particular modes of communication. Students will gain insight into the relationship between form and content by analyzing films along stylistic, historical and theoretical lines. By combining CCIT and Cinema Studies, students will be introduced to the approaches of both the social sciences and humanities.