film and visual studies phd harvard

Film and Visual Studies

The study of film at Harvard functions within the multi-disciplinary examination of audio-visual experience. The program aims to foster critical understanding of the interactions between the making of and thinking about film and video, between studio art, performance, and visual culture, and between different arts and pursuits whose objects are audio-visual entities. The Carpenter Center also supports a lively research culture, including the Film and Visual Studies Colloquium and a Film and Visual Studies Workshop for advanced doctoral students, as well as lecture series and exhibitions featuring distinguished artists, filmmakers, and scholars.

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Harvard Griffin GSAS strives to provide students with timely, accurate, and clear information. If you need help understanding a specific policy, please contact the office that administers that policy.

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A student enrolled in a PhD program in the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences may achieve formal recognition for completing a secondary field in film and visual studies. The following requirements must be met to complete this secondary field.

• Completion of four graduate-level courses in film and visual studies with honors grades of B+ or above.
• AFVS 272: Proseminar in Film and Visual Studies
• Three other courses must be selected from among graduate courses taught by faculty of the Graduate Committee on Film and Visual Studies. The director of graduate studies will make a list of approved graduate seminars available at the beginning of each academic year.

Examinations

Successful completion of an examination or alternative means of demonstrating mastery in the field of film and visual studies is also required. The particular form of examination or alternative means of demonstrating for secondary field students mastery will be agreed upon by the DGS in film and visual studies and the DGS in the student’s home PhD department. This demonstration of mastery might be part of a departmental general or field examination, or it might be combined with departmental requirements in some other way. One or more members of the Graduate Committee on Film and Visual Studies will conduct and adjudicate the portion of the preliminary examination devoted to film and visual studies, and the results will be reported to both DGSs.

Students interested in declaring a secondary field in film and visual studies should consult with the FVS DGS as early as possible. At this time, a plan of study should be prepared and submitted to the DGS, to be approved by the Committee on Film and Visual Studies as well as the student’s home department.

For further information contact [email protected] .

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The Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies (AFVS) cultivates skills in both the practice and the critical study of the visual arts. Its components include photography, filmmaking, animation, video art, painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture, as well as film and visual studies, critical theory, and the study of the built environment. Undergraduates may pursue a Concentration with Tracks and Secondary Fields in Film/Video Production, Film and Visual Studies, and Studio Arts.

Note that most of the courses offered in AFVS are limited to 10 or 12 students because many are “making” courses, meaning students create artworks or films. The optimal way to conduct these courses is in small groups. Some seminars are also limited-enrollment. Students should visit The AFVS web site's courses page as well as each course’s Canvas site to learn about course admission procedures.  

Director of Undergraduate Studies: Ruth Lingford Manager of Academic Programs: Laura Frahm  

Gateway Courses

GENED 1191 Making Things (Breaking Things) Katarina Burin How do we know ourselves through things and what does it mean to think with our hands, to innovate and to productively fail as a tool of self-knowledge? How do we know ourselves through things? This course fosters a hands-on, studio-art-based approach to thinking about our lives with objects—the things we make, the things we buy, the things we break. You will develop technical skills and material curiosities in sculpture as we explore different ways of making and working with objects in a studio art classroom. Reflecting on the conceptual and ontological implications of "stuff" in a world of new materials and material obsolescence, we will engage innovation along with failure as motors for experimental practice and self-knowledge.

AFVS 25 Painting: Light, Form, Surreal  Kianja Strobert This is a beginning painting course which introduces students to the materials and techniques of oil painting. Students will explore the potential of this viscous material to render light, shadow, color and form through objects and situations. Building toward their own sets incorporating surrealist techniques, we will explore this approach toward unlocking the pictorial uncanny. Through the grounded dream, students will develop perception, technical skill and explore the presence of surrealist approaches and ideologies in present and historical context.

AFVS 60X Approaching Narrative: Introduction to Fiction Filmmaking Alice Diop In this production course, students will learn the basic principles of narrative filmmaking, experiment with the visual language of cinema, and push the boundaries of their own moving image work. Students will be introduced to the aesthetic and formal elements of cinema and the terminology of film production. Techniques explored include cinematography, sound recording, and editing. In-class screenings and lectures will give an overview of different modes of filmmaking, including narrative, documentary, and experimental. Students will hone their powers of observation, communicate visual ideas with clarity and simplicity, explore personal storytelling, and develop the ability to read films as trained and informed viewers. Classes will consist of weekly critiques of student work. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the necessary tools to produce two short 5-7 minute films with sync sound.

AFVS 63M Introduction to Time-Based Media Jumana Manna An introduction to drawing, sculpture, performance, and film through time-based materials and practices. Students will develop their own relationship to the creative process through the transformation of humble materials (cardboard, charcoal, found objects), inspiration from a diverse range of artists, and critical reflection guided both by the instructors and the students themselves.

AFVS 175 Introduction to Media Theories Antonio Somaini What is a medium? And how can the history of the term—the ways in which it has been used and defined, both by artists and theorists—help us answer this question? The first part of the course will present the different ways in which the concept of medium has been historically understood:  as a set of techniques and material supports for some form of artistic representation (such as painting, photography, and film); as an extension of the human body and its sensory organs into the surrounding environment; as a series of technical means for the recording, storing, processing, and transmitting of signals and information; as an object or a person capable of acting as an intermediary between the living and the dead; finally, as a sensorial environment or atmosphere. The second part will then discuss some of the recent developments in media theory, tackling questions such as cultural techniques, media archaeology, elemental media, media ecologies and media environments. Each of the lectures will refer to key texts in the field of media theories, and to a series of examples from the fields of art, photography, film, and visual culture.

The Film Study Center supports filmmaking, moving image, and sonic practices at Harvard through granting fellowships and access to equipment, holding work-in-progress critiques, and hosting visiting artists.

Harvard Film Archive Workshop – Date TBA

Announcements.

At the Locarno Film Festival, Jessica Sarah Rinland discusses her film ‘Collective Monologue’ with Variety

Cozette Russell 2024-08-28T16:47:46-04:00 August 28th, 2024 |

Jessica Sarah Rinland Discusses Her Latest Sensorial Documentary ‘Collective Monologue’ at Its Locarno Premiere

FSC Filmmakers at the Locarno Film Festival

Cozette Russell 2024-07-25T10:24:27-04:00 July 25th, 2024 |

FSC filmmakers at Locarno77 including film premieres by Jessica Sarah Rinland and Kevin Jerome Everson and screenings of films by Paz Encina, Milton Guillén, and Ben Rivers

Summer Gallery Shows in New York with New Work by Patrice Aphrodite Helmar, Sky Hopinka, and Cozette Russell

Cozette Russell 2024-07-25T10:22:48-04:00 July 2nd, 2024 |

Patrice Aphrodite Helmar at PARTICIPANT INC, Sky Hopinka at Broadway Gallery, and Cozette Russell at A.I.R. Gallery

Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós Retrospective at FIDMarseille

Cozette Russell 2024-06-17T12:28:55-04:00 June 17th, 2024 |

Songs and Flames: The Collective Fabulations of Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta Retrospective at FIDMarseille, screening June 26-29

Riccardo Giacconi named 2024-25 Film Study Center-LEF Foundation Fellow

Cozette Russell 2024-06-07T09:16:17-04:00 June 6th, 2024 |

We are delighted to join the LEF Foundation in announcing that Riccardo Giacconi has been selected as the 2024-25 recipient of the Film Study Center-LEF Foundation Fellowship.

Luis Arnias’ film “Bisagras” to Premiere at MoMA’s Doc Fortnight 2024

Cozette Russell 2024-02-27T15:56:01-05:00 February 27th, 2024 |

Luis Arnias' film "Bisagras" to Premiere at MoMA's Doc Fortnight 2024 on Saturday, March 2.

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Art, Film, and Visual Studies

This is a school and academic department for all Art, Film, and Visual Studies

The Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies (AFVS) cultivates skills in both the practice and the critical study of the visual arts. Its components include photography, filmmaking, animation, video art, painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture, as well as film and visual studies, critical theory, and the study of the built environment.  Its faculty comprises individuals working and teaching in all of these modes. The department has a strong commitment to fostering dialogue among makers, critics, and theorists. For undergraduates, the department provides students in a liberal arts college with an opportunity to gain an understanding of the structure and meaning of the visual arts through both study and practice in diverse areas. The department is committed to an integrated study of artistic practice, visual 
culture, and the critical study of the image. Our faculty of practitioners, critics, and theorists works with students to develop both formal skills and a sophisticated understanding of the roles played by technical ability and individual invention in the creation of art. Visiting artists join the resident faculty in exploring current issues in contemporary art in the context of the department's course offerings, and in exhibits and public lectures scheduled to take place throughout the year.

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Spotlight Tour: Art and Law, with Hannah Gadway ’25

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Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies  

• FVS Graduate Student Information Sessions

Prospective Graduate Students - Film and Visual Studies Graduate Program Admissions Information Sessions: 

1:00 pm on the following dates:

Monday, September 30 th

Monday, October 28 th

Monday, November 25 th

Registration is required – registration link below:  

https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMvcOypqjMpHt1EDPhAG6PXHDtx9IIASIYd#/registration

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Latest News

• Call for Art: AFVS Staff Exhibition
• AFVS graduate student Pauline Shongov co-curates exhibition at Swimming Pool in Sofia, Bulgaria
• AFVS announces Contemporary Filmmaking Search
• Visiting Lecturer Patrice Helmar’s exhibit, Polaris, opens Sunday, June 30 at Participant in New York.
• Assistant Professor Sky Hopinka’s exhibition Unforgiven Souls Sing Hymns is currently on view at Broadway Gallery in New York