The Film Studies Program offers a major that focuses on film analysis and covers the history of cinema, national and global cinemas, film theory and genres, documentary film, and contemporary visual culture. As a classic liberal arts discipline, film studies teaches the fundamental skills that make a college degree essential in career-oriented jobs: research, information management, critical analysis, cogent development of ideas, developing and testing of hypotheses, and writing and communication. It combines an emphasis on critical thinking, research, problem-solving, written expression, and cultural literacy with the discipline’s unique attention to visual analysis. Students emerge with a greater degree of visual literacy at a time when our culture is becoming increasingly dependent upon visual communication. As a complement to the main focus on the critical study of film, the program also offers some production courses and occasional opportunities to participate in filmmaking projects. For those who want to pursue a career in the TV/motion picture or the fast-growing digital media industry the major provides a strong foundation that can be combined with the learning of specific industry skills.