- Prof Ranjani Mazumdar
The discipline of Cinema Studies has a history that is less than fifty years old. In the early days of the discipline, cinema was viewed either as an art form or as unadulterated mass culture. This framework soon faced a strain with the growing influence of film historiography and cultural studies on the discipline since the 1980s. Film got located within a larger context of cultural history to be studied as one of the defining features of 20th century modernity. This Advanced Research Seminar introduces 4th semester M.A students to techniques of Research and Writing drawing them into the new methodological developments of the discipline. The seminar operates like a module where theoretical and methodological debates related to the field of cinema are discussed in relation to the research project undertaken by the students. Enrolled students are encouraged to develop research projects in any area related to film, television or the New Media, that allow them to combine archival, ethnographic, cultural/ historical/ideological, philosophical, technological discourses and methodologies. The research progress is presented on a weekly basis in class. In the first stage students are asked to write a short proposal which includes a research plan and a bibliography prepared by them. The second stage of the course involves presentation of material every week along with written abstracts. At the end of the course students submit a 10000 - 15000 word long paper. The advanced seminar has restricted entry. The selection is done on the basis of abstracts submitted to the course instructors in advance.
